We were really looking forward to our weekend in Paris without the kids. Our only problem was that the return date was also Sean's 11th birthday. Not wanting to upset him in advance, we had told him we would be home late the night before. Then, to make the most of the weekend, we booked the earliest flight available on the morning of his birthday and rang home to say that the flight had been delayed overnight. Anyway, our lies caught up with us. Just 200 metres from Terminal 1 at Charles De Gaulle, the shuttle bus was stopped by airport security. A suitcase had been left on the road in front of our bus and all traffic from that point back was stopped. We rang Sean to tell him that we might be delayed even longer. His disappointment soon turned to excitement when he heard the police exploding the case. We were then allowed to proceed. With 10 minutes to spare we rushed to the check-in area - only to be told that the plane was delayed leaving Dublin and we would have another hour's wait.

Eventually we arrived in Dublin just an hour before the party was due to begin. We picked up the children from their grandmother's, broke all speed limits and reached home just in time to greet eight 10- and 11-year-olds descending from the school bus.

Dropping our bags in the hall, we sent Sean and his friends out to play football while I threw together some burgers and chips and his Dad went out to get some popcorn, sweets and a video. He came home with a safe compromise between the 18 certs that the boys were looking for and the PGs which they considered "sad".

Three hours later, after the last guest left, we set about the lovely task of sweeping up popcorn and scraping chocolate and toffee from the furniture. Later that night, we asked Sean how he had enjoyed his day. Somehow we expected him to moan about the fact that we were missing for half of it and that the party was "crap". To our total amazement, he said it had been the best birthday and party he ever had - and all his friends had really enjoyed it as well.

So much for forward planning.

For the previous 10 birthdays I had agonised over party games and food, how many to invite and where to take them. When it comes to children, no matter what the experts say, success is not always the result of careful organising and effort.