If I Let You Go

It all started with the making of pizzas. I figured if we made the food instead of ordering it in, it would take up a bit of extra time, plus, kids always love to cook. In hindsight, I should have been better prepared for the amount of mess that can be made with grated cheese, tomato puree and all the other ingredients we chose to throw on the pizzas, but we had a lot of fun doing it.

Once we’d eaten the pizza, the fun times started. I’d been stockpiling hair accessories, kid-friendly make-up, face paints and fancy dress outfits for weeks. It cost a small fortune, but the look of delight that greeted me when I presented the kids with my stash made it worthwhile.

“Can I wear this?” Lucy asked, pulling out a pink, sparkly feather boa.

I’d placed the box on the floor in the middle of the living room, and Tilly, Lucy, Ava and Lily practically dived into it to see what they could find.

“You can wear anything you like,” I told her, kneeling on the floor beside them.

Tilly bounced up and down on the balls of her feet as she peered into the box. “Fairy wings!”

She reached over for the five sets of glittery wings, because obviously, I had to have some too, and handed them out. Giggling, we all put them on, and more than an hour later, we were ready to party.

All of the girls wore wings and

tiaras, but I’d styled Tilly’s hair into a French plait, and decorated her eyelids with silver sparkly eye shadow. The other girls also decorated themselves in a mix of butterfly hair clips, glitter hairspray, face paints and more. They then decided I needed a makeover too, so I separated my long hair into high pigtails like Lily’s, and let Tilly do my make-up. Thankfully, she did a great job. There was a tad too much blusher on my cheeks, and she went crazy with the glitter eye shadow, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

Together, we made a colourful and sparkly group.

With our “party” gear on, it was time to whip out the games console. If there’s anything little girls love more than dressing up, it’s dancing. I cranked up the volume, and we played along with the game copying the dance moves on the screen with varying levels of success. The whole time, we sang along, giggling at each other when we got the moves wrong, and when they were just too difficult, we made up our own.

I was jiving with Ava to Katy Perry when I heard a man’s laugh behind me.

“Daddy!”

Tilly let go of Lucy – her dance partner – and stood, staring at her father, her eyes wide with gleeful surprise. I probably looked much the same. He’d made no indication he would be home early, so to see him standing there was a shock.

“Having fun?” he asked, with a grin.

Tilly shot across the room and leapt into his arms. “Happy Birthday, sweetheart!”

“I can’t believe you’re here!” she said, cuddling him tightly, while he tried to avoid squishing her wings.

“I couldn’t miss your birthday, could I?”

In that instant, I took back every bad thing I’d ever thought about him – not that there had been many bad thoughts. He’d actually made it back from work in time to fulfil his promise to her, and completely made her day.

“You’re just in time,” I said, smiling. “Tilly hasn’t had her birthday cake yet.”

At the mention of cake, all the girls let out cheers of approval, and Dominic said, “Do you need a hand?”

“Sure. Keep dancing, ladies,” I said. “We’ll get the cake.”

Dominic returned Tilly to the floor, and he and I made our way to the kitchen. From the corner of my eye, I noticed his expectant expression, and I looked up at him.

“What do you want?” I asked, trying to hide a grin. “A round of applause? A nomination for the Father of the Year award?”

“Both.”

“Okay, okay. You just made this her best birthday ever!”

I kissed him on the cheek, and he started to laugh again. “Take it easy, Tinkerbell! I don’t want to get covered in glitter!”

Crap. I’d forgotten about my “costume” – I’d gotten used to the wings far too quickly.

“I don’t think you have much choice,” I said. “It looks like a Disney movie threw up all over the living room! There’s no way you’ll escape getting a bit sparkly.”

“Lovely,” he said, sarcastically, but smiled again. “You look cute.”