DIY: Find It

Have you seen these precious Find It game/toys at the book and toy stores?

I am going to admit that I am a sucker for toys that double as an educational experience.     This container contains 47 items hidden in colored pellets.   You have to shake, find, twist and turn to find every item.   It is an awesome toy for riding in the car, a restaurant or in a waiting room.

The problem?   The cost.    I could never justify the price of just one of these.     And I REALLY wanted to have one for each of my sweet nieces.    

So... I decided that I would try to make my own version.

The first thing I did was start scavenging around the house for objects.    As soon as I told the boys what I was doing, they were all in for helping me look.    The picture below is just a partial list of things we found. 

We knew we were going to need a "pellet" substitution so I grabbed some rice from the cabinet and asked the boys to help me color it.    We put 1 1/2 cups of rice each into three separate ziploc bags.    We added food coloring into the bags using red, blue and yellow.      The boys mixed it really well and then we poured it into a cookie sheet.    We baked at 170 degrees for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes.

Leaving our rice to cool.    We began filling our bottles with our objects.      We layered using objects, rice, objects, rice, etc...

 

(Little Guy had just gotten home from Upward Basketball and Big Guy from taking the ACT.  You notice they didn't even take time to change or take off coats.     As soon as they realized I was doing something for our twins, they wanted to help.     Can you tell we are all smitten?)

  

See how cute they look when they are all filled?    

 

Notice we put the girl's initial in each of their bottles.   

We tried to find several things with their initials on it for each of their bottles.

The one picture I didn't take?

The girls playing with their new Find It's!!