Family Night #4

Last night was "dinosaur night" or loosely something along those lines.  We had "stegosaurus" ribs for dinner in honor of the carnivores and "triassic trees" (broccoli) in honor of the herbivores. 

Tell me it doesn't look like my smiley Rex just scarfed down a stegosaurus!

After dinner we let the girls dig for "fossils" (small dinosaur figures, shells, rocks, one real fossil from my own collection as well as a piece of petrified wood).  I bought a bag of moist play sand from Home Depot and poured it into a storage container with the items, added some slotted spoons, cups, and sieve.  The girls who have never had a real sand-box experience loved it and ended up making sand-castles too.  Afterwards, I just put the lid on the storage container to keep animals out and to save the fun for later.

We made "fossil" cookies by pressing some plastic insect figurines and shells into sugar cookie dough.  The imprints actually turned out really well. And finished the evening by reading a library book about fossils while eating ours. 

Comments

[Jessi]

Very creative! And I can't believe I never thought of doing that for a sand box! My boys love playing in sand, but I've always hated the fact they'd end up having to sit in it! This way is great!

[Audrey]

What great ideas! I will have to do this with my boys!

[Audrey]

What great ideas! I will have to do this with my boys!

[Linda]

I love this!!!

[wendy]

Dear T,
Please check the bag of play sand for a small (almost hidden) warning label on the back. All the bags that I saw last year at Home Depot had a VERY small warning label that it contained silica dust, a carcinogenic substance also known to cause birth defects.

This lead me to search high and low for non-toxic play sand. I have found only ONE company that manufacturers non-toxic play sand made from sterilized beach sand. It contains no silica.

For further info read this-
http://motherrising.blogspot.com/2007/03/whats-in-your-sandbox.html

Much love,
Wendy