Cherry Blossoms!

Cherry Blossoms will be in full bloom in April. Nothing says spring like blooming flowers and few flowers bloom as beautifully as cherry blossoms. As a kid my parents would take me to see the cherry blossoms. Now as a parent myself, I want to continue the tradition of welcoming the spring with a visit to see the cherry blossoms with my own children.

In order to get excited about spring (we don't need much, warm days, picnics, flowers), I decided to have my 6 year old do a cherry blossom art project. I got this idea while I was on the internet. I came upon this site (I wish I could remember the name). You know I am big into giving credit for other people's ideas. I thought I had saved the url, but I have not been able to find it. Any way, I just loved the simplicity this project.

All we needed was a large piece of white paper, brown and pink paint, a 2 liter soda bottle. We don't drink soda, so we used a 1 liter water/seltzer bottle instead.

I made an outline of the tree trunk and branches with paint (to make it easier for my daughter to paint). Then she painted the trunk and branches brown. Then we poured pink paint onto a paper plate and my daughter dipped the bottom of the water bottle in the paint and touched it to the paper. We got a nice pink flower. My daughter then randomly place pink flowers around the branches. It was a lot of fun to make and her art work is now decorating our house and bringing spring inside!

Here are some pictures of our project.