James knew Mother's Day was going to be difficult for me this year. And honestly, I was worried I was going to spend the entire day sad and crying. But my day was anything but sad. In true James fashion, he planned the most thoughtful and out-of-the-park day I could have ever imagined.
It started with kisses from Joe and breakfast at a crepe place I'd been wanting to try. After we finished eating, James read a poem he wrote called "The 7 keys to mom's heart" and handed me my first key. The clue led us to our old apartment, the place we started this grand southern adventure and fell in love with Nashville. He then gave me my 1st of 7 gifts: a plastic tray. He said it was just 1 "piece" of a craft that we were going to be doing at the end of the hunt and I had to guess what the craft was. I was clueless, but excited.
Each location brought back such happy memories and kept my mind off of everything. One of my keys led us to Percy Priest lake where we used to spend our toddler-free afternoons. We enjoyed a lakeside picnic that James packed and played in the water. Joe was in heaven!
By clue 5, I had gathered enough pieces to be able to guess our craft - a family stone for our garden! It was such a fun and easy family DIY project that I wanted to share with you all in case your garden needs a little personal touch, too.
- concrete mix
- plastic flower pot drainage tray (James bought a few shapes and sizes for me to choose from!)
- decorative stones, tiles & letter presses
- concrete trowel tool (to smooth the concrete)
You can find the concrete mix at any hardware store.
Step 1:
Pour dry concrete mix into a bucket or plastic tub (which will get thrown away) and slowly add water until it's the right consistency. You want to make sure it's fully saturated with water, but you don't want any pooling on top of the cement. It it's too dry, it will be too thick to add any decorations. We used a paint stick to stir the cement. Joe loved helping!
Step 2:
Pour the concrete into the plastic tray and smooth until flat.
Step 3:
Quickly add the decorative stones & letter presses. It dries fairly quickly, so you have to move fast. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to press into the cement. I actually messed up my first pass and wanted to restart. So we just scooped the cement back into the tub, added a little more water and started over. Once your decorations are placed, wipe off any residue with a wet paper towel.
Step 4:
Let the stone dry overnight. Once dry, cut the plastic tray from the concrete and place in your garden!
I love the charm that it brings to our yard and I think about our special day every time I get the mail. James has planned a lot of scavenger hunts, written a lot of poems and has pretty much spoiled me rotten since the day we met...but this Mother's Day was probably the best adventure yet because I got to share it with Joe, too. Thank you, James, for the perfect Mother's Day. I'm the luckiest Mom on earth!