Mother’s Day then and now (and a new outfit)

Mother’s Day is one of those situations as a mum that I like to revel in. I’m all for appreciating motherhood all year round, but there’s nothing quite like a day of dedication to really make you feel special. I know, as mums, we’re meant to delight in the handmade presents the most – the pasta necklaces and the lollipop stick crafts – but, if I’m honest, I also take huge pleasure in a bouquet of flowers or a pretty little candle the girls and the NLM might have chosen for me together.

This year I also have a new outfit for Mother’s Day, courtesy of Matalan. It consists of pink chinos, a polka dot (and incredibly soft) knitted jumper, the best silver shoes EVER and a bright yellow scarf. All things I can easily wear with other items – and I can already predict the silver shoes are going to get loads of wear when we go to Paris at the end of April. 

I’ve recently lost a bit of weight so it feels great to be able to celebrate this with a new outfit. The girls also both got new outfits, mainly so we could recreate this photo of my own mum with my sister and I…

This photo was taken approximately 28 years ago. I reckon I’m about six which would make my little sister two, and my mum 36. I have no idea where we are or if it was anywhere near Mother’s Day, but it’s one of the few photos of my mum with me and my sister that exists, thanks to growing up in the pre-digital camera, selfie mad age of photography.

The shirt I’m wearing in this photo used to belong to my dad when he was a kid and, rather sweetly, it now belongs to Freya too. Her very own item of original vintage clothing! Apparently it was a gift from my dad’s grandma in South America, which is where she worked for the British Embassy. There’s a whole wealth of family history linked to this shirt that I’m very hazy on, but it’s safe to say it’s been around the block a bit.

I teamed the shirt with a pair of cute jeans in the Matalan kids’ range, complete with applique badges that Frog LOVES.

And for Baby Girl, she’s wearing a cardigan (like my sister in the photo above) along with a sweet denim pinafore dress.

Ready to see our recreation of the photo above?

Here goes…

THEN:

NOW:

As you can see from Frog’s face, there was a bit of reluctance to share the shot with her sister and mother. And, as you’ll see from the snippet in the weekend vlog at the bottom of this post, it wasn’t a straight-forward photo “shoot”. But then it rarely is when kids are involved is it?!

Here’s another one showing off the full glory of Baby Girl’s colourful crochet cardigan…

Fittingly, my own mum took these photos, which seems to bring things full circle. She helps me out just as much now I’m a 33 year old mum myself as she did when I was that frothy haired six year old who demanded endless attention.

It’s funny what we remember about childhood as adults, isn’t it? One such memory revolving around Mother’s Day as a kid is a pretty disastrous breakfast I made for my mum to eat in bed. Of course, it could have been a birthday or a weekend treat, but either way I remember wanting so badly to do something nice for my mum – and for it to be a surprise.

This breakfast was carried up the stairs to my mum on a tray, I think I even picked a flower from the garden and made a homemade card. I reckon I was about nine at the time, old enough to use a kettle and boil an egg anyway. Except the egg was basically raw and the toast was stone cold. And I’d left the teabag swimming in the cup which had been topped up with way too much milk. Lucky mum.

At the time I was oblivious to the extent of the disaster. I just remember feeling incredibly proud as I carried the tray into my parents’ bedroom, beaming from ear to ear at my amazing feat of accomplishment. It wasn’t until years later that my mum told me how she’d had to smuggle the untouched breakfast into kitchen bin without me finding out. I think she ended up carrying a raw egg around in the pocket of her dressing gown for a while – and was probably starving until lunchtime.

As for me, I think I’ll be able to dodge the raw egg breakfast for this year at least, as my girls aren’t quite at the breakfast-making stage. However, I’m still looking forward to a lie-in, lighting my new candle and (hopefully) reading a good book. That’s what Mother’s Day’s all about, isn’t it?

To see a “behind the scenes” version of these photos, have a watch of my latest vlog from the weekend…

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Thanks to Matalan for working with me on this post. For more information about how I work with brands check out my Work With Me page.