Playing with Flowers

Well last Sunday, there were flowers left over from a funeral the previous day at church. I got to bring some home including a purple rose. Having been inspired by Happy Little Munchkins: Petal Play which was shared at Sharing Saturday #5. I decided to try it with our rose even though it wasn't white.

I put the rose petals in a bowl of water. I didn't have any rose water to add, but the scent of the petals was strong enough for us. Hazel played with the petals in the water, swirling them around and feeling them. Then we added drops of food coloring (this is Hazel's favorite part). We watched the food coloring swirl around on its own. It was pretty.

Hazel taking a picture since I was. This is her new kids' digital camera she got for Christmas!

Then we added even more food coloring this time purposely getting it on the petals. We were hoping for results like Happy Little Munchkins, but we did not have any luck. I guess we will have to wait until we have a white rose to try it again.

We just got dirty looking water around our rose petals. Oh, well. Our petals did not absorb the color at all. We were hoping for a result like this.

From Happy Little Munchkins: Petal Play

This week there were some white carnations and white snap dragons leftover from a funeral at church. So I brought them home to try coloring a different way. Yesterday when we got home from church we filled vases and jars with water and Hazel added food coloring to the water. I then cut the ends of the white flowers we brought home and stuck them in the different colored water. We made red, yellow, blue, green (directly from food coloring) and mixed purple and orange.

The start of our experiment

Then we just let them sit there. Last night when I got home from tutoring, I found they looked like this.

Blue Water

Red Water

Yellow water

Green Water

Purple Water

The snap dragons had not changed color at all, so I cut the stems much smaller and went to bed. We woke up to see this:

Our discoveries, the colors we mixed did not really give them much color and often just one of the two colors showed up (the purple looked blue and the orange looked yellow). The snap dragons took longer, but also needed to be cut much shorter than they were. We still have them in the water to see if more time will make a difference. However I moved the carnation that was in the purple water into the red water to see what will happen.

That is our flower experiments thus far. It feels good to be playing with nature again.

Have a great day!!

Adventures Outside--Winter Nature Hunts and Play

Climbing Up Our Swingset

So on Friday, we had another beautiful day here in New England. The weather predictions for Saturday was a possible snow storm with an arctic freeze coming Saturday sometime. Friday it was suppose to be near 50, so we went outside after our Move and Groove class at the local library. First we played on our swingset and then we moved to the one we are storing in our yard for friends who are inbetween houses (and living in a condo with no yard).

On Our Friends' Swingset

Hazel decided she was the captain of a big ship (the swingset) and was taking me to the big city and zoo to live. Apparently I'm now Curious George. My seat on the boat was the green swing. There is a steering wheel in the house and thus how she was steering the ship.

Lilac Tree

Now, February 2nd was Groundhog Day around here. Supposedly the televised groundhog did see his shadow (seems to me he always will since there are camera lights around), however around here it was awfully cloudy. Well apparently no one told the trees that we are suppose to have six more weeks of winter since I saw buds on our lilac tree.

And the rhododendron also had some buds on it. As well as whatever this bush is.

Then I got ordered back to my seat on the ship which apparently can drive on the street as well since she took me to the grocery store and parked it.

This is the brook that goes along the back and side of our backyard ( and then goes underground near the house). I love having it since it just adds a peacefulness to the yard (and doesn't flood).

After we were done with the ship, it was time to dig in the dirt. Hazel pulled out her gardening tools and set to work. Then we had the idea of making dirt castles since the sand in her sandbox is too dry right now. (She is digging in my garden, but we are planning on moving the garden this year so this is a great place for her to dig.)

Muffin anyone?

Then she got smart and took out her big shovel.

Then she wanted to go for a walk and see what nature we could gather. Before we went I found a very small baby pine cone. We put it on her nature table.

See how tiny it is?

On our walk with the wagon to collect nature

Hazel found a large branch on the ground. She thought it looked like a tree and wanted to bring it home. It is bigger than her! Oh, and she insisted on carrying it home herself.

Bringing It Home

Sorry, Don't know why this one isn't turned.

When we got home, we had many sticks, a few leaves (very dried old leaves), some evergreen pieces and more sticks. I guess we will be doing some crafts with sticks this week or soon. Maybe some fairy furniture?

Hazel of course wanted to bring the large branch in. Steve let her bring it in to the craft room but not upstairs. Of course she and I are planning on finding something to put it in and make decorations for it.

Oh, and apparently we now have an imaginary dog who likes to escape all the time. We ended our outside play on her swingset--the train--and her doggie kept escaping and we would have to chase it. This has continued in the house. I love her imagination!!

I'll share some of our nature crafts and experiments later this week or soon!! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Oh, and please check out Sharing Saturday. It will be open until Wednesday this week, and we already have over 130 amazing entries!! Enjoy!!

Sharing Saturday #6

Thank you to all of you for participating in Sharing Saturday #5!! We had some amazing entries (143 of them)! Mia and I so enjoy seeing what everyone shares each week. If you would like to check them out please do so here.