Letting it go

So my tiny girl turns 5 on Thursday.  Every year, I make everybody's birthday cakes.  I usually also make cupcakes for them for school.  I'm not the best baker in the world, but I'm certainly not the worst either.  I like to bake and I like the challenge of making their cakes. Plus it's a lot cheaper.
However, this year, it's not going so well.  This is a crazy week for me and I don't have time to make  the cake.  So yesterday we went to Target and ordered her Justin Bieber cake.
I had planned on making her cupcakes for school, but just found out today that due to an activity on Thursday, they need me to bring her cupcakes in tomorrow.  I didn't have time to make cupcakes tonight.  So you know what I did?  After picking Garrett up from karate camp,  I stopped in the Publix that just so happens to be located in the same shopping center as karate and had Harper help me pick out 12 beautifully decorated cupcakes.
All the way out of the store and most of the way home, I felt guilty about this.  My child is getting nothing homemade on her birthday.  And I kind of prided myself on the fact that my kids had never had store bought cakes on their birthday. But you know what Harper talked about the entire way home?  Her pretty cupcakes.  She's picked out the one she wants and wants to help me pass them out to her friends.
That's when it dawned on me.  This homemade thing is a pressure I put on myself.  Harper doesn't look at those cupcakes and think "mom doesn't have time for me."  She looks at them and thinks "it's my birthday and we get to have cupcakes tomorrow after lunch!"
So I'm letting it go.  Thankfully, we are beyond blessed with enough margin to afford a store bought cake AND cupcakes.  And frankly the $8.50 I spent on that dozen cupcakes was worth me not having to stay up late making her cupcakes.
Letting.it.go.