Saturday 14th may - party day!!

Today - I got up about 10am and headed to Tesco for last minute shopping and then on to my mums to get ready for the party!! The day flew by! I had made sure everything was cooked and prepared so really the only thingy we had to do was get everything out - which we didn't bother doing until people started arriving and the kids said they were hungry.  It was so good as people started turning up in fancy dress!  As you can see by the picture everybody made an effort!
We put a tiara on my nan so she could be the Queen! lol
I was a peperami, Andy was a devil, the twins were the 118-118 guys, Connor being a red-head was a carrot! hehehe  Bev looks ace as snow white, and we had a whoopee cushion (Megan) and tetris pieces (Helen and Paul) and I shouldn't have started this because I cant name everyone and their characters - well I could but I'd be here for ages!
The party started early because of the kids and as it started to get later Andy put the good music on and got out the disco lights and laser machine and the smoke machine! and we partied like my wonderful family like to party!!  I love it!! I love being around all my family - all my sisters and brothers and all their fantastic kids, and my kids and Andy of course (Adam couldn't come as he was off on a long distance trip with the Army a day or so later) and my parents who were so great about us invading their house and turning it into a night club for the night!  I managed to get pictures in the garden quite early on while we still had light and before the costumes started to come off!
I was hoping a friend from school (Karen) was going to come as I hadn't seen her in 11 years - but she couldn't make it.  But another old friend, Nicola made it - I hadn't seen her since I was about 14! Our families were close when we were little and we went on holidays together and our parents sold childrens clothes and did fashion shows - and we were the models lol
Apparently we met when I was in nursery school and I got expelled for being too aggressive with other kids when they wanted to use my baba (blanket) as a cover on the doll in the cot and when I got laughed at for blowing instead of sucking my milk through the straw so I threw it and it shattered on the wall.  I was asked to leave and Nicola's mum said to my mum that they could take their kids around to each others houses for them to play together instead of going to nursery school!  So anyway it was great to catch up with Nicola.
My aunty Elaine (mothers sister) and uncle Fred also came and they seemed to really enjoy themselves! Near the end of the night I was dancing as was Fred and he threw his arm out and hit my mums clock on the wall which fell off and smashed! I felt really bad about it but couldn't stop laughing at the horror on Freds face! My mum came along with a brush and shovel and Fred started sweeping until there was a guitar solo playing, and very comically as my mum held the shovel for collect the glass he was sweeping - he launched into air guitar with it!!
The food went down well and there was enough! phew! At one point I blew out my candles and everyone sang happy birthday which felt ACE because everybody sang loudly and it was obvious that everyone was having an ace time - it sounded like there were loads of people there! There was I suppose - somewhere between 30 and 40 I think!
Anyway - I think we left my mums to go back to Bevs at 3.30am and I was so happy because it had been such a good night - I believe that everyone really enjoyed it, I think it was one of the best family parties we have ever had!  Some people didn't want to do the fancy dress part of it but I reckon we will now have lots more fancy dress parties to come!!
Andy was brilliant and he tried (and succeeded) to make sure everything was perfect - and he sorted out the music all night and looked ace in his costume!!
I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone that came and made such a huge effort to make it so special!! Especially to people that travelled so far as well (Helen, Paul, Elaine and Fred).  I also got lots of awesome pressies too! It was a day I will always remember!! My family are fantastic!

13th May 2011 (almost birthday/party time!)

I was off work on Friday 13th May - which is a good job as I had loads to do! I chopped up a ton of chicken breasts and made 3 separate marinades - BBQ, Lemon and Herb and Satay - and cooked squares of chicken breast - then I made an egg and bacon pie.  I had other food for the party too - pork pies, peperami, 2 subway platters, 2 cakes, cheeses and biscuits and nachos and dipping sauces....cant remember what else! but I was worried that there wouldn't be enough food - and worried that it wouldn't all fit into the car!  We all had out overnight clothes and bags and our fancy dress costumes too!  We wanted to head out about 5pm and left at 6.30!
Me and Andy, Lissa, Connor and their friend Emma and all the gear just about fit in the car with some serious organised packing followed by some seriously squashing and pushing and made fairly good time to Manchester - we would have made excellent time there if it wasn't for the deter we had to make when we were 20 minutes away.  In typical Manchester style the road signs for the detour were awful and we ended up driving back down the motorway the way we had just come...anyway we eventually got to my mums at about 11pm.  The kids were staying in my mums caravan and we were staying at Bevs.
I cant remember what time we got to Bevs but it was late and Bev was obviously tired.  However once we got talking we were up until 3am!!
I fell into bed worrying that the party was the next day and I wasn't getting enough sleep!!