With Mother's Day fast approaching, what better way to celebrate then with some gifts that show the beauty of the environment or give back to the environment? Moms love homemade gifts from the heart of loved ones and making creative beautiful gifts from nature are sure to make her smile.
Here are a few activities that kids even as young as toddlers can help make mom for her special day. The natural world in which we live provides an endless supply of ideas and beauty that can make the perfect gift.
Pick Wildflowers and blackberries
This is an easy one. Our area has wildflowers and blackberries growing like crazy. Make sure you check the laws for your area. If it is permissible, pick a bunch of wildflowers. You can tie them with a pretty ribbon or decorate a gift bag with handprints, etc. The Blackberries make a great cobbler that will sure to be a treat. Moms will love that you took the extra effort to work together as a family to make her a special treat. You can also surprise her with homemade blackberry muffins or pancakes. Here are some recipes:
- For the cobbler, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once oven temperature is reached melt one-half a cup of butter in a 9x13 inch baking pan. In a medium bowl stir together two cups self-rising flour, two cups of sugar and two cups of milk; batter will be slightly lumpy. Pour mixture on top of melted butter in baking pan. Do not mix butter and mixture together. Drop three and a half cups of blackberries into batter. Bake in preheated oven for one hour or until golden brown. The kids will love pouring the ingredients in.
- For the muffins, mix together two-thirds cup of brown sugar, one cup of white flower, one cup of whole wheat flower and three teaspoons of baking powder. Toss in one cup of cold blackberries. Toss to coat. In a separate bowl, mix together one-half cup of milk, three-quarter cup of vegetable oil and one beaten egg. Pour the second bowl over the dry mix and mix together until moist. Pour batter in ungreased muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.
Love Stones
This one is a lot of fun for kids. Kids can work together to find some stones that are semi-flat. You can also purchase some at your local garden store. Then use permanent markers or black paint to make love stones. Write adjectives that describe mom, such as Peace, Love, Hope, Mommy, Caretaker, etc. The stones can be small enough to display inside or big enough to display in the garden. You can use stencils to make it more decorative.
Birdfeeders
What mom doesn't love watching beautiful birds? How much more fun is getting sticky while making mom's gift. Birdfeeders allow just that. There are several feeders you can make. You can get creative and make a wooden box filled with birdseed. You can take a paint stick and dip in honey or peanut butter then let the kids coat it with bird seed. Another feeder is one made our of a sugar cone covered with peanut butter, Cherrios and bird seed. The kids will love snacking on the peanut butter and Cherrios.
Bookmarks
Bookmarks are great gifts for moms who read, but how do we bring nature into the picture. This can be done a few ways. One is to take flowers and press them onto a pretty colored construction paper. Then take to local office store or print shop and have it laminated. Another way is to take a gorgeous picture of the kids in nature like on a mountaintop or sitting in flowers. Then upload it online to shrink to bookmark size. Then laminate.
All of these are just to get your creative juices flowing. Feel free to submit any ideas you have on great gifts that can bring nature to mom this Mother's Day.
