Dino-adventuring (a continuation)

Last weekend the kiddos came with me to see Auntie Carly and adventure around some hoodoos and dinos. Friends were also camping in the neighbouring site, which was fun. Unfortunately the mosquitoes sought to try our patience and coping skills and massive thunderstorms were a little rough on sleep, so we weren't our most happy the entire time...

BUT - if you were to ask the monsters, it was a great time. Thankfully kid memories are wonderful at focusing on what was great. I too shall try to do the same. 

Due to the crazy rain, we didn't get to go on the fossil safari we'd planned, but we went along on the alternative tour, which was fun too. 

The J-Man comparing his head to the size of the replica skull.

Our friend Derek was lost in the story or something... absent mindedly stroking the horns. 

The monster has been telling us for years that she's going to 'look at rocks' when she grows up. She's now
also considering bones. We were given a sample of stuff to sort through, to see what we see.
She's an expert sorter with way more focus than me. :)

Taking a closer look - fossilized poop is just SO cool, especially magnified.

In the exhibit hall, free from molesting mosquitoes, there was a chance for some more exploration.

Magnetic puzzles

Interpretive tent - where the walls talk!

In the afternoon we went to see Ali star in the Iron Stone Chef. It was fun. It teaches about the different kinds of fossils - and the kids were of course delighted with the trace fossil made from... you guessed it! Poop! The J-man was the applause master, which was also fun. It's great to see him all keen with a giant grin.

 The following day we had to go home, but thankfully the sun came out - and our very own guide took up on a mini-hike to find some dino-bones before going home. It was great. The kids were so excited by everything they saw.

Ironstone caps - so cool.

Pointing out the neat things he'd spotted.

Carly teaching us something cool. :)

The monster modelling a tooth. They're a smidge bigger than hers.

"Auntie Carly, what's this?"

Dino-faces!

Dino-faces again, taking by the monster. Scary, huh?

The flying of time

Sometimes it seems that time crawls, but lately it's flying, which is good in some ways. I've been working at the Nature Centre and the Zoo doing interpretation programs for kids for the last couple months and this week marks the shift from day programs, mostly with schools that would last a couple hours each, to week long camps. I can see the merit in both for sure, but I think camps are going to be a lot of fun.

When I was small - I participated (at least in my memory) in LOTS of cool summer stuff. I still have these vivid and delighted memories of making ice-cream, scones, and butter in my pioneer outfit at the John Walter Museum, or learning how sneak up on wildlife by walking silently through the forest at the Nature Centre. It's fun to get to be on the planning side now.

I'm working on a program this week called Forest Detectives. The small sleuths from the program have been presented their quandary - and now they are trying to solve the mystery of the missing garter snake! It appears he isn't lost - but has been kidnapped (or as a small sleuth pointed out - snakenapped!).

We made some log-books to keep track of our findings - all out of recycled stuff, with the exception of the binder clips. They're pretty fun - and it's great to get to watch them madly taking down their notes and compare with each other.

My log-book

 Just as we got our books made and started to try and track down some clues -  a somewhat menacing letter arrived! It confirmed it - Archie's not lost... he's stolen.

 

 We promptly created our: 

To record our findings. We've also been working on interrogating suspicious characters. Erin the Rabbit, the Queen Bee... It's just so hard to know who is telling the truth.

AND the letters keep coming! Who knows if we'll solve it... Poor Archie out there somewhere in the world, possibly all alone. I have faith in the little detectives though - even though keep accusing me of being a 'snake'napper.

I hope you're well - and enjoying your summer shenanigans! If you stole a snake... Give him back!

Peace to you~