Mads2 There’s so much to say about the MADs Awards Ceremony, which took place last night at Butlins Bognor Regis.

I want to tell you about how surprised Tim was to win one award – and how he almost forgot to stand up to accept his second. I loved how Deb cried when she accepted her award, and I laughed so hard I almost passed out when Emma customised her outfit using the table lights and Pippa made us all deeply jealous with her iPad tweeting. 

But it will keep.

I had a six-hour drive home today and I spent a lot of it thinking about what the MAD Awards has taught me. And it’s that bloggers – Mums, Dads and the rest of us – are a community – and a strong one, at that.

That doesn’t mean we always think the same things (we don’t) or that we always agree (we certainly don’t). It doesn’t mean we write the same sorts of things, or have the same approach to blogging. 

But the MAD Awards was a real achievement for our community. Because while it’s my name on the website, most of the credit for such a great evening belongs to everyone who has taken part and supported the awards, even when some crisis or other threatened  to derail us.

So this is where I say the massive thank you I meant to say last night when I was holding the microphone, but couldn’t quite find the words.

I have to thank Ellie for helping with the copywriting; Alex for helping me on countless occasions with the website, Yuri for sorting out and running the live blog with the fantastic assistance of Emma and Clare, who also helped to put together the quiz. Deb also helped writing some of the speeches.

Thanks, Hayley, for providing amazing photography services, and Nikki for helping with the trophies. Thanks to Pippa for helping to stuff the gift bags, even while some people (cough) in the room were acting like headless chickens shouting, “We’ll never make it! Stop! I think I’ve given Tim an epilator!” 

Thanks to all the bloggers who handed out awards, particularly those who weren’t expecting to give out awards – Naomi, Vix and Heather, you’re all amazing women, and Heather definitely wins the prize for the best speech given by a presenter who wasn’t expecting to present a prize.  Thanks to Joanne, Susanna and Sue for being judges, you guys did a great job. 

Then there are those bloggers like Karin and Deborah who offered lifts to other guests, everyone who shared rooms, and those who helped look after the children who were in Bognor – Claire and Pippa were completely heroic on that score.

Claire from 20SomethingMum did a sterling job helping other guests secure sponsored outfits and underwear (who knew that was even possible?) and Jen has just been the most fantastic source of support and sanity over the last couple of months.  Thanks to Sandy for buying me a much-needed drink at the end of the night. And to Jo for finding someone to make us balloon models at 11pm – an impressive achievement.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a load of people, for which I   apologise, but thanks to you all. Well done. I hope you’re proud of what we’ve achieved together, and that you’re glad to be a part of our slightly bonkers little community – I know I am.  

We'll be posting all the photos onto Flickr and over the next few days we'll update the MADs website with a selection of pictures plus video footage of the awards, and a cleaned up version of the live blog. I'll let you all know when it's ready! In the meantime, if you blog about the awards, it would be great if you could leave a link here in the comments so people can come and read about your evening.

Thanks again – and goodnight (I'm going to go and sleep for three days!)