I Spy Bottle

I've been meaning to make one of these for Raina for a while now... I just needed to get my behind to TJ Maxx to get a $2 bottle!  Instead, I had my mom get one, because it was faster :)  Usually when I go to TJ's I pick up this bottle, walk around for a while, touch things, and by the time I finally get to the registers, the lines are so long that I can't stand the thought of waiting in iine for one measly bottle... so I put it down and leave.  (And then regret it later!)

But I got it.  Finally.  I walked around my house, finding tiny things to put in the bottle.  It took me very little time to find an assortment of things that are treasures to 3 year olds and choking hazards to 5 month olds!  Here's what I ended up with:

I put a layer of plain white rice in the bottom of the bottle, dropped in a few tiny treasures, put in more rice, a few more treasures... you get the idea!  When I had no more treasures, I filled with rice up to a few inches below the top of the bottle.  It was a very exact measurement.  Ha!  I put the lid on, shook it to make sure it was a good amount of rice, then hot glued the lid on.  My husband took one look at it and said, "That looks like a disaster waiting to happen!"  I waved the glue gun at him, and he hissed and jumped back.  Just kidding :)  He sighed a sigh of relief reserved for the only one who wields a vacuum at our house!  (He was also quite worried about the water/glitter/sequins bottle I made for Raina a few years ago, but she never even TRIED to get that one open!)

Before I put the treasures in, I made sure to take a picture of each teeny treasure individually - a good close up.  I'm having these printed, and then I'll attach them with a ring and keep them with the bottle.  I figure at first she'll mostly be interested in shaking the bottle and finding things on her own (and trying to open it, who am I kidding?!), but maybe in a few months she'll be ready to use it as more of a game.  I think it could be a fun car game!

Here are my thought bubbles on this one:

*Maybe make bingo cards out of the individual pictures?  I'm sure I can make it work somehow

*Alphabet or number versions (using beads, dice, anything printed with a letter or number).  Kids have fun searching for each letter/number, crossing it off as they find it, or even trying to find them in the correct order?

*themed bottles

*using colored rice instead of white and all white objects (I'm dying to try the colored rice project! You can find it on my Pinterest!)

*I'm trying to look through my pictures and see if I have an object for each letter of the alphabet... could be another fun variation as Raina gets older!  "Find me something that starts with "A!"