The hen of all Hens - a big fat thank you

I love my Best Girls!

We all woke on sunday morning aching. Our legs were aching from the dance steps. Our arms and shoulders were aching from the rigourous air-punches a la Britney. And our faces and sides were aching from laughing for three days solid.

It had been an amazing weekend, without a doubt the funniest and most memorable of my life. I consider myself very lucky to have such thoughtful, funny and creative friends.

But there was one more surprise left for me. As we gathered around the kitchen table for bacon butties, left over cake, cheese and biscuits (wedding diet well and truly blown) and in Annabel's case a helping of left over chilli (bizarre!) the girls announced they had one more surprise.

Ahh heck...not more fancy dress I thought. But it was in fact a present. My best girls had put together a wonderful book - each hen had supplied photos and anecdotes of their adventures and memories of me over the years, and compiled them all into this beautiful keepsake.

Honestly, I cried when I read it. They'd all written such lovely things, I felt utterly overwhelmed. It was the perfect ending to a phenomenal weekend - I still cannot believe the effort and time they all put in. I will never forget it. (and I certainly won't forget Axl!)

So I'd like to dedicate this post to each and every hen, and thank them all for providing me with the best send off ever. Kirsty, Hannah, Annabel, Helen, Mom, Sandra, Emma, Jenny, Claire - you are the best.

But in particular, I'd like to say a huge thank you to the Best Girls and ringleaders who made the whole weekend possible - Jenny, Emma and Claire, I love you dearly.

Gary, Britney, Cheryl and Bananarama

I'd also like to give SandraHitler a special mention for being the Best Girl's 'henchman' - I know she was involved in many planning meetings. And her biscuits were something else...

Sandra prepares the board for some rude drawings.(Sorry Mom.)

And one final bizarre twist, my little brother Josh turned up. As we all said our emotional fairwells and prepared to leave Hen Do HQ, My stepdad Rob and him arrived to pick up my Mom and sister. He was most excited about meeting the hens and I think he kissed a few of them. I notice he's since befriended most of them on Facebook too. He likes the ladies - and now he's met all my mates, he'll be one to watch at the wedding!

So there you go. It's taken four separate posts to document it and I know I'll be laughing about it all for a long time to come. And I can't wait for us all to do our dance routine at the wedding when the DJ plays Britney!

I couldn't resist adding this photo - how many mothers would have painted their nose white and moonwalked at their daughters hen do?!?!? Loving Mom's legendary work!