My kitchen floor was a literal sea of shredded orange tissue paper and stray googly eyes last Tuesday afternoon while I tried to prep for Sam’s 9th birthday bash. Portland rain was drumming against the window—shocker, I know—and I was three cups of coffee deep into a DIY project that was rapidly spiraling out of…
Austin sun is no joke, especially when you are trying to wrangle sixteen toddlers in Zilker Park while keeping a tray of vegan cupcakes from melting into a puddle of pink goo. Last month, March 14, 2026, to be exact, I found myself in this exact predicament for my niece Mia’s third birthday. I am…
My kitchen looked like a neon butterfly massacre on the morning of March 14, 2025. Purple glitter clung to the grout like it had been there since the Great Chicago Fire, and I had exactly three hours before the twins, Maya and Leo, turned twelve. Most parents in our Lincoln Park neighborhood spend more on…
The “doo doo doo” rhythm still haunts my dreams, but seeing my godson Leo’s face light up during his 6th birthday bash in Austin last July made every single decibel worth it. We were standing in a backyard in Mueller, the Texas sun hitting 102 degrees, and seventeen six-year-olds were about to lose their minds…
I’ve spent fifteen years teaching second grade here in Houston, which means I have seen every possible variation of a classroom meltdown, from the “stolen” pencil tragedy to the “he looked at me” apocalypse. I throw at least six parties a year in my classroom—Valentine’s Day, 100th Day of School, Winter Break, you name it—so…
There was popcorn ground deep into my living room rug and a rogue plastic duck floating in the dog’s water bowl. Maya’s 7th birthday was officially over. I was exhausted. Bleary-eyed. Running purely on leftover frosting and cold coffee. But the absolute best part of the chaos? The favors. Putting together the perfect carnival treat…
My nephew Leo turned ten on March 14, 2025, and he decided his entire personality was now Peter Parker. Living in Austin, you quickly learn that a “simple” birthday can easily spiral into a three-hundred-dollar nightmare if you aren’t careful. My sister was panicking, looking at custom bakeries in West Lake that wanted ninety bucks…
Twenty-one seven-year-olds staring at me. That is my daily reality in room 204. I teach second grade in Houston, and last October, I decided we needed a fall harvest celebration. A full-blown barnyard bash right there between the whiteboard and the reading rug. I usually throw at least six of these classroom spectacles a year….
I stared at my dining room ceiling on a rainy Tuesday. Tape everywhere. Black latex smudges on my hands. Max, my newly minted 11-year-old, had exactly 22 friends descending on our Portland house in less than forty-eight hours. I refused to spend three hundred dollars on a themed aesthetic just so a bunch of pre-teens…
My living room looked like a cardboard box factory exploded on May 12th last year. I had three days to turn our tiny Chicago backyard into a rugged wilderness for Leo and Sam’s 5th birthday, and I only had $85 to make it happen. You know that feeling when you look at Pinterest and see…
