Joyfully Weary

On Saturday we hosted a Dino Dig to celebrate the boys' birthdays. I had planned for it to be an outdoor party. Upon arrival each child was going to receive a bucket with a shovel and a brush. We had buried dinosaur fossils in the sand for them to excavate. We also had planned a dinosaur egg hunt & made footprint stencils for them to color with chalk. The days leading up to the party were spent making decorations and that morning we rushed to set everything up. Dinosaur foot prints leading the way to the party Clothes line turned dino banner and lunch area About fifteen minutes before the party was scheduled to start we realized it was definitely going rain so we rushed to move everything inside or to the front porch.  Then just as guests began to arrive it started to rain  STORM. Dino footprints washing away Jeremy and his dad ready to escort guests inside I was extremely thankful that we had decided to move everything before the party...

Josiah is pretty certain he's going to be a paleontologist when he grows up.  Not only can he name dozens of dinosaurs but he can tell you tons of facts about each one - like if they are a herbivore or carnivore. Instead of riding his bike or playing ball, he has spent the summer discovering "fossils" around our yard.  He's quite satisfied with pretending our broken sidewalk is fossils but I thought I'd try my hand making it a little more realistic. So last week we buried and excavated a toy dinosaur. Burying the dinosaur 1- w ater, 2 old plastic bowls, plaster of paris, coffee grounds, d ollar store dinosaur,  Cooking Spray  2 & 3-    m ix plaster according to instructions  adding coffee grounds 4-   pour 1/2 plaster in to bowl, wait about 3-5 minutes until plaster is thick,  spray dinosaur with cooking oil & set in plaster, pour remaining plaster over dinosaur, let set over night ** before using Plaster of Paris: make sure ...