Elise has become kind of obsessed with treasures, treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, and generally hiding things. She is constantly inventing “games” related to finding treasures and hiding things like her hairbrush in the mornings before school. Fun times.
I’ve been wanting to create a time capsule with her for a while and thought now would probably be the perfect time. Treasure = time capsule. It’s all the same to a four-year-old.
We collected trinkets from around the house: a rock, some figurines, a couple of 2013 coins. I had her draw a picture of our family (what, you didn’t recognize us?), and we threw in one of her sunprints from a couple of months ago that was hanging around.
We also took a few photos with my Fuji Instax Mini camera, which was a birthday gift from my brother. I’m ashamed to say I really hadn’t played around with it until now, but I suppose I was a little tied up in early March.
We put all the treasures inside a well washed small glass jar…
And then to prevent the metal lid from rusting, we slipped it inside a plastic Ziploc bag.
We dug a small hole in the backyard…
and buried our treasure!
I drew a simple map to lead us to the time capsule in the future. I hope it will be enough for us to find it. Or I guess I could take the Walter White approach and get a lottery ticket with the GPS coordinates. Either way.
Me: Do you think that we’ll come find this treasure when you’re 20 years old?
Elise: No, we’ll come find it when I’m 18.
OK, then. 2027 it is.
At the last minute, I put one of our homemade stepping stones on top as a marker. I can’t say it will stay here forever, but knowing me, it will be here at least a few years. And maybe then I can find a better way to mark the spot.
