The Five Days of Halloween

The "A Doll a Day" Theme for October has been the alphabet,

which of course, has 26 letters.

The remaining 5 days were assigned numbers.

I created a "Five Days of Halloween" Theme.

ADAD 27: 10/27/14
One Haunted Tombstone

ADAD 28: 10/28/14
Two Lalaloopsies in Halloween Costumes

ADAD 29: 10/29/14
Three Round Pumpkins

ADAD 30: 10/30/14
Four Black Cats

ADAD 31: 10/31/14
Five Halloween Treats

Happy Halloween!!!

Saturday Surprises

I love Saturday!
Saturday is my favorite day of the week

because I can relax, play, and do what I want to do.

This morning, Ella and I finished excavating and

assembling two dinosaurs.

After lunch, we took them outside to play.

They don't have names yet,
but I am learning more about photographing them.

They were very curious about Ella's ADAD photo project.

Today is a beautiful, warm Saturday

with yellow leaves falling in gentle breezes.

Y is for Yellow Leaves

The trees around the Rio Grande are finding their fall colors.

When we checked the mail, there was another surprise!
Ella's first order from Spampy had arrived!
It was time to model and play dress up inside.

Outdoor Casual

Christmas Pajamas

Spampy Fun

What a fun Saturday!

eXcavation part 3

We were up bright and early;

ready to free the dinosaurs!

There were just a few pieces left to excavate.

Ella went back to scraping and chiseling.

Look, I am almost done!

There are just two pieces left in the clay!

The plastic skeleton provides an interesting color and texture

difference with the clay.

We are all done excavating the pieces!

Next step?

Rinse out the dusty pants!

Aren't you going to help me assemble my pet skeleton dinosaurs?

Yes.

Next step..rinse off the plastic dinosaur piecesand put them together!

What have I gotten myself into?!!!

eXcavation part 2

ADAD 24: 10/24/14

X is for eXcavation

Well, I thought it was a clever use of an "X".

Back to the Bones

Look! Two skulls and jaw bones!

Hmmmm...that's all?

Can you help me get these other pieces out of the clay brick?

Dust off these pieces...

I am such a strong paleontologist! 

Yes, this takes a lot of persistence and strength!

My Recommendation:

If you choose to do a "Dino Dig", be forewarned

that they can be very messy!
The best thing I did in this project was to use a low edged

cardboard box, remove the lid flaps,

line it with aluminum foil, and then put the cardboard flaps

back along the bottom.

When I am done, the whole dust pile can be discarded.

Meanwhile, back at the dig...
two skulls, a rib/front hand piece, and a leg piece

have been dug out.

More pieces of this two dinosaur set are visibly

sticking out of the clay brick, waiting to be revealed.

eXcavation part 1

With the arrival of the Re-ment Pose Skeleton

and Halloween coming up next week,
Ella thought it would be a perfectly good and reasonable

idea to adopt a dinosaur skeleton as a pet.

The best selection seemed to be most available

through "dinosaur dig" type kits, where participants scratch,

chisel, dig and brush their way through a chunk of hard, dusty clay

to find the tiny "dinosaur" bones.

After reading the reviews regarding the final product

(the quality of the actual completed dinosaur),

we chose the set by Geo Safari.

********

It arrived on time to play a role in our ADAD for October,

featuring the letters of the alphabet.

W is for Waiting

What do you  mean 'I have to wait' before we can free my new pet dinosaurs?!!!! Did you know that if you didn't make me wait, we could have released them by yesterday, and yesterday's ADAD could have read 'V is for Velociraptors'! But no... we have to WAIT!!!    

*********

After work, I lined a low cardboard box with aluminum foil
and the cardboard lid flaps that I had removed
to create a work area. Then, I opened the Dino Dig box.

This set comes with a clay brick with plastic fossils,

wax, a chisel type tool, a brush, a booklet, and a label.

The booklet includes information about velociraptors

as well as information about how to use this set.

Let's get started already!!!!

We were ready to start chiseling away at the clay brick.

Do you see anything yet?

Look! Dinosaur bones!!!!

Look at how many pieces I am finding!

Brush the dust off carefully so you don't break the skeleton.

 I see the tail and ribs and a head!!!

Look how well you are doing!

Keep digging!!!

You did not tell me that this was going to take a long time,

be messy, and be a lot of work!!!

Yes, the directions say that it will take  HOURS.

You can stop for the night if you want.

The dinosaurs will wait until we have more time this weekend.