This time of year we are always busy preparing something for those loveliest of people... Mommies.

This May we are making foot soaks for pampering hard-working feet and to go with it? The cutest footprint butterflies!

Footprint Butterflies

We started on our butterflies yesterday. They are really easy to make and the kids love it! I think mostly because they get to have their feet painted and who wouldn't get a kick out of that? It tickles and it is silly!

For time purposes I drew the butterfly's body for each child with their chosen color, though you could certainly have the child do this part. Then they drew in the face. We got some cute facial expressions!

With the butterfly body all set up, I had the child choose the colors for their butterfly's wings and I asked them how they wanted their feet painted ~ all the colors on each foot?

Or one foot painted one color and the other foot another? With the kid sitting in a child-size chair, the fun began... we painted their feet and pressed them down on paper.

Lots of giggles ensued and with many other little ones watching on, we had a fun morning together. Doing just one foot at a time made it easy to keep the mess under control. I helped them place their foot in the right spot to make butterfly wings.

Then we finished with a quick rinse in a tub of water and I wiped their feet off with a towel I had on hand.

Foot Soaks

This coming week we are going to make foot soaks to go along with our butterflies.

Here is the recipe we are going to use:

1 cup of Epsom salts
1/2 cup of baking soda
1 Tbs of ground ginger
1 Tbs of lavender blossoms
A 4 to 8 drops of essential oil ~ I will let the children choose their favorite for their mommy from lavender, cedarwood, cardamom, ylang ylang, rose geranium, spearmint and rosemary.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir. Tie off your bag with a pretty ribbon or twisty tie. Add a label with information about the ingredients and how to use it. This recipe will make enough for one to two mommies. Increase the proportions as needed. Easy Peasy!

Note: Using a foot bath is easy and relaxing. Just use a bowl or basin with enough room for your feet. Fill it with warm water. Put your feet and then your foot soak in and relax. I like to keep a towel nearby to dry off with and a nice foot oil or shea butter to put on afterwards. Then top off with some snuggly socks! Heaven. Heaven for Mommies....

The Gift

Often I will use simple brown paper bags at the preschool. For gifts there is nothing better. I let the kids decorate the bags and then we wrap up our gifts. For Mother's Day, I plan to package them all up something like this: