My living room floor in Logan Square looked like a glitter bomb went off in a bait shop on the afternoon of April 4, 2026. Maya, one of my twins, was turning ten. Ten feels like a monumental shift, a double-digit bridge between childhood and the “too cool for everything” years. She wanted a mermaid…
April 12, 2025, started with the kind of aggressive Portland drizzle that makes you question every outdoor life choice you have ever made. My son Leo was turning 10, a milestone that apparently requires 13 screaming boys to descend upon my backyard for a “Carnival Extravaganza” that I had precisely $58 left in the budget…
My living room looked like a frantic pit crew had just lost a tire change competition by the time 10:00 AM hit on April 12th last year. It was my nephew Leo’s 9th birthday, and because I am the “cool aunt” with a penchant for over-the-top themes and a Golden Retriever who tolerates being dressed…
I am still finding tiny specks of rose gold glitter in the hardwood floorboards of my East Austin bungalow, and honestly, I am not even mad about it. Three weeks ago, my son Leo turned five, and I decided to lean into the chaos. If you have ever tried to host 14 five-year-olds in a…
My living room smelled like fermented grape juice and failure on the afternoon of August 14, 2021. It was my son Leo’s third birthday, and I had foolishly believed that twelve-cent paper cups from a discount bin could survive the onslaught of twenty toddlers in the Atlanta humidity. Within thirty minutes, the bottom of every…
Monica called me on a Tuesday in a panic: “What do you even do for an 11-year-old boy? A clown is insulting, but an escape room for 14 kids is four hundred dollars.” 11 Year Old Birthday Party Ideas: How We Ran a Backyard Survivor Challenge for 14 Kids ($86 Total) She wasn’t wrong. Eleven…
I am currently sitting in my kitchen in suburban Portland, surrounded by three sticky children and a literal mountain of laundry, trying to remember why I thought hosting nineteen five-year-olds was a smart move. My son Leo turned five on April 12, 2025, and his only request was a Heeler family extravaganza. Being a mom…
Austin in October is supposed to be “autumnal,” but on October 14, 2025, it was a humid 91 degrees at Zilker Park. I stood there with my golden retriever, Cooper, who was busy trying to eat a stray blade of grass while I panicked over a cooler full of melting juice boxes. My nephew Leo…
Last April 10, 2025, my twins, Maya and Sofia, turned twelve in our drafty Chicago bungalow while a freak sleet storm rattled the windows. I had exactly thirty-five dollars left for their celebration after paying the heating bill, and I was determined to find the best treat bags for butterfly party fun without ending up…
The smell of wet cardboard and the high-pitched screech of a plastic whistle still haunt my dreams from last October 12th. I had twenty-four fourth-graders vibrating with sugar-induced energy in my Houston classroom, all because I promised my nephew Leo a “legendary” superhero bash for his tenth birthday. I have survived indoor recess during a…
