The wind in Denver on March 12, 2024, didn’t care about my daughter Maya’s 6th birthday aesthetic. I stood in our backyard, watching a flimsy “groovy” plastic sheet I’d bought for three dollars tumble across the grass like a colorful tumbleweed. It was supposed to be the center of our celebration. Instead, it was a…
Houston humidity does things to paper streamers that no teacher should have to witness. It was October 12, 2024, and I was trying to turn Room 402 into a Pacific Northwest evergreen forest while the air conditioner hummed a low, dying tune. My twenty-two third graders were coming back from library in exactly nine minutes,…
My classroom floor usually looks like a confetti cannon exploded by 3:00 PM, but nothing prepared me for the Saturday afternoon of April 12, 2025. It was Liam’s 7th birthday, and his mother, Sarah, was staring at a $72 bank balance after a surprise car repair. We had twelve rowdy first-graders coming to my backyard…
March 15, 2025, started with a literal bang when my goldendoodle, Barnaby, knocked over a three-tier tray of organic strawberry cupcakes in my East Austin kitchen. I stood there, frozen, watching pink frosting smear across my hardwood floors while nine four-year-olds were due to arrive in exactly two hours. This was the “Muddy Puddles” birthday…
My garage still smells like “Primary Red” spray paint, and honestly, I might never get those yellow circles off my driveway. Last April, my twins, Leo and Sam, turned eleven. Eleven is a weird age because they still want the toys, but they also want to look cool for the photos they’re definitely going to…
My living room floor still glitters with a faint, prehistoric shimmer even though Leo’s eleventh birthday happened three weeks ago on March 12. If you have ever tried to vacuum up tiny metallic T-Rex shapes from a high-pile rug in suburban Portland, you know my pain. It was a Saturday. It was raining—classic Oregon—and thirteen…
Last April 12th, my living room in Denver transformed into a sea of blush pink and champagne gold. My sister Clara, 28, had just finished her first “adult beginner” ballet intensive, and she deserved a celebration that didn’t look like a three-year-old’s birthday. I took the lead on decor because I’m the guy who actually…
Twenty-one sixth graders vibrating with the energy of a thousand suns after finishing their state testing is a sight to behold. It was April 17 last year when I decided to lean into the chaos rather than fight it. My classroom in Houston usually smells like sharpeners and damp jackets, but that Friday, it smelled…
My living room currently looks like a glitter bomb went off in a pink paint factory, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m Jamie, a mom of three here in suburban Portland, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned between the rain showers and the soccer practices, it’s that a royal ball…
My kitchen counter was a literal mud pit last April 12th. Leo was turning four, and in a fit of Portland-induced seasonal affective disorder, I decided we needed a “Watch Me Grow” theme to manifest some actual sunshine. I sat there at 11:30 PM with a lukewarm decaf, staring at a stack of cardstock that…
