Since my 4-year-old's birthday is still months away, she decided to appropriate mine.

The thing is, in this particular year, I'm an interloper. Easter pretty much overshadows my birthday in every way possible, which is fine with me.

It's not fine with my daughter, who thinks any birthday is an excuse to party.

When my daughter asked how I was going to celebrate, I told her a giant bunny was going to break into our house and drop a whole bunch of eggs, and we'd have to clean them up. Then I dropped her off at school.

The poor thing must have been puzzling over this all day because as soon as I picked her up, she explained to me that the Easter bunny isn't mean. He just knows I like chocolate.

Fair enough.

At this point, my 11-year-old jumped in and gave us both a stern lecture about what Easter is really about.

Now my daughter thinks that Easter is the day that the Easter bunny comes back to life — kind of like Frosty the Snowman, a friend pointed out.

Whatever Easter is or isn't, I think that many people would agree with me that it's not the day to go to Chuck E. Cheese, which my daughter swears I promised to do on my birthday.

Normally I'd be fine with it, but unless things have gone dreadfully wrong, while you're reading this, I'm in San Diego, where I have no intention of hunting down a Chuck E. Cheese. If I'm lucky, I'm also eating chocolate, since that would mean the Easter bunny managed to track us down in our hotel room.

I planned our trip without any thought to my supposed promise. I was sure that my daughter would be willing to throw Chuck E. under the bus for a chance to see a real-life panda, Shamu or a giant Lego sculpture. However, the more I tried to sell her on the trip, the deeper she dug her heels in. It got worse when she realized the trip would mean missing an Easter egg hunt with her friends at school.

I've dealt with stubborn preschoolers enough to know that my daughter would be happy enough in San Diego once we arrived. I also knew she wouldn't forget the Chuck E. Cheese promise.

So yeah, that was me chasing my daughter around Chuck E. Cheese at my early birthday "party" last weekend.

Today, it's all about Easter.

When she's not being a reporter, Treena Shapiro is busy with her real job, raising a son and daughter. A blogger at www.honoluluadvertiser.com, she is constantly on the hunt for child-rearing tips, family-friendly activities and amusing anecdotes. She'll share the best and the worst here and encourages you to do the same.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.