Beautiful, Fun and Educational Ways to use all Those Flowers

 Aren't these flowers gorgeous?! My husband has been bringing me roses since we were sweethearts in high school (many moons ago).I always love these elegant blooms and wish I could enjoy them longer. My two-year-old daughter is also currently enamored with flowers.  Not wanting to let go of these beautiful roses even once they were past their prime, I came up with some ways my daughter and I could enjoy their beauty for a little while longer. First of all, any blooms that start to droop or wilt early get plucked from the vase. I separate the petals and place them in a shallow bowl of water.  This gives them several more days of being on display.Next, I tried out some activities that allowed Pooky to play with the petals.A simple, but fun activity for toddlers is a sensory sink.  Pooky loves flowers and bubbles.  Put them together and voila! Instant giggles! Pooky saw me starting to separate the petals from the rose buds, and insisted on getting in on the action. She loved tearing the flowers apart and then splashing with them in the sink. Another activity we did with the drooping rose buds was make a "stained glass" window decoration.  I've been seeing this concept all over the internet lately, but this was the first time we attempted it.I'm happy to report that it was a simple, yet successful craft for Pooky and this not-so-crafty mama.  Our version of this craft started with Pooky tearing apart one whole rose blossom (which she thoroughly enjoyed). Then I put a heart-shaped cut-out of contact paper in front of her (sticky side up).  I showed her how to press the petals onto the contact paper, and she took it from there. Once the sticky heart was covered by the petals, I put another heart shaped cut-out of contact paper on top and sealed the petals in. Then we taped it to the window. Pooky loves the feel of it.I'm not really sure why we waited so long to do this kind of craft project.  Pooky seemed to really enjoy the process. It's so simple, I know we'll be doing it more.One more kid-centered activity we did with our drooping petals was a counting craft.I saw a great flower counting printable by From ABCs to ACTs a couple weeks ago that I immediately downloaded since Pooky has been starting to work with numbers. When I was trying to think of ways to repurpose our beautiful blooms, I was inspired to modify this printable to use real petals instead of paper cut-outs.This activity provided great practice of fine motor skills and counting, and it was fun for Pooky.There are some more grown up ways to prolong the enjoyment of your blooms too.You can simply hang the flowers upside down to dry in order to keep the bouquet as a memento.       (I did this with my bouquet from our high school prom, and had them for years.) You could also use those dried flowers to make a homemade potpourri. There are several recipes online, but I liked this one from Savvysugar.com because you can customize it to whatever you have on hand. Another way to make your enjoyment of those blooms long-lasting is to press and frame them.  Krokotak shares a simple explanation of how to do this.And finally, probably the most useful way you can repurpose those old blooms is to compost them.  The very end of their life cycle can be the beginning of another flower's life cycle.  Isn't that a beautiful thought!