Black and Pastel

There were wildflower walks to go on:
(along with a wildflower encyclopedia, of course, so that I can knowledgeably mis-identify each flower); some wandering jew to propagate:(it's pricey and a bit unnecessary, but I occasionally buy these propagation gel container kits because it just makes it that much easier to do this project with two wriggling and impatient girls), and, of course, five kittens to adore:
but in the past couple of days the girls and I have also had time to develop a newfound love for pastel crayons. I've offered pastels to the girls a couple of times before, when they were younger, but I think that they were too young to appreciate the sometimes subtle difference between the pastel crayons and regular crayons, and the pastels were also a bit delicate for my boisterous artists.

However, we aquired another used set from Grandma Bangle (as opposed to our first used set, which was an old one of Matt's), and this time the girls were very stoked, especially at the color saturation, I think.

The girls also really like to use their pastels with black cardstock:

Not construction paper, and not textured cardstock, but plain flat cardstock or Strathmore black drawing paper with pastels is a pretty sweet combination.

P.S. I did some research, and what we have is apparently soft pastels, not hard pastels. I'm totally putting this set of 60 pastels on my wish list for after our used set of 10 has finished being worn down to itty little nubs.