{Similarities}

My sister put together such a lovely presentation for my own hen party, which must have been over 5 years ago now. It was heartfelt, humorous, touching and I loved it. A number of the girls at the party were in tears, in a good way. She's very good with computers though and had timed the photographs to appear to music, and it was just very well done.

I've been tasked with producing a similar presentation for her hen party in a week's time. Don't worry - it's not a secret that I'm ruining - she's even provided me with a CD of photographs to use for it!!

As such, I've been digging around in our old family photographs for embarrassing photographs of her and I've been scanning them like mad into my computer to put together her slides. Thankfully I think I'm nearly done. It's not timed to music as yet, but hopefully I can figure it out in time (any tips you might have would be greatly appreciated!!).

Anyway, the more I look at photographs of myself as a youngster, I can't believe just how similar my two kiddies look like me. It's just amazing... It's still so surreal that I (along with my husband of course) produced two lovely little people!

 So here I am as a little girl....

Me, aged about 6 months

My daughter does the exact same smile... she shuts one eye - it's hilarious!!

Me, maybe about a year old, possibly nearer 18 months?

With my grandfather (my dad's dad)

And here are my two kiddies (any excuse to share pictures of them!)...

Ok, so we're maybe not that similar... but there are definitely characteristics that are the same. I love that we all have the same 'bum chin'. Hee hee.

I wonder how they will change as they get that little bit older...

I guess I'm possibly 3 here??

At primary school with my sister...

I love the little bobs that Ali & I had... so cute!

{Childhood Memories}

I thought I'd share with you a few of my favourite childhood books. I still have them and read them to my two little ones frequently. Hopefully they'll become their favourites too. They bring back many happy memories of spending quality time with my mum & dad when I was a little girl...

This was my all time favourite story... as you can see I've written my name in the top left hand corner!

I had a sookie (sp?) blanket when I was little... 

Another Shirley Hughes favourite...

I loved all the Janet & Allan Ahlberg books, and still do. Peepo is another favourite.

Last but not least... Andy Pandy and the Willow Tree. I was desperate to have a willow tree in our garden when I was growing up! 

{What I've Been Up To}

I've been a bit quiet lately, mainly because I've been so busy!

I thought I'd fill you in on what I've been up to with the help of some photographs. In addition to my day job where I work Monday - Wednesday, here's what's been happening in the life of Glasgow Mummy...

We've been on lots of trips to local parks (weather permitting of course) where we've played on swings and splashed about in muddy puddles.

(I had to take him home in just his nappy and jacket as he fell over and got absolutely covered!!)

I've drunk far too many cups of tea....

(My current favourite mug!)

We've had great fun at playgroup...

We supported Andy Murray at Wimbledon (despite the fact we didn't have a tennis racket, just a squash one!)...

I've been doing more DIY and have painted my daughter's new bedroom a fab dusky pink colour...

I've also had a few (too many!) cocktails and nice meals out...

Personal Shopping with my sister Alison at House of Fraser! Cheers!!

Afternoon Tea with the girls from work!

What have you been up to and what have I missed? :-)

{Things I'm Loving Right Now}

It's been a while since I've done a 'Things I'm Loving Right Now' post, so here goes....

Ice Cream:

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My kids and I all love ice cream. Sometimes we'll skip bathtime and head out in the pram to the shops nearby and get ice cream cones for dessert - yum!

Shopping:

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Last week I was at House of Fraser to see their personal shopper with my sister. We were there last year and had such a great experience that we decided to do it again. The only thing I'm not loving right now is my bank balance!

Reading:

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It's been a while since I've read a book. The last book I read cover to cover was Eat Pray Love, and that was a few months ago now. However, with all the talk on Twitter and the like about 50 Shades of Grey I thought I would read it to see what everyone is talking about. I had read a few blog posts about the terrible English and the repetition prior to picking up the book (like this one here by The Girl From Clapham) and despite this I still purchased the series. I'm now on the final book and I totally agree, the writing isn't great at all. There is so much repetition and the all the head cocking and breath hitching is getting rather annoying. But I find I'm still drawn to the book and want to know what happens to the characters. And with the lack of excitement in my own life, it's a bit of escapism!!

What are you loving right now?

{Girls Night In}

It's not so easy for me to get out and socialise due to lack of childcare so last weekend I arranged for a couple of my girlfriends to come to my house for pizza and wine.

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I'm loving the fact that I have my iPhone back in my possession as I was able to browse the pizza menu  from the comfort of my sofa that morning and pre-order a selection of goodies including garlic bread, potato wedges, pizza and ice cream!! Yum! The super-efficient me had also pre-arranged a supermarket online food order which arrived that day too, so by lunchtime I had the pizza ordered and the wine in the fridge without having to leave the house (which was just as well as the weather was absolutely appalling!).

That evening, my son was refusing to go to his bed and when my friends arrived just after 7.30pm he was adamant that he was coming downstairs to join the party! He stuck his head into the kitchen (where we were busy popping the champagne!), said his hello's to everyone and promptly was returned to his room to sleep.

The girls and I had a great night - lots of giggles, gossiping and yummy food washed down with fizz - and before I knew it, it was nearly midnight. The girls made their way home, and I headed straight to my bed. As I reached the top of the stairs, this is what I found:

He obviously didn't want to miss out on the party! 

This is a sponsored post.

{On the Up}

I don't want to tempt fate, but I think things are on the up! I've been through a pretty rough time lately, and on top of all the relationship stuff, there has been all the other bits and pieces that fell apart too.

Today I had was given the gift of another compliment from a random stranger. This time it was two ladies in my local park. I stopped briefly as my little ones were interested in seeing the dogs they were walking and we got chatting. One of them was telling me what lovely teeth I had and that I had an amazing smile. It was all very bizarre, and a bit embarrassing, but lovely all the same and I walked off feeling much better about myself. My confidence is improving, definitely.

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I'm still in the process of moving my kiddies into separate rooms, but I'm forcing myself to go to bed earlier (8pm last night I was in bed!) and that's helping massively too. I'm still getting a number of wake-up calls during the night, but if I go to bed early enough I can cope better!

My boiler has been fixed, my iPhone is now back in my possession and working perfectly *touch wood* and my car has also been repaired. Phew!

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I've not been doing much in the way of exercise recently and I think that it has been affecting my mood. So on Tuesday morning this week, when the kids were with their daddy, I got up at 6am (yes, six o'clock in the morning!) and went for a quick 3 mile run before going to work. I'm going to try and make this my new routine. I was shattered by Tuesday night, but I did feel much better for getting some much needed exercise. My diet has been pretty appalling, but I am aware of this and need to try harder. It's basically down to me being lazy and I've been eating far too many processed foods

I've got a few social things (was going to call them events, but I'm not sure what qualifies for an event!) in my diary coming up - the girls are coming round this weekend for pizza and wine, I've got another personal shopping trip with my sister next week (@the_grey_house, who has nothing to do with 50 Shades of Grey lol!!), and I'm also going for afternoon tea soon with all the girls at my work - I find that having things organised ahead of time makes a big difference and it's great to have things to look forward to. I was out with some new friends on Saturday night this weekend and had a great night. My little ones were thankfully with their daddy on Sunday as I was in bed for most of the day... oh dear! I am well and truly a lightweight!

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For all you other 'Grooving Mums' out there, do join in over at Kate on Thin Ice.

For now, over and out!! :-)