Mark hit the big 3-0 last Saturday, April 12th, and I knew a standard brewery crawl in East Austin just wouldn’t cut it. He is obsessed with the MCU, but I didn’t want our house to look like a primary-colored daycare center. Finding the right superhero party decorations for adults is a delicate dance between…
My kitchen table in Atlanta looked like a crime scene involving Earl Grey tea and a very confused single father on the night of March 14, 2025. I was three hours into prepping for Leo’s 10th birthday, trying to figure out how a simple pirate invitation for kids could turn into a full-scale tactical operation….
My dining room table in Denver looked like a primary-colored plastic bomb went off on October 12th. I had exactly 21 nine-year-olds descending on my house in 48 hours for my son Leo’s birthday. I was desperately trying to engineer the perfect lego centerpiece for kids without violating my own intensely strict consumer safety standards….
My living room looked like a neon-yellow crime scene on the morning of April 12, 2026. Leo, my four-year-old bundle of chaos, stood in the center of it all, clutching a half-eaten waffle and pointing at a pile of crumpled blue crepe paper. I had exactly three hours before thirteen energetic toddlers descended upon our…
Nineteen three-year-olds in a Houston backyard in April sounds like a recipe for a migraine, but I’ve survived worse. Between the humidity that makes cardstock wilt and the inevitable juice spills, planning my nephew Leo’s “Rootin’ Tootin’ Roundup” on April 12, 2025, required the same tactical precision I use to keep my second-grade classroom from…
Glitter is currently embedded in my classroom carpet fibers until the year 2045, and honestly, I am okay with that. Being an elementary teacher in Houston means my life is a revolving door of construction paper, sticky handprints, and the constant pressure to outdo my last classroom party. Last Tuesday, I found myself staring at…
Leo’s sixth birthday was supposed to be a low-key backyard hang, but by 9:00 AM on October 12, 2024, I was standing in the middle of our Portland kitchen knee-deep in orange cardstock and glitter. My four-year-old, Mila, was already trying to “help” by taping construction photo props for kids to our golden retriever’s tail….
I stood in the middle of my living room in Sandy Springs last April, covered in blue Silly String and questioning every life choice that led me to hosting twelve 7-year-olds for Leo’s birthday. The “webbing” I bought from a discount bin had basically fused to my popcorn ceiling, and I was pretty sure the…
Twenty toddlers in one room is a recipe for a headache, but add a 75-degree Houston “winter” day and a theme involving ice, and you have got my Tuesday morning last January. It was January 12, 2025, and I was staring at a rug covered in sticky blueberry juice because little Jaxson, who is barely…
The living room smelled like burnt sugar and desperation. My son, Leo, was turning twelve, and I had exactly three days to pull off a budget star wars party for 12 year old boys who are way too cool for most of my ideas. Being a single dad in Atlanta means I’ve spent more time…
