My backyard looked like a Marvel movie set gone wrong, mostly because I tried to DIY a smoke machine with dry ice and a leaf blower. It was October 12, 2025, a date I will remember because it was the day I realized that hosting a “Super-Millennial” 30th birthday for my best friend Leo, while…
My living room looked like a gale-force wind had ripped through a craft store last October. It was October 14, 2023, and I was three cups of coffee deep into planning Leo’s 5th birthday bash. Leo is my middle child, and at five, he was obsessed with anything that involved saying “Arrr” and digging in…
My living room looked like a red and blue crime scene on the morning of March 12, 2025. It was the twins’ fifth birthday, and Arjun and Ishaan had been vibrating with excitement for weeks. We live in a small apartment in Rogers Park, Chicago, where space is a luxury and a budget of $50…
My daughter Maya turned eleven on February 14, 2025, and the pressure was on. Denver was buried under eight inches of fresh powder, and my living room looked like a Sanrio warehouse exploded. I am a dad who cares about two things: keeping my kids safe and keeping my wallet from leaking cash like a…
My son Leo turned five on May 18, 2024, and I decided, in my infinite wisdom as a single dad in Atlanta, that a “Wild West” theme was the only way to go. I spent three hours that Saturday morning trying to tape a massive roll of brown kraft paper to my garage door while…
Leo hit the double digits on March 14th, and my sister basically handed me the reins because she knows I live for a color palette and a spreadsheet. Ten is such a weird, transitional age. They aren’t little kids anymore, but they aren’t quite brooding teenagers yet, so finding the right pokemon party ideas for…
Houston humidity is the absolute enemy of all things adhesive. I learned this the hard way on March 14, 2025, when Tyler’s “Happy 8th Birthday” Paw Patrol banner decided to sacrifice itself into the bowl of red fruit punch three minutes before the first guest arrived. There I was, standing in my kitchen with a…
Maya turned twelve on March 12, 2025, and I decided to host the whole chaotic crew at J-Bar-L Ranch just outside Austin. My dog, Barnaby, was thrilled to have acres of dirt to roll in, but I was sweating through my denim jacket trying to keep the aesthetic from crumbling under the Central Texas wind….
Walking into a party store in Chicago during a slushy March afternoon usually ends in a panic attack over fifteen-dollar Mylar balloons that won’t even fit in my Honda. Last year, when my twins Leo and Maya turned eight, I decided I was done with the overpriced, plastic-heavy kits that look like every other birthday…
My twins, Leo and Maya, turned five on a rainy Tuesday last October, and I had exactly fifty-eight dollars to make their “Intergalactic Explorer” dreams come true for twenty rowdy preschoolers. Chicago winters start early, so we were stuck in our cramped basement, surrounded by silver spray paint fumes and a mountain of cardstock that…
