Earlier this week, my family traveled to a friend’s lake house. There were three families that stayed there and a total of four kids. I wanted to bring an activity that would be interesting for everyone. The two older girls (ages 4 and 6) were willing to make something for the babies (ages 14 months and 10 months). After looking through my Pinterest board, I decided to do I Spy bottles. I thought they’d be fun for the older girls to make, and that everyone would enjoy playing with them.

Before our trip, I gathered all the supplies needed for the bottles. I bought a six pack of Voss water bottles at Target, some rice from the grocery store, and a bunch of small items and a pack of funnels at the dollar store. I also searched my house for other small objects and Gorilla Glue.

I laid out all of the materials for our bottles out on a table for the older girls to access. I told them to pick out things to put in each bottle. Once they had chosen their items, we laid them out and I took a picture. That picture will be laminated and used to play the I Spy game. (Can you find the bell?) I didn’t give the girls a number of objects to select, but I wish I had. If I were to do it again, I would put in more objects to make the bottle a little more difficult to solve.

After we took the picture, all of the items were put in each bottle. Then we used the funnel to fill it with rice. I left extra space at the top so that the contents have room to roll around. I used Gorilla Glue to make sure the bottles stay sealed and the contents stay inside. I also used a permanent marker to write each child’s initial on the bottom of each bottle.Both girls had a lot of fun making the bottles, and everyone enjoyed playing with them. Buddy has pulled his out several times since we’ve come home. He loves the sound it makes! As he gets older, I’m sure he’ll enjoy finding the different items as well.

I would love to hear other ideas for activities for multiple ages for our next gathering with kid friends!