Jurassic Party Animals

We celebrated L's 4th birthday yesterday. We decided to have it old school.

I mean very old school...

Like a couple of million-years-old school...

(When I say "Pre-Cambrian", I mean well before we honeymooned there.)

Stacy had the whole event planned out for weeks. The sweltering heat and the fact that I hadn't worked in the yard for a week or two did add to the whole overgrown jungle je no c'est quoi.

First there was a quick lunch of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. (Or at least Stacy said they were chicken. I've heard several dinoexperts suggest that dinosaurs were indeed very bird-like...) Then there were little dessert cups perfect for the budding palaeontologists: Chocolate pudding mud with crumbled Oreo dirt, complete with a couple of resting gummi-worms nestled within.

The reaction was mixed.

Then, (can you believe it!?!) we stumbled upon a massive dinosaur fossil site in our very own backyard. Our little sandbox, it seems, must have been an ancient dinosaur burial ground. We found several fossils and dozens of very well preserved, you could almost say plasticized, mini-dinosaurs. Luckily we had plenty of willing volunteers to work the archaeological site. The haul was incredible.

(I personally was more worried about "fossil records" left by our neighbors' kitty cats, but the ultraterritorial dinos must have kept them at bay.)

After a hard day in the fossil pits there's nothing to rally the spirits like a good, rousing game of:

Next there was the dreadful eruption of Mt. Vistacyus.

The only downturn to the day was a brief one centered around the playing of an ill-conceived version of musical chairs we called... the EXTINCTION GAME!!!



Not exactly the kind of thing to try with a bunch of 3 and 4 year-olds. On the very first round, the first little species eliminated burst into inconsolable tears and hid in her mother's arms for the rest of the party. There was a similarly Darwinian response from the next extinction. Sensing that survival of the fittest was not a preschool friendly concept, we abandoned the effort after the third endangered guest was snuffed out. I wonder if it was this traumatic for the dodo?

The global crisis was averted with the serving of cake - or should I say, the ritual slaughter of one small stegosaurus! (OK. Maybe I shouldn't. We got into enough trouble with the extinction game.)



At some point in the day there was a jungle siting of the extremely rare Velosodaddy. These voracious carnivores, while ferocious eaters, are rather inaptly named, considering there aren't too many velocities these large creatures can attain without being thoroughly winded.

But they are dreadful nonetheless.

But in spite of all the cataclysmic upheavals, it was truly a party for the eons.

As all great eras do, the Partiozoic Era was soon a thing of the past and L was allowed to put on her dino-jammies and play with her toys for a bit before going into a characteristically mammalian hibernation state.


I'm pretty sure this must be the most humiliated T-rex to walk the planet. It would likely consider extinction a pleasure...


Ahhhh! Asleep on the primordial sea of dreams... and blue balloons.