Microraptors and other stuff

We're a dino house, at the moment.  Have been for some time now.  When Niamh gets "into" something, she really gets into it.

First, there was the balloon phase, in which our entire house was covered in balloons for much of the time.

Next came the ball phase.  Ditto, with some balloons thrown in for good measure.

Then ducks.  (This photo was of her standing with her "goose" stick.  Which we had to leave in NSW.  Causing much angst.)

Then penguins.

And now, of course, dinosaurs.  (Or as they are sometimes known here, "bloody dinosaurs."  Especially when stepped on in the dark.  Not that I don't fully support her expensive, loud and at times incredibly painful and annoying obsession...)

Masses of plastic dinosaur figurines are one thing.  But today, we decided to make one of Niamh's favourite dinosaurs, the microraptor.  This spiffy little dinosaur was a bit of an evolutionary experiment - a four-winged, feathered dinosaur who could glide from tree to tree.  It was a bit of an on-the-hop activity, hence the questionable quality of the final result.  Materials to hand consisted of 3 toilet rolls, some aluminium foil, some feathers and some popsicle sticks.  So - not much.  Not enough, in hindsight.  But we did have fun anyway.  Mine looked a bit like a robot and a chicken had somehow managed to produce a robot rainbow chicken child with locked-in syndrome...but that's a whole other story.

Colouring in the body with permanent markers (toilet roll wrapped in aluminium foil)

Final product (feathers on popsicle sticks for the wings and legs).  This one was Niamh's.

And mine.  Go on.  Laugh.  I dare you.  I choked half to death on feathers to make this thing.  I suffered.

Mama, make me an incisivosaurus.

Yeah, sorry, Niamh.  Mama just isn't very good at making dinosaurs.  But I can make you into a princess:

Well.  Almost.



Oh, and in case you're wondering if we sit around all day, making crafty things and drilling ourselves on dinosaur facts, I must ruin the illusion.  I spent at least twenty minutes today throwing cusions at Niamh's butt, which was pointed in my direction, trying to make one stick on top.  Okay, so apparently she was a Bruhathkayosaurus and I was supposed to be a Gorgosaurus, but aside from the semantics, it was basically a mother pegging cushions at a child for 20 minutes.  Yep.  That's just how classy we are.