It's been so hot here that we've mostly been hiding inside - but I wanted to find some project that took advantage of the blazing sun! This little kit fit the bill perfectly:

It was so simple that Mollie could help with it, and it only took a few minutes at a time. Great for toddler attention spans! First we went on a walk to gather flowers and leaves from our yard...and our neighbors'. Thanks, neighbors! :)

We laid them on scrap paper and pressed them between our heaviest books overnight. The kit says you can use three-dimensional objects too, but I wanted to make sure we had good contrast for our first attempt. The next day we arranged the flowers on the blue pieces of paper included in the kit and moved them to the sun.  

This next part happened quickly! As you can see above, the sun started bleaching the blue paper right away...you're supposed to leave it in sunlight until the paper is almost white, which only took two or three minutes in our yard. Then you quickly take the flowers and leaves off, and submerge the papers in a big bowl of water for another minute. (It took so little time that there wasn't enough time to take pictures.) Then you take the papers out and lay them flat to dry. When you first take them out the color is a light blue, but as it dries you're left with this beautiful brightness!

 This is now one of my favorite projects - so simple and pretty! I'm already brainstorming what other fun objects we can use. I guess the lingering summer has its perks!