Mother’s Day is right around the corner and would you believe it, I actually have it a little more together than usual this year! Grandma presents are made and ready to be shipped…all 5 of them. Yep, we are blessed to have 5 family members to celebrate on Mother’s Day (well actually 6 if I include myself in the count…which I guess I should?).
I kept our handmade gifts super simple this year which in large contributes to why they are completed more than a week in advance. I have learned a few important lessons over the years of living far from family and having to celebrate most occasions from a distance: 1) I need to be extra organized when it comes to gift giving to account for the time and cost of shipping. 2) Certain gifts ship better than others…basically flat, non-fragile, and lightweight works best.
Armed with determination and a 25% off coupon, we headed to Micheal’s on a mission: Operation Grandma Gift 2013. Displayed right at the entrance of the store we found these plain wooden frames that fit my shipping criteria. Plus with my coupon they would only be .75cents a piece…score! I encouraged the boys to pick out whatever 5 they liked.
After a super tedious careful selection process of deciding on what frames to get, we made our way to the wooden craft area so they could pick out decorations for the frames. This was also a very lengthy thoughtful process for the older two boys. Izzy however took all of two seconds to decide. Once he saw the basketballs, he was done looking. It is interesting how at a very young age a child will pick out a gift based on what they like; however as they get older they are more apt to take into consideration what the person receiving the gift might like. This pretty much demonstrates a direct parallel of the development of self and relationships. 🙂
The boys were super excited to head home so they could paint and decorate their picture frames. This was the first time I can recall that the time spent painting outlasted the time I spent cleaning up an art activity. Woohoo! I definitely enjoyed that and hope its an omen of more good things to come.
Izzy hasn’t quite grasped the concept of glitter just yet. He loves the stuff, but the idea of squeezing glue and then sprinkling glitter on it doesn’t quite compute in his two year old brain. He prefers to open the top and dump it all out in a pile.Then he lifts up the paper to show me and all the glitter falls right off his paper. It’s quite a lovely mess, but I don’t mind too much. Because my favorite part of messy glitter art projects is that without fail my hubby will go to work the next day with rogue pieces of glitter stuck to him. Is it mean of me not to say “Hey honey you have glitter on your cheek?” when he walks out the door in the morning? I like to think it makes his day at the office more interesting…or at least it provides amusement for his co-workers? 🙂
We spent a total of $10 on art supplies to make 5 pictures frames. Not too shabby, huh? Plus they turned out super cute if I do say so myself. Hopefully the grandmas like them too. And for any of our grandmas that happen to see this blog post before Mother’s Day, hope you enjoyed this sneak peak of your gift.
Apparently art work is exhausting…
Abraham passed out on the stairs shortly after he finished our project. Jonah, our doggie, also joined him in the foyer for a little snooze.
What are your kids making for Mother’s Day gifts? I know we have lots of uber crafty mamas here…would love to hear from you or better yet see some pics of your handmade goodies!
-Sarah
