May 4, 2014 Crystal Clark

Backyard "Dino" Dig

"Mom, when can we go dig up dinosaur bones."

The immediate answer was, "I dont know. Maybe when you are all older we can go on a dinosaur dig vacation.
End of conversation.

But really, that simple question from my 5-year-old, got the old hamster wheel turning in this crazy brain of mine. I started thinking maybe there would be a way that I could fulfill his wishes on a small scale.

The dinosaur play has been an on going fascination this Winter/Spring. As soon as the snow melted, the play dinosaurs have lived on the sand pile in our backyard. (Yes, I said sand pile. In classic Clark fashion, nothing is ever done half way. A shallow sand box would never cut it.)

So what would I need to create a dino dig? Well, bones. That shouldnt be so hard. I put the word out about what project I had in mind and WOWEE my brother-in-law showed up with these!

I buried them in the sand and left a couple of ends of the bones showing, to give the boys a starting point. I provided different size shovels and stiff paint brushes for them to dig out and clean the bones off. And finally I told them that I heard some kids were finding dinosaur bones in their own back yard, maybe someday they would too!

It didnt take them long to spot the two bones sticking out. Once the first bone was out and they realized what was going on, they dug like crazy to find more. I didnt put any of them real deep but wish I would have made it harder for them to find.

After they found all the bones, my 5 and 3-year-old had the idea to take turns reburying them for each other to find. And now they are plotting how they want to do it again when friends come to play. Looks like we will have a dino-rific Summer!