Birthday Piñata!!

Korey’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago (he’s getting so OLD!). The kids wanted to get him presents, which I love, but it was the day before and we were short on time so the local Dollar General was our best option. I don’t know if you’ve been in a Dollar General lately, but it’s not exactly a hub of unique and meaningful items. And even if it was, it’s hard to find something mind-blowing for 10-20 dollars. But, seeing as how even Amazon couldn’t get anything there in time, the kids grabbed their money and we hit up the DG.

We wandered the aisles for a while, and I suggested a couple of items without any enthusiastic responses. Then as we turned onto one aisle I looked up and said, “Hmm, you could get him a piñata!” Our youngest daughter’s eyes immediately got big, and she quickly said, “Yes!! I want to get him a piñata.” No longer enticed by other options, she picked the style she wanted (a llama, because that was clearly the best one) and held the piñata in satisfied excitement.

Now, typically piñatas are filled with candy – which is fine for a group of 30 highly active 5-10 year olds. But when you are a grownup with a slowing metabolism, an entire piñata full of candy may not be not the best thing (I mean, that’s open to debate though). So instead the kids made a bunch of notes filled with drawings, stories, and things they love about Korey and put them inside.

We’ve used this basic idea for other situations too – you can just adapt it for whatever you are doing. We do something similar at Easter with the Easter eggs because the kids get so much candy from other sources (I’m looking at you, church! 😜) that we don’t feel the need to give them even more in the eggs. Instead we write things that we enjoy about them or reasons we are proud of them. The kids love it, and it ensures we are at least occasionally intentionally speaking words of encouragement and affirmation to them. It also makes it more meaningful than candy would.

Anyway, if you haven’t hit a piñata as an adult, I would recommend giving it a try. Maybe even get one for yourself! Korey said he didn’t really know what he was expecting when we went outside for his present, but it was definitely not a piñata! I think he actually really enjoyed it and the kids loved watching and going through the notes with him. Dollar General for the win!