Leo turned nine on October 14, 2023, and he decided his entire personality that month was going to revolve around the undead. I am a single dad in Atlanta, and my previous attempts at party planning usually resulted in me standing in the middle of a craft store aisle, staring blankly at rolls of crepe…
My kitchen in Atlanta looked like a paper butterfly graveyard on the morning of March 12, 2025. I sat there with a cold cup of coffee, staring at seventeen plastic vessels that were supposed to be the highlight of my daughter Maya’s 11th birthday. I am Marcus, a single dad who once thought a party…
I sat on my kitchen floor on March 14, 2025, surrounded by 200 shredded silver streamers and a very confused golden retriever named Buster. My son Leo was turning five, and I had committed to a “Galactic Supernova” theme that was quickly becoming a black hole of stress. The pizza was arriving in twenty minutes….
My living room smelled like damp cedar and sugar-crusted frosting last Tuesday. Outside, the Portland fog was doing that thing where it just hangs over the West Hills like a soggy blanket. Inside, I was knee-deep in pink streamers, wondering if I’d actually lost my mind. I’m Jamie, a mom of three—Sophie (4), Leo (11),…
@claire.king: Hey Ginyou fam! Okay, so Finn’s 10th birthday last year was Spider-Man themed, and I swear I tried everything. I’m a nanny for five amazing kids here in Pittsburgh, and I always try to throw the best parties. My own crew is Liam (3), Aurora (7), Jude (8), Finn (10), and Alice (12), so…
Twenty-one fourth graders can produce a decibel level that rivals a low-flying jet engine when they are excited. Last March 12, 2025, my classroom in Houston felt less like a center of learning and more like a prehistoric swamp. The humidity was thick enough to chew, the smell of apple juice boxes hung heavy in…
Red juice was everywhere. It was dripping off the chin of my four-year-old, Sophie, and staining the white cedar pickets of our garden fence in suburban Portland. My husband, Mark, stood there holding a tray of sticky cupcakes, looking like he wanted to cry or laugh, I couldn’t tell which. It was June 14, 2022,…
My kitchen floor was a sea of latex and static electricity last Tuesday morning, and if you had asked me then how many balloons do I need for a baby shark party, I probably would have just pointed at the heap and cried. I sat there in a pile of turquoise, royal blue, and white…
My son Leo turned five on March 12, 2024, and I decided, in my infinite single-dad wisdom, that we were going the full Western route. I live in Atlanta, right near Piedmont Park, and I thought a park party would be easy. I was wrong. By the time I finished hauling three coolers of juice…
My kitchen smelled like burnt honey and wet dog on the morning of June 12, 2025. It was the twins’ sixth birthday, and because I refuse to spend three months of rent on a single afternoon, I was elbow-deep in a DIY Hundred Acre Wood. Leo and Maya were vibrating with excitement in their mismatched…
