One more sleep until Robyn's party. I think she's going through some stress-related stuff. At Christmas she actually made herself pale and ill from the excitement. Now lately she has not been herself - has had a distinctly Bad Attitude. I hope it's party-related and will pass.

I did party preparations last night. I have been working too many evenings lately, and it always makes my life feel very narrow. So last night it was very soothing to sit alone in the lounge, listen to Norah Jones, and assemble things for the party. I put the wooden cutouts into pairs. (I tried to have a selection of themes to cater for lots of tastes, so I have flowers, insects, dinosaurs, fairies, wild animals, stars, moons, cats, boats, planes, cars (not very many planes and cars - I don't think most of the girls will choose them but there are a few boys who might be offended if the box they decorate does not scream masculinity. No way am I dividing the shapes into Boy Shapes and Girl Shapes though. They choose what they want, and first come, first served.)

I divided up the treasure (arty things - glitter glue, glitter, gel pens, little books) into 20 roughly equal gifts, and wrapped those. My idea is to have a maze on the jungle gym by winding wool all over it. Each child will choose a line to follow and untangle it to reach the package at the end. Along the way will be sweets and lollipops attached to the line. I hope they have fun untangling it all and climbing over and around each other. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Peter is characteristically nervous.

Still to do tonight: prepare the rest of the maze lines (attach all the bits and wind up ready to put on the jungle gym in the morning before the party), make the cake (artist's palette), and make bin-liners into aprons for the kids.

I love this stuff. I most definitely missed my vocation in life.