Our homemade Mother's Day gifts are the stuff of tearful thank you’s and fond memories.
The question of what to give Mom for Mother’s day is always a bit perplexing. What can you get her that isn’t a cliché, or an obvious last minute desperation gift? Everyone wants Mom to feel special on the one day a year set aside to honor and pamper her. It is little wonder this gift is under so much pressure.
Homemade Mother's Day Gifts
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Homemade gifts are the best, really. Many moms still have the little plaster handprints their kids made for them in pre-school. Their moms still have the card they made for her with their dimpled pre-school hand prints and scrawled poem. Homemade gifts become more precious as the years pass, and children grow.
To that end, here are some wonderful ideas for Mom this year that you can make for yourself; they work great for grandmas too!
Hand-Crafts
There are about a million ways to give handprints to Mom. A few of our favorite include the time-tested plaster handprint. A new and ultra-cute spin on this is the garden stepping stone. To make these you will need disposable aluminum pie plates, or 9×9 pans, water, decorations and a bag of cement mix.
1. Mix the cement according to directions
2. Pour the cement into the disposable pan, and quickly press the hands or feet of your gift giver into the wet cement.
3. Lastly, decorate!
Glass beads, buttons, broken tiles (like mosaic pieces), seashells and colored eggshells all work to make these garden stones pretty and fun. Kids love this project. Who doesn’t love the idea of putting their hands, feet, and initials in wet cement?
Cooking For Mom
This is a time tested Mother’s Day favorite, but why not kick it up a notch? Give mom the gift of home cooking. Trust us, it will really be a hit, after all one of the most stressing points of Mom’s day is ‘what’s for dinner?’. Send mom out of the house for an afternoon, gather the kids, hang an apron around their necks, and get cooking.
There are a number of meals that freeze very well. Cook and freeze a dozen or so of these meals. The kids love to cook, will learn a bit, and dinner time complaints are minimized because of the hands on help given by the children. On Mothers Day, hand mom a menu displaying all of the ready made dinners all cooked on her behalf by the children.
Scrapbooks for Mom
Instead of making a traditional scrapbook; create a wearable, huggable or snuggle-able scrapbook. These are easily created thanks to iron-on photo technology. Any office supply or craft store will have iron-on transfer paper in stock year round. You use your computer to print photos on this paper then transfer them to a blanket, t-shirt or pillow case.
Grow A Garden With Mom
Sometimes, the best Mother's Day gift is one that a mom can share with her kids! Planting a garden together will create lots of lasting memories, and will give mom something beautiful to look at every day for the rest of the growing season. It's a fun way for everyone to spend an afternoon.
Head to the store with your kids and pick out some seeds or grown plants you think Mom will love. Or, bring her along and have her pick out her favorites! This day is all about her, so let her be the one to make the decisions if she comes along. Otherwise, pick the flowers that you think she would like best.
On Mother's Day, gather all of your supplies together and get started! Make sure you provide optimal conditions for the flowers you're planting. While shopping, try to pick flowers that can grow in similar conditions. A flower that needs full sun won't do too well with a flower that needs full shade, for example.
Once the garden has been planted, mom and kids can take turns caring for it! This is a great opportunity for kids to learn more about nature and gardening. Imagine your kids' fascination when a bee or butterfly shows up! Older kids can help weed the flower garden, while younger kids can help water with a kid-sized watering can in tow.
Other Make-At-Home Ideas:
Grow a cutting garden in a small container or planter box; coupons from the kids for massages, chores or services; decoupage picture frames and other arts; a picture book written and illustrated by the kids. Get creative and make it for mom, she’s sure to love it. Homemade Mother's Day gifts are always a sure winner!