My living room currently looks like a fuzzy red monster had a disagreement with a glitter bomb, and honestly, I am not even mad about it. If you have ever stepped on a stray googly eye at 2 AM while trying to find the bathroom in a rain-soaked Portland suburb, you are my people. I…
@kofi89: Baby Shark Party Cone Hats Set – My Latest Spokane Adventure (or Misadventure?) Alright folks, Kofi here from Spokane, WA. As some of you know, wrangling five kids and a french bulldog for any event is a logistical marvel, especially when you factor in all four seasons here. My youngest, Ruby, just turned seven,…
Houston humidity is a physical weight you carry on your shoulders, and last March, it threatened to melt every single buttercream butterfly I had painstakingly piped for my niece Lily’s big day. I have spent fifteen years teaching fourth grade at a Title I school here in Texas, so I am no stranger to organized…
Leo’s third birthday was supposed to be a low-key afternoon in our backyard here in Portland, but the Oregon clouds had other plans on March 12, 2024. Instead of sunshine and muddy puddles in the grass, I had ten toddlers, six exhausted parents, and my two older kids, Sam and Maya, crammed into our living…
I spent three weeks obsessing over the perfect mario party goodie bags set for my son Leo’s fourth birthday on March 14, 2026, because I am that kind of dad. My garage is currently a staging area for what looks like a Mushroom Kingdom invasion. I live in Denver, where we take our outdoor parties…
My classroom floor currently looks like a unicorn exploded, and honestly, I am not even mad about it. Teaching third grade in Houston means I am constantly one “indoor recess” away from a total mental breakdown, so when my group of nine high-achievers earned their “Rainbow Reward” day on March 14, 2025, I decided to…
The kitchen floor in my Kirkwood bungalow looked like a pixelated crime scene at 2 AM on May 14th last year. I stood there, sweat dripping down my neck in the stagnant Atlanta humidity, staring at twenty-one green paper bags that refused to stay upright. My son Leo was turning two, and I decided, in…
My kitchen table on March 12, 2025, looked like a NASA junkyard had exploded in a sea of buttercream. Leo, my now nine-year-old, sat there with his jaw dropped while I tried to perform emergency surgery on a plastic astronaut. The little guy’s flag had snapped off, and I was frantically searching for non-toxic adhesive…
My classroom floor usually looks like a confetti cannon exploded by 3:00 PM on a Friday, but nothing prepared me for Leo’s eighth birthday bash last October. The Houston humidity was sitting at about 90%, making the red and blue streamers go limp before the first guest even arrived at the park pavilion. I stood…
Pirate Party for 11-Year-Olds: Help! How do you keep it cool?! @gianna.johnson: Okay, GINYOU fam, I need your collective wisdom! My sweet Cole is turning 11 soon, and he’s insistent on a pirate party. Not like, cutesy pirates, but swashbuckling, treasure-hunting, slightly-grungy pirates. I’m usually pretty good at this – I swear I’ve reused decorations…
