Last March 15th, I stood in the middle of my fourth-grade classroom in Houston, surrounded by 13 energetic ten-year-olds who were all vibrating with the kind of excitement only a Casita-themed birthday can generate. My student, Maya, had decided that her double-digit birthday needed to look exactly like the Madrigal home, and as her teacher…
Twenty-one three-year-olds in one room sounds like a ransom note, but in my Houston classroom, we call it Tuesday. Last Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2025, I decided to host a “Pinkies Up” tea party for my toddlers. The humidity was sitting at a swampy 90 percent. I had exactly fifty-eight dollars in my pocket because…
My living room looked like a crime scene involving a giant blueberry and a bottle of Elmer’s glue. It was July 12, 2024, and the Atlanta humidity was thick enough to chew. My son, Leo, was turning four, and like every other toddler on the planet, he had decided his entire existence revolved around a…
My living room currently looks like a neon green jungle exploded in a suburban Portland basement. I’ve got three kids—ages 4, 7, and 11—and somehow, every single one of them has gone through a phase where they won’t stop shouting about creature powers. Last April 12, 2024, my middle son Leo turned seven. He didn’t…
I am Marcus. I am a single dad in Atlanta, and I once tried to tape fifty feet of orange crepe paper to a running ceiling fan. It went about as well as you’d expect. I ended up looking like a festive mummy being interrogated by a helicopter. That was back in 2022, before I…
My classroom in Houston smells like a mix of industrial floor cleaner and those specific cherry-scented markers that every third-grader tries to sniff when I am not looking. It was a Tuesday in February 2024, the kind of day where the Texas humidity makes your hair double in size the moment you step out for…
Seriously, Where Did Easter Go? Need Quick Ideas! Hey everyone! Abigail King here, from sunny Houston, TX. It feels like just yesterday we were putting away Christmas decorations, and now Easter is, what, like 48 hours away? My grandkids, Ivy (4) and Isla (7), are coming over, and my usual meticulously planned Excel spreadsheet for…
Nobody tells you about the humidity in Houston when you are trying to hang a seven-pound cardboard treasure chest from a live oak tree. It was March 12, 2024, and I was hosting a party for little Leo. He was turning three. Sixteen toddlers stood in my backyard, vibrating with the kind of energy that…
Rain pounded against the window of our suburban Portland home last November, exactly four days before Leo turned four. I stood in my kitchen, clutching a cold cup of coffee and staring at a spreadsheet that told me I had exactly ninety-nine dollars left to turn our living room into a winter palace for fifteen…
My youngest, Leo, is obsessed with two things: dirt and tiny sandwiches. So last spring, as his birthday approached, I sat at my kitchen island in suburban Portland staring at my phone, typing how to throw a garden party for 4 year old into the search bar. I wanted that perfect Peter Rabbit aesthetic with…
