Matteo’s DIY Dilemma: Encanto Edition Hey Ginyou fam! Matteo here from Charlotte, NC. You guys know me, always trying to keep things eco-friendly and budget-conscious with my four kids (Finn, Emma, Caleb, Luna) and our French bulldog, Lucy. Luna just turned 12, and she’s totally obsessed with Encanto. Of course, she wanted an Encanto-themed party….
I was elbow-deep in orange tissue paper and tiny tiger-ear cutouts in my Austin kitchen last March, wondering if I had finally lost my mind. My dog, Barnaby, was currently trying to eat a stray piece of felt, and the humidity was already making my hair do things I didn’t authorize. My son Leo’s 3rd…
My kitchen counter disappeared under a mountain of pink cardstock and tiny plastic dinosaurs last Tuesday at 11:30 PM. I had a lukewarm cup of coffee in one hand and a glue gun in the other, staring at my guest list like it was a complex calculus equation. Sophie was turning six on February 12th,…
Leo’s face lit up when he saw the metallic shimmer reflecting off our kitchen walls on the morning of June 12, 2025. It was his 7th birthday, and I had committed to a “Galactic Explorer” theme that required enough chrome-colored gear to make a NASA engineer blink. Living in Denver means we deal with high-altitude…
I stood in the middle of my Austin living room last March, surrounded by beige cardstock and faux eucalyptus, realizing that most jungle decor looks like a toddler’s nursery. I needed a safari banner for adults that didn’t scream “diaper party” for my nephew Leo’s 5th birthday celebration on March 15, 2025. Even though the…
The humidity in Houston during March hits like a soggy wool blanket, but that didn’t stop fourteen eleven-year-old girls from buzzing around my living room like caffeinated monarchs on March 12, 2024. I have taught third grade at a local elementary school for fifteen years, which means I usually have a handle on chaos. However,…
I am still finding tiny orange and blue circles in the floor vents of our house in Beaverton, even though Leo’s fourth birthday was six months ago on March 12th. It was chaos. Pure, unadulterated, blue-and-orange chaos that smelled faintly of vanilla frosting and wet dog because, of course, it was raining in Portland that…
Living in a Logan Square apartment with two eleven-year-olds means my kitchen table is usually covered in half-finished homework, stray Lego bricks, and the occasional soccer cleat. When Leo and Maya told me they wanted a joint “Sports Extravaganza” for their birthday on March 12, 2026, my first thought went straight to the wallet. Chicago…
The wind off Lake Michigan was howling at forty miles per hour on March 12, 2025, the exact morning I decided seventeen five-year-olds needed to transform my cramped Chicago living room into a deep-sea cavern. My twins, Ishaan and Aavya, were turning five, and they had one non-negotiable demand: whales. Not sharks, not dolphins, but…
Hey GINYOU fam! Colton here, from sunny Phoenix, AZ. Man, it’s already pushing 90 degrees out here, and it’s only March! But you know what? That didn’t stop us from throwing a rootin’ tootin’ good time for Miles’ 13th birthday. My oldest, can you believe it? Miles is officially a teenager. Where does the time…
