Mothers Day cupcakes and thank-yous

[© Anstice Potts 03/04/2011]

Happy Mothers Day to all those hardworking mothers out there. I hope you get to relax and put your feet up. If you happen to be my Nan or my Mum, please look away now so as not to spoil your suprise!

Yesturday my best friend came over and helped me bake some cupcakes for my Mum, Grandma, Nanny and M's Mum using my mini cupcake maker. I used the same recipe as I did for the Valentine's Day cupcakes but I had vanilla extract this time so they tasted better. Some had pink buttercream and some had yellow buttercream and they were all topped with an edible daisy wafer.



We tried some of the leftovers and they were YUMMY. I put them into some tuppaware containers and tied them up with pink ribbon to give to my special mums along with some Baylis and Harding sequin bubblebath. This morning I'm dropping into my Grandma's before having a pub lunch with M's mum and then in the afternoon I'm going over to see my own Mum and Nanny (who lives next door) and stopping the night. Hopefully it will be a lovely day.

In honour of this special day I've written a list of thank-yous for each of them.

Thank you Mum for....

• Encouraging me to be creative
• Encouraging me to love reading and learning
  
• Bringing me up to be openminded to all sorts of different people and cultures
• Introducing me to the awesome music of your generation such as Roy Wood and Slade
• Introducing me to fantastic films such as Monty Python and Indiana Jones
• Bringing me up to love all animals and know how to look after them
• Doing my cooking, washing and cleaning for me when I lived with you (and sometimes now still)
• Giving me a great sense of humour
• Taking me on lots of great days out and holidays as a kid eg. the dinosaur park, Baytree owl center, Northcotte Heavy Horse Centre, Clacton, Mablethorpe, Fantasy Island, Norfolk and Goathland.
• Paying for all those school trips like both French exchanges.
• Everything you've bought me over the years
• Paying for me to do hobbies like dancing and horseriding
• Making the most beautifully decorated birthday cakes with different themes for each year
• Making delicious foods like quorn spag bol, perfect pancakes, bread and butter pudding, baked apples with dried fruit and sugar and my favourite potato salad.
• Making such an effort for me to have great birthday parties by choosing fun themes and making all the food.
• Doing so many creative projects with me like the decorated bike competition, school fancy dress competions (Huckaberry Finn and the Tin Man) and that big wall calendar we made at Horncastle Road.  
• Being more relaxed than other Mums and not being strict about letting me go out with my mates and have boyfriends.
• Bringing me up to have respect for myself and not let people treat me badly
• Teaching me to read before I went to school
• Giving me high cheekbones and thick, wavy hair (which almost makes up for the varicose veins)

Thank you Nanny for...

• Singing great songs to me like 'Mares Eat Oats and Does Eat Oats' 'The Fairy on the Christmas Tree' and the one about Christopher Robin saying his prayers.
• Telling me interesting stories about your life
• Always listening to me patiently as I waffle on about what I've done on my holidays
• Being proud of me in everything I do
• Letting me help you with the gardening when I was a kid
• The memories of you hoola-hooping at my 4th birthday party and coming to Shana's Harry Potter party dressed as Professor Sprout
• Taking an interest in my creative writing and everything else I'm doing
• Giving me life advice
• Taking me to church and Sunday school when I was little
• Reading great books to me when I was little such as 'Goodnight Owl', 'The Snow' and 'Five Minutes Peace'.
• Playing games like 'Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory' (even though you usually lose) and 'Sea and Sand'.
• Teaching me how to knit
• Making jam tarts with me when I was little

Thank you Grandma for...

• All those wonderful Sunday dinners, cakes and treats
• Letting me stay over at yours after a night out with my friends and having cheese and crackers for supper, then letting me lie in and making me breakfast the next day
• Playing games like Sequence, Scrabble and Boggle (even if you are a bad loser)
• Lazy Sundays watching the soaps and reading the papers with you
• Coming with us on holidays and being the first one to get up and cook us a fried breakfast
• Providing us with so many hilarious memories of you such as falling through the deck chair at party in the park, going on a murderous killing spree after some wasps on holiday, going into the gents loos by mistake, bumping into someone you knew miles away from home at Lands End and generally providing endless entertainment.
• Never failing to get up and dance at parties
• Looking after everyone 
• Always understanding more about everyone than you let on
• Being such a happy, smiley person all the time, no matter what life throws at you.

Thank you Barbara for...

• Treating me like a daughter
• Teaching me to dance and making me feel confident to go on stage
• All those lovely dinners like quorn cottage pie and the best roast potatoes ever.
• Buying all those vegetarian meals for me and doing our shopping for us
• Bringing me unexpected treats like new pyjamas and presents from your weekends away
• Looking after our cat when we go away
• Letting me stay in your house all that time and welcoming me in
• Paying for special treats for me like going to the cinema, to see shows in London, eating meals at the Burton and replacing that £50 that I was upset about for being lost/stolen when I went to London.
• Helping out at our house by painting the cupboards
• Giving me life advice