May 05
You`re 2 today!
Can`t believe it!
Our ray of gorgeous!
Love you “Little Man”.
Have a great day and remember your curfew!
We`ll have your little birthday party as soon as Pop-Pops is out of hospital.
XXXXXX
Jun 02
Hiya beautifuls,
It has been a little while since we last met, sorry… children, life, birthday and “The Karmic Storm”… all the things that make me very lucky.
Unfortunately Emily couldn`t stay with us, we wish her all the best.
We are continuing to rehearse hard for the up and coming performances we will have at the end of this month, can`t wait.
Again, I sit her thinking about the `have got` and I am one lucky gal. Thank-you to all the special people that help to make my life so much more happy and fulfilled… You all know who you are, and if you fin yourself wondering… YEAH, it`s YOU too! 
Love you all. XXX
PS Bruce, Nick and Merv, thank-you for making me laugh tonight… Smacked botty`s for the whole lot of you!
May 27
She may hate me for this, but today (27th of May) is her birthday!
Mandyleigh was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England, on this day in 1972. That means she is 37 today!
So please, leave a quick comment and maybe even a poem 
And for those of you who may be new, here’s a special gift for you:
A bunch of demo songs and other goodies.
May 24
I am so pleased to say that Damaris had a beautiful birthday party at McDonalds with her friends today.
The day started with me sleeping in a little (Gary always lets me have a sleep-in on the weekends to catch up on some much needed rest), and then there were many smiles, girlie hormones, hair-doing (in all the colourful, lovely hairbands with some plaits to finish off the rather cool look for Damaris and Zyah, not to mention the glitter sprayed on there) and getting some nice rags on to get to the McDonalds party spot for 2pm.
Damaris wore a black shirt that said, “I`m the next best thing”, with red heart decorated jeans (I`d wear these!!!) and some pretty cool red boots, ones that give a nice sound when walking. To Damaris and Zyah it`s all about the sound of their shoes or boots, they must `tap`. If they `tap`, man they are happy! The delight that glistens on their faces is one that would light many a dark night… With a `tap` these girls can be totally slip into their own worlds and be whoever they wish…
Zyah was dressed with purple jeans, a nice pink long-sleeved top (she hadn`t worn it before even though she received it from Mum and Dad last birthday) and graced with a new pair of pink fluffy boots (they had the same boots last winter and loved them. Mum and Dad bought the first pairs for them so when these boots came down in price, I pounced, buying one pair for Zyah but not for Damaris as we couldn`t get her size), but these boots don`t tap! Zyah knew this straight away. Her face dropped a few cm`s and I tried to reassure her that the boots she had on were gorgeous too (as well as new) and that Damaris had on the other boots (tap*tap) because it was her special day, that when Zyah had her own birthday, she too could wear some special `other` shoes.
Getting over the boot thing we made it to McDonalds, met up with Tammie and then began meeting and greeting family, friends of Damaris and their Mothers…
Feeling like a birthday party virgin I heard lots of questions in my head and didn`t try too hard in answering them but just sussed out minute by minute what felt right to do. Seeing as though the party was booked for 2-4pm, did we stay in the room with Damaris and the party group or did we come out after 15 minutes or so and watch sometimes at the window to the separate party room (letting Tammie do her thing with the party-people), go in every 20 minutes and see how things were going..?
As it was Gary filmed quite a lot, he is very good at this job… I spent most of the time in the party room and loved having a good laugh with the party of girls (no boys came although invited), helping out with getting rid of rubbish and gift paper and cleaning up 3 lots of spilt drink… I could apply for a job as a cleaner at Macs… I could sing whilst I did it too!
All concerned had a wonderful time I believe. Damaris had some beautiful presents today. We were expecting little gifts… but no, she got a cool toy violin, lots of hairbands, ice-cream shaped lip-gloss and eye shimmers, my little pony toys (one of these was from Tammie, bless her), books, fairy dress (oh this is beautiful), clock, a fairy dangler, pajamas, DVD`s, little puppy dog toys, a dress… Oh it was fab. Damaris made sure to open nearly every one of the presents before the party started too.
After pass-the-parcel and playing they all ordered some food. They played again and then the ice-cream cake made its way in with 5 candles on top. Most of the adults (my family) joined in and sang “Happy Birthday” to Damaris. Damaris blew out her candles and looked pretty chuffed, they soon ate the very delicious cake. Tammie actually had the pleasure of eating a piece too as one of the girls had left earlier, its not a pleasure that Tammie gets to do a lot. She was pretty happy, the sheer delight on her face was a picture.
The funniest and most amusing part of the day for me was when I decided to stack the party bags I`d made up in the middle of the table for all the girls. I wanted to make sure that I didn`t forget to hand them out and be the `organised` Mandyleigh that I normally am… Now these party bags had cost a small fortune, filling them with sweets, toffees, lollipops, para-shoot men (bought for the boys), party blowers, fairy wands, glasses, eye patches (for boys mainly again), bracelets, rings, feet shaped lollipops that you dip into the powder…
When the girls came in and sat down, I started to give out the bags. Of course every one of them started to plunge into their bags to see what goodies they`d find, many of them sourcing the sweets first and then smiling at the wands… I started to make up these bags a couple of weeks ago (I`m just too organised!) and just a few days ago needed to buy some more bits and pieces as I had to make sure that the children who didn`t let me know if they could come, got one on the day. As it was I had three left-over bags, thank goodness!!! I started to get a couple of the girls saying, “I haven`t got a wand, can I get one?” I didn`t get one of those `men` (para-shoot ones…), can I have one?” “I didn`t get a pair of glasses…”
These requests made me smile and then start laughing… The girls couldn`t have realised that Mandyleigh didn`t necessarily give out exactly the same party bags, that she had made up different ones… One of the requests came from a sweet little girl (who Zyah gets on well with and is one of sisters to Damaris` friend in class) who actually wasn`t in the `invited` party group, but sweetily demanded her bits and pieces… It was just so funny. Just a few customers not so keen on their bags containing as much, but not exactly the same contents as others. Customers are always right, right? I couldn`t help but fall at the knees to their requests where I was able. Lesson learned… DO ALL PARTY BAGS EXACTLY THE SAME AND WHEN HANDED OUT START RUNNING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION, FAST!
I had a wonderful time and Damaris, I hope you had a gorgeous time. It was fab spending time with the whole lot of you. Thank-you.
Now your birthday week is ending, mine is approaching, eeek!
Love you all. XXX
Love you, Damaris, Zyah and Zeth. XXX
PS I`m pleased to say that our two girls didn`t have any `cardboard` preservative infested burger just some greasy chips and a wrap.
Must go, Zeth is hollering out to me for a feed!
May 23
Tomorrow is the big PARTY day for Damaris. Her family and friends (about 13 of them) will be meeting her at McDonalds for a couple of hours… eating, drinking, having fun, playing and eating (Do `happy` meals really make them smile?), having fun and giving many a headache…
Tammie will be looking after the flock. She is a very nice lady at McDonalds who loves our two girlies and Zeth. Wonder if she has a painkiller before the event or just after…
She is really looking forward to it.
Will we survive?
Will we get out alive?
Have we fallen into the McDonalds trap? Yeah… but only because it saves us having to clean up all the party debris afterwards. What sort of mess do you think 15 children can make? Yeah, now you see the point…
The whole Ronald McDonalds thing is icky but the beauty of it is… turning up, letting 15 children loose, paying the bill and exiting…
Have a wonderful day tomorrow Damaris!
Love you. XXX
