At their best

The girls were sitting with me this dinner, choosing the boys they want to marry and telling me when.

I've had to break it to them they can't marry me (Roz), each other (Roz), or at four (Roz) seven (Roz), ten (Izzy) or 16 (Izzy). Izzy is still intent on marrying her current sweetheart. Roz, not quite sure, was pressed to pick an Oscar in her room by Izzy, who reeled off names she'd read on coat pegs until Roz chose one.

Now they are busy making flowers for Alex and I and - ah they've just spilt paint on the carpet. Izzy has run back into the room with a packet of wet wipes and is hissing instructions at Roz.

Balance returns to the universe.

Izzy's seventh birthday

Party in the woods with the Moshi Gnosher

Izzy got her wish for a scary party in the woods with her friends. A tip-off from a colleague led to a local company who carry out adventures in the woods with campfires. The Moshi Gnosher stole the birthday cake as soon as we arrived and locked it in a treasure chest.

So the girls - we invited a few boys but only one brave soul made it - spent the afternoon looking for the bones of the monster, working out a way to get some blood across a boggy river, zipwiring over the boggy river, and then mixing and casting spells to bring the monster back to life. 

The tension once the spell was cast was palpable and the screaming when they spotted the monster extremely shrill. Only poor Ros was actually quite scared though she was later assured by the others it was "only Simon" - one of the two people managing the afternoon - in costume.

All in all, the best birthday party I've been to so far and proof that really, children and a bit of imagination and the woods, are quite happy. Shame poor Ros is less likely to be able to enjoy such a thing given the rather chiller temperatures around her birthday.

Never seen so many girls happy to clamber about trees before

Helping with the zip wire

Whee!

Finding the Moshi Gnosher's nineteen bones

Spell time

Here comes the monster!

The Moshi Gnosher is pestered for the key

Cake time!

Darn cake took me an age and a half to make - this version is pimped with Izzy's own Fimo moshis