We could have just bought some stickers.

That was the lesson my wife Tina and I found out this past Sunday, as our household was filled with family and friends who had traveled from all parts of south and central Louisiana. The special occasion was the celebration of our daughter Hattie’s third birthday.

We had been planning this special occasion for weeks — well that’s not exactly true. Admittedly my wife had done most of the preparing, and had been doing so for months, while I came in and served as the closer for the event.

Part of that preparation was this year’s theme — Sofia the First.

For our daughter’s birthday last year it was Minnie Mouse-themed with the appropriate decorations, wrapping paper and of course cake and cupcakes. Even though Minnie is still the undisputed queen in our daughter’s life, with Elsa and Anna from “Frozen” a close second, our little one has developed quite the fondness for the little sweet brown-haired girl who wears the magical amulet and has adventures with her blended family and animals.

So my wife started laying the groundwork for the party by placing an order with an old high school classmate to make the specialty cake and cupcakes. After that was taken care of a few weeks back, we stopped by Party City and got all the supplies. And I mean all of the supplies.

There was a Sofia-themed birthday banner, paper plates and napkins, invitations and shiny confetti to decorate the dining room table. Not to mention, there were the grab bags my lovely wife wanted to hand out to the friends and family members who brought their own little ones.

In those little bags were Sofia maracas, stampers, crayons, bubbles and plastic kid cups.

I know what you are thinking, why do the kids that come to your daughter’s party need to take home treats of their own? I asked that same question and the glaring death stare that I received from my wife has forever pierced my soul.

So the question you should be asking is, “Why wouldn’t you pass them out?’ Trust me on this.

The final purchase of course was our daughter’s gift from her parents, which was a Sofia boombox with attached microphone.

The day of the party we were ready to go. My wife’s niece Brianna and her parents Carol Ann and Robert came over to help get things ready for the party — such as finishing the chili for the Frito pies, crushing up the cookies for the Oreo cake balls that we were serving as snacks and laying out the decorations. My mother Suzanne also came over early and helped me put up the banner, because somehow I had lost our thumbtacks but my mom knew a trick with painters tape so crisis averted.

Even though Hattie didn’t take a nap before the party she was in a great mood for her celebration. Everyone had devoured the snacks, the cake had been cut and promptly passed out and then it was time for handing out the presents.

With my digital camera in hand, I passed the first gift bag to our daughter from our friends Jeff and L.B., who brought their own little newborn boy Graham. They had bought her an adorable shirt but had also thrown in an inexpensive last-minute gift — and you guessed it. It was a simple sheet of Minnie Mouse stickers.

And you know what our daughter did? She said that the $2 stickers were the absolute greatest thing that had ever happened to her, and promptly dropped the bag with the shirt, passing past a table filled with a dozen or so gifts and then started to walk into our living room to play with her stickers. It took that kid of ours exactly 20 seconds to throw off our plans for the perfect Sofia the First birthday party.

Of course, after a pretty good laugh we convinced her to come back to opening up her other presents, and those stickers got replaced on the “greatest present” mantle by every proceeding gift that was opened afterwards.

That moment of pure unplanned joy though is what made all that time filling out invitations, decorating and wrapping presents more than worth it. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for next year’s party, and I will make sure that there will be plenty of stickers.

RAYMOND PARTSCH III is managing editor of The Daily Iberian.