Birthday Madness

Where have I been these last few days? Immersed in a sea of birthday preparation, for my one-more-sleep-till-I'm-six year old. Escaping for an afternoon to shop for presents - a quest to find a soul-mate for her Barbie, who wants to get married. Ken seems to have disappeared from the Cape Town scene, so I hope Barbie will be happy with River, a hip guitar playing dude, who seems to hang out with a gang of trendy chicks from some movie or other.

Some of the other things on her wish list - a lego fire-engine just like the one her older brother got for his birthday and a skate-board, didn't make it past the selection panel, but I managed to find a jewellery box for her. I did have the idea of getting a nice tasteful one with a musical twirling ballerina, after all kitsch is made for six-year olds, but the ones in the shop were so appallingly plastic, cheap and garish that I couldn't bring myself to do it and went and found a wooden one, painted pink and covered with roses and butterflies, which is pretty enough but should also last a little while without breaking. A flower fairy book and a naff plastic, sparkly, fluffy crown make up the rest of the haul.

Then there is the treasure hunt... providing adequate treasure for twenty children without breaking the budget. I eventually had to settle for chocolate coins again, but they always go down well and do look like real treasure, with little paper rose buds for the girls and plastic racing cars for the boys...now I have to write the treasure hunt with a princess theme - story to set the scene and clues. My daughter gave me the opening lines that she thought appropriate, it seems fairies are to feature as well as princesses.

Baking featured heavily today - knocking up the birthday cake - chocolate of course, before going out to their cousin's birthday party and then returning to bake another cake to give to the grown-ups, cos the birthday one ain't going to be big enough for all...and some rock buns too.

I've wrapped the presents, bagged the treasure. The children can help me ice the cake tomorrow morning and they can make some cheese biscuits themselves too. So all I've got to do now is the clues.....