Treasure Box

Yesterday, my friend Abbi posted a blog on a fun craft project she found.  The recipe was simple: rice, alcohol, and food coloring.  I knew this would be something Knox would love, so we set out to make our own version last night!

First, the recipe:

I used a 5-lb bag of rice.  The ingredients are 4 cups rice, 3 Tbsp alcohol and 2 Tbsp food coloring per batch.  I made two colors, and to be honest, I just guesstimated on the measurements.

I decided to make a dark blue, an orange and then the third color was just the naked white rice.

Once you've mixed all of the rice up, pour it on the cookie sheet to dry in the sun for about 15 minutes.  Once dry, you can pour it into your treasure box and begin the fun.

Here are the "treasures" we used...all from the dollar bin in Target.

All three colors before mixing:

And after:

I did the mixing and such after Knox had gone to bed.  

The first thing out of his mouth when he woke up was "I wanna see the RICE!"

He was so excited...

Love that chubby hand!

He played for a solid 30 minutes before we went for a run.  Once home, it was the first thing he wanted to do. 

Daddy showed him how cool it feels for it to run over your hand.  He has done this a million times since.

I could just melt at that smirk.  He was so excited to find a purple fuzzy.

And then a red one. 

I've since added loose change found in a junk drawer, a random button and some small cars.  He has played  BY HIMSELF for over an hour.  And I've vacuumed about 50324234 times.  But it's totally worth it.  All I hear now is "I wanna play it more.  Where did the rice go."

Go on...get you some rice and make a treasure box!