Over the last six years, I have instituted a tradition of giving my daughter My Little Ponies for her birthday and Christmas. Now that she is seven, she is beginning to understand their collectible status and can differentiate between the real and the counterfeit. When I went to Sacramento for her birthday, we gathered all 26 of her My Little Ponies. They were all due for their annual hair-brushing. I decided to make an event of it and suggested we have a birthday party for her Ponies, since she got most of them on her birthday. Soon every stuffed animal was on the floor, invited as guests to the My Little Ponies' birthday party, and only half of them got their hair brushed. The Free Hot Air Balloon Rides never happened.
