My living room in Atlanta currently looks like a glitter bomb went off inside a pet supply store, and I have exactly zero regrets about it. Last Tuesday, April 7th, my son Leo turned nine, and he hit me with a request that threw me for a loop: a full-blown pup-themed bash. Look, I know…
My kitchen floor currently feels like a flypaper trap, and my 4-year-old, Mia, is wearing more rainbow sprinkles than a premium sundae at Salt & Straw. We just wrapped up Leo’s 7th birthday last Saturday, April 11, and honestly, if I never see a sticky spoon again, it’ll be too soon. But looking at the…
Walking through the aisles of the dollar store on Devon Avenue last Tuesday, I felt that familiar Chicago wind rattling the windows while I hunted for the perfect shades of marigold and magenta. My twins, Maya and Leo, just hit the big double-digits—age 11—and their Encanto-themed bash on April 11th had to be special without…
My kitchen table smelled like a mixture of silver spray paint and slightly burnt pepperoni pizza on the afternoon of March 12, 2024. I looked at the 22 blank poster boards and wondered if I had finally lost my mind trying to outdo the fancy suburban moms with my shoestring budget. My twins, Leo and…
My Logan Square apartment smelled like pepperoni grease and salt air on April 12, 2026, when fifteen eleven-year-olds descended upon my living room for Leo and Maya’s birthday. Eleven is a tricky age because they still want the noise of a party but they think they are too cool for the “baby” stuff I used…
Standing in the middle of my living room in Atlanta on October 12, 2024, I realized I had made a massive mistake. My daughter Maya was turning two, and I had somehow convinced myself that generic, thin paper cups would survive sixteen toddlers high on sugar and excitement. They didn’t. Within twenty minutes, the “muddy…
My kitchen smelled like blue raspberry frosting and desperation on the morning of April 12, 2025. I stood there, iced coffee in hand, staring at a stack of red and blue plastic that was supposed to turn my backyard into the Mushroom Kingdom for my nephew Leo’s second birthday. We had 19 toddlers coming. Nineteen….
My living room floor in Logan Square was a literal sea of metallic fringe and glitter last Tuesday, and I’m not even mad about it. If you saw the “before” picture of my twins’ 9th birthday party, you’d think a glitter bomb went off in a Chicago wind tunnel. Maya and Leo are at that…
Houston humidity is the natural enemy of a winter-themed birthday, but that did not stop me from turning my living room into Arendelle last April. My hair was a frizzy mess, and the air conditioner was humming like a jet engine, yet there I was, stuffing tiny blue bags with what I hoped were the…
Twenty-one kids were about to descend on my small Chicago backyard, and I had exactly fifty-three dollars left in my “twins birthday fund” to cover the favors. My twins, Leo and Maya, were turning nine on June 14, 2025, and despite their age, they insisted on a Bluey theme because of their obsession with the…
