My kitchen looked like a blue and purple explosion had happened, mostly because I thought a DIY “Slurp Juice” station was a bright idea for my son Leo’s tenth birthday on March 14, 2025. I sat there at 2:00 AM, surrounded by 11 blank party hats and a glue gun that had definitely seen better…
The October wind was howling through the Douglas firs in our backyard in Beaverton, and I was currently three inches deep in silver glitter and blue frosting. My middle son, Leo, had just turned seven, and his “Galactic Supernova” party was approximately two hours from starting. I had seventeen second-graders coming over, but my biggest…
Thirty is a big number for anyone, but for Sarah, my fellow second-grade teacher at Oakwood Elementary here in Houston, it felt like a national holiday. Last March 14, 2025, we decided to throw her a bash that leaned into our daily exhaustion. Since we spend eight hours a day surrounded by 22 children who…
My living room looked like a tropical hurricane hit a confetti factory last April. I stood there, holding a lukewarm cup of coffee, staring at a shredded piece of teal foil that used to be a party blower. This was the aftermath of my daughter Maya’s 4th birthday on April 12, 2024. I had spent…
My living room still smells like orange plastic track and cheap duct tape. Last Tuesday, I found a tiny blue die-cast car in the bottom of my coffee mug, which pretty much sums up life as a mom of three in the Portland suburbs. If you’ve ever felt the sheer panic of realizing your four-year-old’s…
My living room floor still smells faintly of artificial strawberry extract and regret. It was June 12, 2024, the day my daughter Chloe turned nine, and I had somehow convinced myself that a single dad with zero crafting skills could pull off the “perfect” aesthetic. I stood there at 11:45 PM the night before, surrounded…
My kitchen table looked like a pink explosion last Tuesday at 11:14 PM. I stood there, a 42-year-old dad in Denver, clutching a digital caliper and measuring the thickness of a paper plate. Most fathers are sleeping or watching highlights at that hour. Not me. I was deep in the trenches of party planning for…
I am still finding pink frosting on my dining room chairs. Three kids, two dogs, and a suburban Portland house that currently looks like a glitter bomb went off. That is my life right now. My sister practically begged me to take over planning my niece Stella’s 9th birthday party last October 14th. Twenty-one kids….
Twenty-two six-year-olds in a small Houston classroom can sound like a Boeing 747 taking off if you do not have a solid plan. Last October, I thought I was being the “cool teacher” by hosting a Barnyard Bash for my student Leo’s 6th birthday on a Tuesday afternoon. I spent exactly $72 of my own…
My son Leo turned three on April 12, 2025, and I decided to host a full-blown circus in our tiny Denver backyard. I am a dad who worries about everything from BPA in plastics to the structural integrity of a cardboard fort, so my prep work started months early. My main mission was finding the…
