Fairies & Wizards

Jody's birthday has come round again. And it seemed like only a year ago...

The thing about a Dubai birthday is that - like everything else in Dubai - birthdays have to be BIG.

Gone are the halcyon days of Pass the Parcel, Sleeping Lions and cheese-and-pineapple on sticks.

In their place, since we arrived, have been birthday-skiiing, birthday-swimming, birthday- ceramic-painting, birthday-bouncy-castling. You name it, the birthday kids have done it.

And the goody bags are like something you'd give Charlize Theron to thank her for hosting the Oscars.

So expectations were high.

For some reason that no one could remember later, we decided to have the party at home. Now, if you're boring enough to host your party at home, there is some kind of by-law that requires you to come up with a theme.

Jody's brief was straightforward - anything that involved wearing nail varnish. Since she also wanted to invite boys, we settled for 'Fairies and Wizards-who-don't-have-to-wear-nail-polish'.

Mark was sent out to get some material to drape over the sofas, with strict instructions it should be: 'silvery with stars on it, you know, something unisex.' Mark, being Mark, came back with about 54 miles of pink glittery see-through stuff, with which he covered the entire house.

But a glittery, pink house was not enough for Mark. Oh no. To add to the ambience he decided to empty a 6 foot refill bag of beanbag balls all over the floor.

Mark surveyed the result. And He saw that it was good.

"Fairy Dust" he declared.

Rachel hid her head in her hands.

Jody giggled.

Dylan started Fairy Dust Surfing...

When the house was decorated, it was time for the adults to get decorated (the smaller photo reflecting Rachel's unwillingness to appear in a picture wearing a big pink tutu).

In a moment of sanity, Rachel hired a lovely lady wizard to bear the brunt of a houseful of six year olds.

Mark was delighted, because her blue starry costume matched his.

Jody was delighted she got to dance with her favourite boy, Imraan (and his little brother).

And Rachel loved the magic lady but was terrified of her rabid, red-eyed rabbit-in-a-hat.

So. That'll be a skiing-birthday for next year then...