Easter Birthday

If you know me at all, then you probably know that one of my biggest pet peeves - one of the things I dislike so intensely - is the commercialization of all things good and sacred. I have written multiple blog posts about ridiculous gift giving standards at Christmas that promote feelings of inferiority and entitlement at the same time. I have done more than I ever intended at Valentine's Day because I have been gone the last three years, and so I usually leave Bella presents to try to "make up" for it. But if I were at home, there may be a Valentine's Day present, or there may not. There certainly wouldn't be many.

Along those lines, I have never liked the idea of giving actual presents at Easter. A basket is fine, throw in some plastic eggs with a few treats inside, and possibly a little stuffed bunny or something, and that's okay. But extravagant gifts at Easter bothers me. At Christmas, I get it. It's tradition based on history dating back centuries. But at Easter, it seems like another attempt for commercialism to invade my life.

I'm not pretending to be immune to media. In fact, I am susceptible to it, which is why I try so hard to be aware of its influence on me. I walk past store aisles full of must-have Easter essentials and I am tempted to try for the perfect Easter meal, the perfect baskets overflowing with the perfect gifts, the perfect cookies and treats and crafts that make me look like the perfect mom who always has the perfect activities to do with my daughter; and in the process I spend $150. That's $150 to perpetuate a lie (I am NOT perfect), and $150 spent that has absolutely nothing to do with the reason we actually celebrate Easter anyway. So I'm not immune. I'm always tempted - every year, for every holiday - to go overboard. But I rein it in, because I don't want to lose sight of what is really, really important.

That being said...

This year was special because Bella's birthday also happened to be today. This coincidence of happy events is not likely to be repeated very often - if ever - in her lifetime, and so in spite of my aversion to gifts for Easter, I did want to make it a little bit bigger celebration. Finances at the moment are on pretty strict rations, so I couldn't go too big anyway, but I did do some things.

Every year I hide maybe a dozen eggs or so. I usually only put one little treat inside each egg. (Most of the candy we get at every holiday ends up sitting on top of the refrigerator for indefinite periods of time before we throw it away, anyway.) So today I only had 12 eggs, and 6 of them had treats in them. The other six were tied with a pretty ribbon and had a miniature pony inside. She LOVES My Little Ponies, so I knew it would be a big hit. I also found, in the "Easter Basket stuffers" section, a few little medium sized ponies that I hid around the yard as well.

I got her three semi-small birthday presents and wrapped them with pretty Pony paper. I hid those around the yard too. See how the ribbon is light and dark pinks? Those are Pinkie Pie colors. I had another one that was blue with red, orange and yellow curls for Rainbow Dash, and the other was pink and purple for Twilight Sparkle. I spent 20 minutes doing it, and they were SO cute. And in true kid-fashion, she totally didn't notice.

She loves to hunt for eggs. Every year, it's this fun thing we do. We hide the eggs multiple times through the day and take turns hunting for them. 

The dress this year was a blessing from our good friends, the Landry's. I had refrained from buying a new dress for Bella, and Heather just happened to be getting rid of her daughter's size 5 pretty dress. Bella came into our room at 7:15 this morning, already dressed in her outfit. I hadn't even gone outside to hide everything yet!

Since it was Easter AND her birthday, I did buy her two separate cards. Our school, a few weeks ago, had a couple large boxes of beautiful, overstocked Valentine's cards donated to us. I laughed because there was a whole stack of cards that were for Valentine's birthdays, and I thought, "Surely that can't be in very high demand!" When I was looking for cards for Belle, I thought, "Man, I wish I could find a card that was for Easter AND birthday!" Ironic, yes? It made me chuckle.

She actually read both the cards herself. So proud.

The Pinkie Pie headphones were her favorite, I think. We also got her the Frozen soundtrack, which I had forecasted to be the big winner, but she seemed to love the headphones the most.

And she was delighted when she realized that the ribbon eggs were special.

And I did a bunny. Because it was so cute, and I love pink bunnies. How can one NOT love a pink bunny?

And really, that's all we did. We did let her choose a restaurant to eat for lunch, and she chose Panda Express. (Absolutely no surprise there. The surprise was only that she briefly contemplated Olive Garden. That was a first.) After church, we got home and she played outside with her ponies and her fairy house. We rented The Pirate Fairy, and it was a lovely day. 

I am so grateful for this little girl, for the wonder and the blessing she is to me. She has enriched my life in so many ways - not just because of how I love her or how she loves me, but because she has helped me understand my relationship with God the Father on such a different level. I believe that was part of God's design - but that's another post. For now, happy Easter and happy birthday to my sweet, six year old girl!