roses.

i asked luna while we were hanging out on the porch waiting for her mom, "what was your favorite thing today? we had a busy day..." she replied, "the rose part."

mike and i had a valentines day brunch over the weekend and bought 2 dozen roses on the post v-day sale table. although they were still beautiful, i thought they would be fun for luna and olive to play with. i cut the blooms off the stems and placed them in a shallow tray. i also laid out tweezers, scissors, white paper, and a small nail scissor. then i offered olive and luna the opportunity to play with the roses. luna asked, "like a project or somethin'?" i talked with them about the flowers, called roses, and showed them the petals and the stems. we also talked about how soft the petals were and that there were so many layers of petals on each flower. i didn't give much else for instruction, just provided a lot of narrative and support when asked.

it was great to watch both girls dive so whole heartedly into exploring the roses. they ripped and cut, and touched, and sniffed and smelled...they smeared them on the white paper ("it's like crayons!") and sprinkled them in the air("wooohoooo!!!"). they found the seeds in the center, and pulled them and apart and examined them.

THEN i put a table cloth on the floor with a big tin with a few inches of water in the bottom along with some measuring cups. luna quickly swept her arm across the table and dumped the petal confetti all over the floor. olive followed her lead and they began hauling the petals to the bucket. in the bucket of water the petals were mixed around, then scooped with cups, transferred to the tray, and then back into the bucket, mixed some more, and on and on...

when it was time to clean up they were just as eager to help. luna retrieved her snow shovel to shovel the mess, and olive helped with the broom and dust pan. it is now after 9pm and i have a bucket full of rose petals, water, dust and cracker crumbs sitting on my kitchen counter. not sure what to do with it....