A Beautiful Mother’s Day on a Budget

I don’t know about you, but my favorite day of the year has to be Mother’s Day. I love seeing what kind of fun activities and treats my kids have planned for me and I love getting to shower the moms in my life with love and gifts for all they do in my life. Among my most treasured items I have received is a MOM necklace with “real diamonds,” given to me by my son. The best treasure though has come from my daughter who has quickly learned that the best gift to give her mama is a dollar to spend on her McDonald’s Diet Coke obsession. My home is littered every year with treasures and cut-out heart cards that make my eyes tear up with their sweetness.

Each year we try to do something special for my mom and mother-in-law. I have found that often the simplest of gifts are the most treasured, especially if they are hand delivered by my children.

Here are a couple of fun gift ideas to try this year for the moms in your life.

Dress up a Supermarket Bouquet- Supermarket bouquets can sometimes not feel as special as the fancy florist so I love to add my own little touches to store-bought bouquets to make them a little more special. You can find rolls of tulle over in the craft section of your superstores or in the wedding section of large craft stores. Cut off a long strip of it to tie an elegant bow on your bouquet.

This bouquet was wrapped in pink and I thought this bow matched it perfectly. Sometimes the smaller bouquets are wrapped in plain plastic. I love to fill the plastic out with colored tissue paper on the outside or have the floral department wrap the flowers for me. Don’t forget to take those price tag stickers off the outside. After all, don’t we prefer if people don’t know how cheap we really are?

One of my favorite places to shop for bouquets is at our local wholesale club. The wholesale club offers huge bouquets for less than twenty dollars. Consider splitting one bouquet up and wrapping in tissue paper from your own gift supplies to get the most bang for your buck!

Create a Unique Photo Journal– I adore taking pictures of my family, but I am not very good about printing them out and sharing them the way I should. I thought it might be neat to share a photo album for each of our moms for Mother’s Day one year and I wanted to create a book that they would always remember.

Consider adding a unique spin to your photo albums. For each page of my photo album for our moms, I found a famous quote that could go with each picture and that would add a little more magic to each page. A Google search yielded hundreds of sites that I could use to find the perfect quote for each picture.

I found that it was easiest to sort my pictures by date first so I could group pictures together on pages easier. Sorting by date also helps to allow the flow into the different seasons of the year and pictures to flow a little more naturally. After my pictures were organized, I simply chose a template with a neutral palette that would compliment and not detract away from the beauty of the photos.

Don’t forget to check for coupon codes through whatever photo book publishing site you use. There are usually multiple coupons available. Be sure to compare which coupon will offer you the best deal for your money. My 20% off coupon, for example, was less than the shipping cost so make sure you crunch those numbers before ordering. Just Google, “Photo company’s coupon code” and you should get plenty of codes to use towards your purchase.

Serve Her Breakfast in Bed–  The past couple of years, my husband has learned that the best gift he could ever give me is breakfast in bed. The kids get very excited about delivering breakfast to me and checking on me multiple times to make sure that I am comfortable and well fed. Last year, I spent the entire day in bed reading a library book with lots of breaks with each kid taking a turn to climb in bed with me and snuggle. I can’t think of a more perfect way to spend such a joyous day than that.

Put your Kenmore Stand Mixer to good use and have your husband whip up a batch of these amazing Light Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes for you. These whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes will satisfy your pancake cravings, but just so happen to be filled with wheat flour, wheat germ, and mini chips for a good balance of sweetness to round them out. I promise you won’t miss that white flour at all and these are a wonderful way to start your Mother’s Day this year!