Space Birthday Party Ideas: How We Ran an Astronaut Training Camp for 14 Five-Year-Olds ($82 Total)
–
–
My kitchen currently smells like wet dog and cheap vanilla frosting, which is basically the official scent of my life as a mom of three in the rainy suburbs of Portland. Last Tuesday, my 11-year-old, Leo, looked at me with that pre-teen smirk and said he wanted his next birthday to be “ironic.” Apparently, that…
I usually cap my twin birthday budgets at a strict fifty bucks. Period. I am a notorious cheapskate in my Chicago mom group. But when Leo and Maya turned two, they developed a massive, unshakeable obsession with Rescue Bots. Fifty dollars suddenly looked like a joke against licensed merchandise markups. I panicked. I compromised. I…
Chicago rain drummed against my kitchen window on April 14, 2025, while I stared at a pile of brown cardstock and wondered if I had finally lost my mind. My twins, Maya and Leo, were turning 11. They wanted a fairy party. Not a “baby” fairy party, but something moody, mossy, and slightly sophisticated. At…
I am a man who once tried to hang five hundred feet of pink crepe paper with a single roll of Scotch tape and a prayer. It did not go well. My house in Atlanta currently smells like a mix of gymnastic chalk and the frantic energy of a dad who realizes he is outnumbered…
My living room looked like a Peppa Pig crime scene, and I was the lead suspect holding a leaking bottle of neon pink punch. Being a single dad in Atlanta means I’ve spent more time in the party aisle of the Target on North Druid Hills than I ever spent in a sports bar. I…
My living room looked like a honey-soaked crime scene three minutes before the first guest arrived for Leo’s third birthday on October 12, 2024. I stood there, a single dad in the middle of a humid Atlanta autumn, holding a lopsided cake and wondering why I thought a “natural honey” theme was a good idea…