Tag Archive | Planet Dinosaur

Microraptor

Time for our 4th Chinese dinosaur… the Microraptor. This carnivore was rather unique with its 4 winged limbs and its claws made especially for climbing. Not only was this dinosaur at home in the trees but it FLEW! With its full out feathers many have questioned if it is the link to birds! An early Cretaceous period dinosaur it was a predator in the air but in great danger on the ground.

Our video is from the series Planet Dinosaur.

Of course there are some links to share. Emanuel was rather enamored with the feathered back legs… there is a great image of that HERE. Dinosaurs.about.com shared their knowledge HERE. Dinosaur Facts has… well facts about our dinosaur HERE. The Natural History Museum has some points of interest HERE. National Geographic has an interesting 3D model on their site as well as an article HERE. Wiki has their informative article HERE. Discover – the Magazine of Science, Technology and the Future has a rather in depth article HERE. This article covers the colour and sheen of the feathers… we did not cover this as it was over Emanuel’s head but the bit I skimmed seemed very interesting! You can find our colouring page HERE.

Microraptor

Daspletosaurus

This “frightful lizard” was found in Alberta and Montana. A meat eater (much to Emanuel’s dismay), the Daspletosaurus was slightly smaller than the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Found in the late Cretaceous period it is thought to have some of the largest teeth of any known dinosaur. So while not as famous as the T-Rex it is a dinosaur of interest!

This dinosaur was featured in our Planet Dinosaur videos and while we could not load the images on the site, there is a great image of a hunter in action on the BBC site HERE. Of course Kidsdinos.com had their charts and graphs HERE. DinosaurKing has various statistics on this voracious hunter HERE. Dinosaurs.about.com has a brief entry HERE. Animal Planet has this dinosaur listed as only found in Canada but has a great picture of a fossilized skeleton HERE. There is a great human/dinosaur size comparison on Prehistoric Wildlife HERE. Of course Wiki has their entry HERE. And you can find out colouring page (though when Ken printed it for us it had the stamp across it, Emanuel was still happy) HERE.

Such a grin

Where We Need To Be

January 4-5

Ending the first week of the new year it was so nice to have it be on a high note – in the mail – Ken’s renewed passport! Now we just have to wait for the separate mailing of his old one. AND the even BIGGER news, the one I teased you all with at the end of 2012… Ken went in to sign the paperwork to finalize his employment as a lead programmer! Definitely an answer to our prayers, though a bit of a nervy thing for me. Ken has not worked outside of the home since right after Trinity was born! It is going to be quite the adjustment!

While Ken was gone Emanuel and Gavin set up to watch one of the movies Gammie sent us – Planet Dinosaur! They really enjoyed it… I think they watched almost 4 hours before becoming bored. So of course we had to draw pictures of their favourite parts… Gavin for his journal and Emanuel his dinosaur binder!

Watching the dinosaurs

The movie

Illustrations from the movie

Life seems, right lately… now don’t get me wrong, I personally am lonely and it is no simple task to keep the boys occupied and learning with stuff in storage and items downsized drastically… but we are where we need to be. That has become glaringly clear with how happy Ken is, with the kids’ interactions with their American family members… with how we are figuring things out. Now this is NOT forever, but for NOW and NOW we need to be HERE. I am just working to really wrap my head around that.

Trinity and Echo gaming together

We had some time of creativity as well… Emanuel made us long necked dinosaurs out of Lego.

LEGOS

And then Echo forced the issue and got Nana and Baba out to see the snow creations in the back… She was determined to spend a little time in the snow. There was the completed structure.

Taking Nana to the backyard

Gavin and the igloo

And one they have just started with the block makers Ken and I picked up at Target recently. 

First layer down

Our Saturday was rather fun… it is the first one of January so Ken and his dad took the boys to their Home Depot free crafting activity. This time they made BIRD HOUSES! So along with the houses they also gained their newest pin for their aprons! Talk about proud boys.

The finished houses

My proud crafty boys

The boys even shared their Home Depot popcorn with the girls!

In the afternoon Ken and I had the opportunity to take just Emanuel and Trinity on a field trip to United Noodles… an Asian grocery. We were on the hunt for anything Japanese, well anything Asian and interesting. Sadly they did NOT have any Bento Boxes but Emanuel picked out some lovely chopsticks.

Fishy chopsticks

Trinity picked out Jelly straws… which were… squishy…

Jelly Straws

We also picked up some interesting chips, more of my noodles and some ideas of bowls and soup spoons that when we get our own home I am so going back for. The lovely ones you eat won tons with. Which has Ken interested in learning how to make our own won tons from scratch! So not finding a Bento Box was ok because we DID find treats and chopsticks and a place to come back to and hunt for hidden gems again! Ken of course came home and immediately hunted down a Chinese bakery… butter explosion buns were NOT to be had where we were. So, our next expedition will be there!

Very garlic-y

Of course the twins took our time away to play Skylanders… we are starting to majorly cut back their time on there now that the new toy has worn off a little bit. So a special day for all of the kids pretty much!

On a special field trip

This entry was posted on 08/01/2013, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments