Monday 30 December 2013

28th December

Mini-M outside Granny F's classroom. We went to the swing park, but didn't realise there as rugby on and it was all a bit mental, so made a strategic parking detour to the school. The weather was grim (hence the wellies, rain coat, hat, scarf Michelin man look), the river was high, and it was the fastest flowing game of Pooh Sticks I've seen in a while - but the main thing was, it was some fresh air for us all - vital in avoiding Mini-M meltdowns we have discovered.


27th December

A rare selfie. Although actually not, since I didn't take it! My sister did, whilst trying to master the automatic smile detection setting on the camera.

26th December

Boxing Day saw us heading south (only a little bit!) to visit the complete grandparent, aunt and uncle complement for over a few hectic days. There were some very creatively wrapped presents still under the tree for us too! (Thanks Auntie L)


Sunday 29 December 2013

25th December

Christmas Day - at the zoo! Baby koala and big cats being given Christmas Presents (aka dead guinea pigs wrapped up in boxes) were the highlights. But didn't photograph terribly well - so instead it's our ugly mugs in front of a whole lot of picture penguins!

24th December

Christmas Eve - bread dough ready to rise over night for Christmas Dinner chelsea buns for our Christmas Day zoo trip.

23rd December

Fail! No photo. Bad weather, bad toddler attitude, general non-festive grumpiness. So let's gloss over that and have a moment of 'my hasn't she grown' by looking at Mini-M from my 2011 daily photos (age 17 months). I checked Mr E's from last year - it was of a bit of old map… wasn't sure of the significance, so delved further back for cuteness' sake.


Monday 23 December 2013

22nd December

Dressed up and ready to go to dinner for Mr E's work Christmas do. The worrying thing about this photo is that despite wearing 3 inch heels, I still look teeny - I think I'm shrinking!


21st December

Running an imaginary cafe/campsite in the play area of the Polish shop. Good job, since the queues were epic! Mini-M provided a fair amount of entertainment to numerous small Polish kids, who seemed to be taking it turns to be dared to speak to her, but bottling out at the last minute, and instead just running up, standing a little distance away (or indeed behind her) and smiling! I think Scottish kids might be a bit of an unusual occurrence there...

Saturday 21 December 2013

20th December

Party dress on and all ready for the nursery Christmas party and Carol Concert. 


19th December

Mini-M with her clipboard, undertaking a survey of the neighbourhood Christmas decorations. Not entirely sure we should be encouraging bureaucratic tendencies in a 3 year old, however she certainly seemed to enjoy it!

18th December

End of term nursery parcels wrapped and ready to give. Wrapped in Mini-M artwork, since she seems to currently be going for quantity and speed over quality, and we're drowning in a pile of glittery, painty paper!

17th December

Mr E went to London for a meeting - this is his flight, on the way home!

16th December

A sock snowman and some Christmas cards to open waiting for Mini-M to arrive home from nursery.

15th December

Christmas party fun - playing catch the tinsel tail.

14th December

Mini-M dressed herself: jumpsuit, party dress, hi-top trainers, white appliqué cardigan (not visible), fleece and hat. She looks like a Gouranga lady (and just about as happy too!).

13th December

An evening of culture at the Usher Hall - I went with a friend and her Mum to see the RSNO play Brahms with Nicola Benedetti and Leondard Elschenbroich. The music was lovely, and the building is fab.

12th December

North Pole cupcakes - decorated by Mini-M to take along to the Christmas jumper and baking day at Mr E's work.

11th December

Preparation for the craft activities for the kids Christmas Party on Sunday afternoon… the recipe for Magic Reindeer Food.

10th December

We've been trying to join in with Advent Challenge 2013 via the Faye Brown Designs blog.
Each day in December up until Christmas, there is a different festive theme to do something creative with. On 10th December we were in fact playing catch up for the 8th December, whose theme was "Your favourite Christmas song" which in Mini-M's case is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. So we made these reindeer faces. I have to say that it does look suspiciously like there has been a lot of reindeer marrying their cousins (!) in the Rudolph family tree, and to be honest, several may be alien impostor reindeer. They were lots of fun to make though.

9th December

A tea picnic underneath the Christmas tree to cheer Mini-M up after a tough day at nursery. Very festive, but made slightly weirder by the fact that our Christmas tree is situated on the top landing, just outside the bathroom door. And we were joined in our picnic by a 3ft wooden otter.

8th December

Two little woodland sprites / squirrels / monkeys in a big old tree.

7th December

Fireworks over the town square as part of the Scott's Selkirk celebrations.

6th December

PJ-ed up at Granny F's, waiting for Team H to arrive. All very exciting...

5th December

Surprisingly organised for us for once… the first of the Christmas presents wrapped and ready to be delivered during a weekend visit down to the grandparents.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

4th December

A work training event at the Falkirk Wheel today. A lovely venue - we even got to have our afternoon workshop group in a barge due to a shortage of meeting rooms!

3rd December

Posting pennies in the guide dog collection. Mini-M has given the puppies names and talks to them whenever we go. Last time she managed to win over some elderly gentleman to give her all of his spare pennies too to post in.

2nd December

Christmas presents in progress - shortbread crumble fudge wrapped and labelled

1st December

A bit of a surprise at the swing park! I'm not sure who was more surprised - the cat or us...

30th November

Happy St Andrew's Day! Mini-M and I baked for the occasion. Saltire cupcakes were iced before 8am - this early morning cake decorating is becoming a worrying habit…

29th November

No photos today - oops! Blaming the stinking cold that is hanging about and filling my head with cotton wool. Time travelling forwards to steal one from the 30th… we went skating again - this time Mini-M was very happy to be zoomed about the ice by Uncle P who is a much more proficient skater than either Mr E or myself.