Send Help! My Mermaid Birthday Centerpiece Almost Sank the Party @zoe_davi: Okay, so I thought I had it all figured out for my niece Jude’s (the 4-year-old, not the 5-year-old, confusing I know) birthday party last weekend. She’s obsessed with mermaids, obviously. All the kids are. So, I saw this TikTok for a DIY mermaid…
My living room floor looked like a technicolor crime scene, and my left heel was currently throbbing from an encounter with a stray 2×4 brick. It was March 12, 2022, and I was staring at twelve empty plastic sacks, wondering how on earth I had ended up as the sole architect of my son Leo’s…
My living room floor still sparkles in the sunlight from the bash I threw last March for my twins’ ninth birthday. Living in a small Logan Square apartment means every square inch matters, especially when you are inviting fifteen high-energy kids over for a budget glitter party for 9 year old. I spent three hours…
Twenty-one five-year-olds possess the collective energy of a Category 4 hurricane. I know this because I spend seven hours a day with them in a sunny classroom in Houston. Last February 12th, I decided to lean into the chaos for little Leo’s birthday. We turned the cafeteria into a speedway. If you are wondering how…
My golden retriever, Barnaby, was actively chewing on three bucks worth of baby blue crepe paper while I panicked over my living room wall. It was March 14th. Austin was already hitting 85 degrees inside my duplex. I had less than forty-eight hours to figure out how to build a massive bluey backdrop for my…
Rain was lashing against the kitchen window of our drafty Portland craftsman on October 14th last year while I stood surrounded by half-inflated latex crewmates and a lukewarm cup of Stumptown coffee. My middle child, Leo, was turning seven, and he had decided—with the absolute conviction only a first-grader can muster—that his party needed to…
My living room looked like a radioactive highlighter exploded last November. Leo had just turned seven, and he insisted on a “Glow or No Go” theme that turned my suburban Portland basement into a neon fever dream. It was pouring rain—classic Oregon—and I had twelve second-graders vibrating with sugar-high energy under three flickering blacklights I’d…
My living room looked like a red sweater exploded on a Tuesday afternoon last March. It was drizzling outside—standard Portland behavior—and I was knee-deep in cardboard boxes trying to build a “Trolley” that didn’t look like a recycling bin rejection. My babysitter, Chloe, was turning sixteen and she specifically requested a budget daniel tiger party…
My dining room currently smells like a mix of dried Elmer’s glue, stale vanilla frosting, and pure exhaustion. That is the reality of hosting a pack of children in a suburban Portland split-level during the rainy spring season. Maya just turned seven. She specifically requested a “wild animal rainforest bash,” which sent me spiraling down…
The wind was howling off Lake Michigan last February 12th, and my living room in our Rogers Park apartment looked like a crime scene, but not the fun kind. My twins, Leo and Maya, were turning 10, and they had one demand: an escape room. Have you seen the prices for those places in the…
