simple uses for bottle tops

Have you got a friend you've never actually met? Someone you've met maybe online? Through a blog? Someone who lives a million miles away, and quite possibly the stars wont ever align for you to ever met them, And yet you cant imagine it never happening???
I have :) Kim is amazing. I started reading her blog and she started reading mine. I feel like I know her and her family. I read whats happening in her life through her blog ( and now facebook) and I am thankful for her never ending encouragement and comments ( they mean the world to me... hint hint)on this little blog.
I have known for a little while that she was collecting some bits and pieces to send here ( I love cool things from America!! especially Kool Aid)

( We are secretly squirreling away Australian treasures to send back once I get my butt into gear)

Exciting day for us yesterday... I recieved a huge box FULL of goodies for my little cherubs from my gorgeous friend.
I waited until Jumeirah got home from school to open it and seriously, my kids thought it was Christmas :)

My favourite was these cool foam in a can stuff ( yet to be opened, I am rationing out the awesomeness), but their favourite was these punch ball balloons. Now, I have seen them in Australia somewhere but we've never had them and my kids thought they were the best things EVER. Very hard to get photos of :)


It got me thinking.... maybe its time for another card swap?? I know we did a postcard one which was heaps of fun, is anyone keen to do another one? Or something different?? Maybe a sew along to make and then send on? Hmmm.. Im kinda keen really :) Let me know in the comments if you'd be interested and I will see what I can come up with... ( Im thinking sew along with something simple.... but am happy with card swap if no one else is THAT keen)

For the last few weeks I have been collecting plastic bottle tops. I have a whole heap of ideas on how to use them for different activities, but today we used them for a counting game. I set out the cool numbers I have ( they are filled with liquid and glitter... I LOVE them) and gave Jared and Amahli the bottle tops. I asked them to pick a number and then count out the bottle tops to match it. Really simple, but its really fun!!

Jared did a whole heap of them, he counted out each lot of numbers and lined them up with the right number.

Amahli is slowly getting to learn each number but had a great time sorting out the colours of the tops. ( another activity for another day, shes ahead of me again)

Easy simple learning made fun :)