Issie turns six!

Here we are already, March the thirteenth is here and it's another birthday for Issie. The years just fly by! Issie, of course, sees it differently and the days preceeding her birthday have taken a long time to pass, and asking 'how many day's is it to my birthday?' every ten minutes hasn't made it arrive any sooner. At least we've used it as a god excuse for maths - she can now subtract things from thirteen very well.

The big day arrives in the end, of course, and as usualy Gesa and I (thought mostly Gesa) have been awake half the night preparing. There is a mermaid cake, streamers, party hats and a few gifts thoughtfully left behind by Nana and Grandpa back in December.

Max enjoys all the excitement too, and the present opening is filled with oohs and ahhs from both of them. Issie is delighted with all her gifts, especially a charm bracelet from Nana and Grandpa.

For the longest time, she has wanted a 'ballet dress' and, in a cheap and cheerful 'dollar store' in Martinique, Gesa found a dress-up tutu which is very popular. We finish our breakfast of cake with extra cake, then we put up the birthday flags. We only have one of each letter, so can't spell out Issie but do her initials instead, so here we are hoisting 'IKW6' up the mast for the world to puzzle over.

We have deliberately made sure we are in Deshaies, Guadeloupe because we know we can rent a car here and there is an animal park we can take the kids too, so as soon as we are ready, off we go on our adventure.