Pierce, Carter, and I had a blast picking a variety of different colored flowers. We also found some berries (I think grapes), that we used as well. Unfortunately, Carter fell asleep in the car on the way home, and Pierce was not going to wait to make these until Carter woke up. Pierce was way too excited for that.
I had Pierce take guesses in terms of which flower would be the darkest, the lightest, and what color their pigment would make. He had a lot of fun guessing. Then we started picking the petals off one by one and sorting them by color into various containers.
Now I needed something that would cause the pigment to run out of the petals, and into the water. I did not want to use vinegar, since the flowers smelled way too fantastic. Instead, we used boiling water and a masher. I poured the water into the dishes, and Pierce got to work mashing the petals to help release the pigments.
And here was the hard part; we had to wait for them to cool off before we could use them. And what is the best way to not obsess over it? Convince your 3 year old to take a nap, because it would make the time go faster. Yes!
Once both boys woke up from their naps, we got to work straining the petals and getting ready to paint. I was a little surprised that the purple flowers were not as vibrant as we had thought it would be. And the yellow flowers turned more to a brown color than a yellow color.
And here was the reactions and the fun part. Paint time!
While we were in Rhode Island the last 5 days, Pierce kept asking what color do you think this flower would make? And he desperately wanted to make more water colors. I think next time we are going to experiment with leaves. After all, fall is coming. Right?
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