Creative Ways to Make Mother's Day Memorable

Yes, yes. Mother's Day is upon us once again and with that comes the dreaded question: What do we get for mom this year? Never fear, be creative and you can go far. Below are a few unique ideas that fathers and children can do together to make this mother's day one worth remembering.

1) Japanese Fans

Japanese fans are a fun and creative way to make mom a gift that she can proudly display on any wall. To make these fans all you need is a thick piece of white paper (scrapbook paper works great), water color paints, paint brushes, glitter, glue, markers and popsicle sticks. Wide or narrow, the size of the sticks do not matter. You take 3 or 4 sticks and glue them together so they look like a skeletal fan and let those dry. While they're drying you cut out a rainbow-shaped piece of paper (not a full arch, like the top part of a rainbow) so that it would fit the fan shaped sticks. Paint the paper any color you want, decorate with kanji print or any design, add glitter and allow that to dry! When you're done, glue the sticks to the back of the paper and let dry overnight. The next day you'll have your very own Japanese fan. You can make one with mom's name on it, or, if you desire, make one for every family member and glue them to ribbon. They're perfect to hang on walls!

2) Plant a garden

Why get mom flowers that will die off after a few weeks when you can give her the gift that hopefully will keep growing throughout spring and summer (and perhaps fall) with a little bit of TLC? Maybe there's always been a certain shrub or flower that mom has wanted in her garden for years. Why not give her this beautiful and earth-friendly gift for Mother's Day? Sure, it takes a little labor to clean out the garden and dig the hole to transfer the plant from pot to ground, but, in the end it'll be worth it when mom sees her house looks even more beautiful than it did only a day before.

Just be careful, if you're planting shrubbery for the sides of your front door be sure they won't grow too big or hit any possible wires overhead. There are some plants out there that stay low to the ground and look marvelous. Why not try Andorra Junipers if you want something low to the ground. In fact, they grow roughly to 18 inches and are gorgeous. How about rose bushes if mom expects roses every year? Imagine to her surprise and joy if she saw that she had the ability to have fresh roses whenever she desired? They last so much longer outside and make a house look marvelous.

3) Be a Picasso

This third idea is so much fun that my daughter and I do these for gifts for family and friends any time of the year. We turn ourselves into our own Picassos. All this requires are paints of your choosing (I suggest acrylic, personally), paint brushes, canvas and a little bit of imagination. Art is something that children and parents can and should appreciate. It gives a great chance for the children to have fun, be messy and be creative! Dads, this is also a chance for you to spend quality time with your children apart from mother.

When all your artwork is finished and dried, you can put on a family art show for Mother's Day that I'm most certain mom will never forget.

4) Write a Super-Mom Story

This idea might require a little help from a grown up if the children are too young or can't write too well. Why not create a super-mom story for Mother's Day? This gives the children a chance to use their minds to create their own world fit for a superhero. All you need for this one is a book of some sort (blank works fine and makes you able to allow the kids to illustrate their story after it's written) and an active imagination. There are no limits to what Super-Mom can do on her Mother's Day in the minds of your children.

If you have more than one child, make each child have their own line. Once they say their line and it's written down, the next child adds onto it. Who knows what kind of zany, fun story your children can come up with for Mom.

There is no reason to have to spend massive amounts of money on Mother's Day and in fact, some of us just can't afford to at this time. However, each of these ideas cost little money at all and will guarantee that Mom will always remember this Mother's Day and how much love her family put into giving her something to show her their appreciation.