@elena_partymom: Hey everyone! Elena here from Memphis. Just survived (and thrived, mostly!) Stella’s 4th birthday party – we went full-on Moana! Seriously, my living room looked like Motunui. It was amazing, Stella absolutely loved it, and Jude (3) spent most of the time trying to pull the “heart of Te Fiti” off the cake. Nugget,…
My daughter Lily turned ten last month, and her birthday request was a high-stakes tea party involving exactly nine of her most energetic friends. I am the guy who usually reads the fine print on car seats and checks the UL listing on every kitchen appliance, so I approached this princess-themed chaos with the same…
My living room in East Austin still has iridescent glitter embedded in the floorboards from last March. It was my niece Maya’s 7th birthday, and I went full-on unicorn. I’m talking “Best Aunt Ever” status. But if you think a plate is just a plate, you haven’t seen a soggy piece of sheet cake slide…
Snow was still piled against the side of our house in Denver on March 14th, and my son Leo was insisting on a rescue-themed bash for his 9th birthday. Most parents might think nine is a bit old for pups in uniforms, but Leo has always been obsessed with the gadgets and the “no job…
My husband Dan turned forty last April, and since we live in a house that smells like grass stains and old cleats thanks to Max (11), Sophie (7), and little Leo (4), a baseball pinata for adults felt like the only way to celebrate. It was raining in Portland—shocker, I know—so we were crammed into…
Last Tuesday, my kitchen counter disappeared under a mountain of green cardstock, half-eaten chicken nuggets, and a very confused golden retriever. I was trying to find a safari party invitation set that didn’t look like a generic clip-art nightmare from 2005 for Leo’s 7th birthday on May 14th. Life in suburban Portland usually involves a…
Last April, I stood in the middle of a Denver Target feeling like I had just been hit by a rogue Creeper. Liam, my newly minted six-year-old, decided his entire existence depended on a block-themed bash. I spent three hours calculating how many birthday hats do I need for a minecraft party because my brain…
My twins, Aarav and Ishani, turned three last April, and I was staring at a living room full of empty Amazon boxes and a very specific request for “the block game.” Most people think three is too young for a digital platform, but if you live in Logan Square and your kids see their older…
Last April, my son Leo turned three in our drafty Denver living room, and I quickly discovered that handing a heavy wooden bat to a group of nineteen toddlers is basically an invitation for an insurance claim. We live in the Highlands neighborhood where the houses are close together and the living rooms are small….
Lady Bird Lake was shimmering under that aggressive Austin sun last Saturday, April 4th, when I realized I had made a massive mistake involving three gallons of “blue lake” punch and nineteen five-year-olds. My son Leo turned five, and he is currently obsessed with anything that has gills, scales, or a tail. I spent three…
