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Yesterday, we celebrated Sunny’s 5th birthday with her preschool class. In the three years that she’s been at this preschool, we have not once been in town to shower Sunny with some birthday love with her fellow preschoolers. We were grateful to grab 20 minutes when we could (finally) surprise her at school with some love and cupcakes.

Admittedly, I was disappointed in how the rainbow cupcakes that I’d prepared for the occasion had turned out. This was the vision. But in an effort to make homemade icing, I’d failed in a smooth and beautiful presentation (ugh, lesson learned, never be above store bought, prepared food for rare, large serving-sized events, even in the face of trans fats). And the candy rainbows were less than stunning when compared to my rainbow Pinterest board (DAMN YOU PINTEREST AND YOUR HIGH BAR!). I wallowed a bit in self-indulgent, self-pity, but upon stepping into that cafeteria filled with thrilled, smiling, eager faces I was reminded of what really mattered: It’s not about the presents, but the presence.

The kids were joyous at the prospect of cupcakes for snack, and notably impressed with the candy rainbows. Sunny beamed from ear to ear. Much like her father, she was quiet in the face of so much attention, but I noticed that as James and I prepared to leave after all the singing and eating and merrymaking, she crawled into each of our laps, flung her arms around our necks and whispered, I love you sooooo much.

The affection of one very happy kid, who loved the effort and our presence more than any pinable cupcake.