"Mom's Cooking” Hanging Award Plaque: Great Gifts You Can Make

This Mother's Day gift plaque sends your loving message to Mom.
You Need:

• Six Jumbo Craft Sticks
• Mini Kitchen Utensils
• Raffia
• Low Temp Glue Gun
• Tacky Glue
• Mom’s Love Quote “Everything tastes better mixed with Mom’s Love”
• Paint and Small Brush
• Cardboard

Instructions: Paint four mini kitchen utensils. Let dry. Print the quote. Tear around the outside. Line up six jumbo craft sticks. Cut a piece of cardboard slightly smaller than the sticks. Glue on top to hold sticks in place. This will be the back. Turn over. Glue quote to the front. Hot glue on a mini gardening tool. Tie a small bow with raffia. Glue to the bottom. Glue a piece of raffia to the back to make a hanger.
(Subhead) Great Gifts From Kids :  How To Design a Tote for Mom

Peel and stick foamies make this an easy tote to make for kids of all ages. 

You Need:

• Neon Tote
• Sticky Shapes

Instructions: Just peel and stick shapes overlapping to spell out the letters "MOM". Press firmly or roll with a brayer to help keep stickers in place.
Make a mom a memory book:

Instructions

• STEP 1: Buy a beautiful, hard-backed writing journal with blank pages.
• STEP 2: Purchase a few sets of stickers of your mother's favorite things (birds, cats or butterflies, for example).
• STEP 3: Peruse your photo albums and pull out pictures of you and your mother, including pictures from when you were a child.
• STEP 4: Take them to a copy shop (such as Kinko's) and have color copies made. Reduce larger pictures to fit on the pages of the journal.
• STEP 5: Sit down with a notebook or at your computer and write down memories of the pictures you have chosen.
• STEP 6: Write down several poems, quotes or Bible verses that are meaningful to your mother or to your relationship with her.
• STEP 7: Write a personal letter to your mother on the front page of the journal. Tell her how much you love her, what a great mother she is and how you hope that every time she looks at this book she'll feel special.
• STEP 8: Cut out the pictures and paste them onto the pages of the journal, leaving room (either on the same page or on the facing page, if the photo is larger) to write down thoughts and memories next to them.
• STEP 9: Intersperse the poems and quotes you have selected and decorate those pages with stickers.
• STEP 10: Wrap the book with beautiful wrapping paper and present it to your mother on Mother's Day.

Humor From And About Mothers

From a Mother’s Dictionary

• Bottle Feeding: an opportunity for Daddy to get up at 2am too.

• Grandparents: The people who think your children are wonderful even though they're sure you're not raising them right.

• Top bunk: Where you should never put a child wearing Superman jammies.

• You know you’ve turned into a Mom when you are out for a nice romantic meal with your husband, enjoying some real adult conversation, when suddenly you realize that you've reached over and started to cut up his steak!

• You know you’re a mom when You're up each night until 11 PM vacuuming, dusting, wiping,
  washing, drying, loading, unloading, shopping, cooking, driving, flushing, ironing, sweeping, picking up, changing sheets, changing diapers, bathing, helping with homework, paying bills, budgeting, clipping coupons, folding clothes, putting to bed, dragging out of bed, brushing, chasing, buckling, feeding (them, NOT you), PLUS swinging, playing baseball, bike riding, pushing trucks, cuddling dolls, rollerblading, basketball, football, catch, bubbles, sprinklers, slides, nature walks, coloring, crafts, jumping rope, PLUS raking, trimming, planting, edging, mowing, gardening, painting, and walking the dog. You get up at 5:30 AM and you have no time to eat, sleep, drink or go to the bathroom, and yet ... you still managed to gain 10 pounds.

• A small boy is sent to bed by his mother...
  [Five minutes later]
  "Mom..."
  "What?"
  "I'm thirsty. Can you bring me a glass of water?"
  "No. You had your chance. Lights out."
  [Five minutes later]
  "Mom..."
  "WHAT?"
  "I'm THIRSTY...Can I have a glass of water??"
  "I told you NO! If you ask again I'll have to spank you!!"
  [Five minutes later]
  "Mommm..."
  "WHAT??!!"
  "When you come in to spank me, can you bring me a glass of water?"

Mother’s Day Books : Books for And About Mothers

For Children:

• Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
• A Chair For My Mother by Vera B. Williams

Mother’s Day Traditions Legends, Stories

• Adults give their mothers red carnations, the official Mother’s Day flower.  If their mothers are deceased they may bring white carnations to their grave site.

Sources Include: NRF, Census Bureau, infobase.com, about.com, abcnews.com