My living room felt like the United Center during a Bulls playoff game, but without the twenty-dollar beers or the professional cleaning crew. Last March 12, 2024, my twins, Leo and Maya, turned six, and I decided to go all-in on a hoops theme that wouldn’t leave me bankrupt. The MVP of the afternoon wasn’t…
Cowboy Party Cake Topper Dilemma – Help an Aunt Out! @ivy91: Hey party people! Okay, so my sweet little nephew, Theo, who just turned four, is obsessed with cowboys. Like, EVERYTHING is “yeehaw” these days. So, naturally, his upcoming birthday party is a full-on cowboy theme. We’re talking bandanas, hay bales (rented, of course, no…
My living room rug still sparkles with a faint, iridescent shimmer that reminds me exactly why hosting a Trolls-themed birthday in the middle of a rainy Portland November was both my best and worst idea yet. Sophie turned seven last year, and after she watched the latest movie for the fourteenth time, I knew I…
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The smell of burnt plastic in my Atlanta kitchen on June 14, 2023, is a scent I will never forget. I was trying to make a custom cake topper for my son Leo by melting down a few stray bricks with a heat gun. Bad idea. I ended up with a toxic puddle and a…
Austin in August is a special kind of spicy, and I’m not talking about the salsa at Joe T. Garcia’s. I was standing on a rickety step stool in my backyard on August 14, 2025, with a mouthful of Scotch tape and a prayer while the humid Texas breeze threatened to turn my carefully printed…
My backyard looked like a neon butterfly crime scene last May when the Portland wind decided to turn my daughter’s 7th birthday into an unplanned migration event. I stood there, holding a tray of half-frosted cupcakes, watching thirty dollars’ worth of decorations swirl toward the neighbor’s labradoodle. The wind took those gorgeous butterfly plates for…
March 14, 2026, started with a frantic run to the HEB on Burnet Road because I realized my niece Maya’s 11th birthday was missing the one thing every pre-teen girl actually cares about: a cohesive vibe. She had requested a “No Drama Llama” theme months ago, and while I had the giant cactus balloons and…
