4th Birthday Volcano Cake with Fondant Dinosaurs

Our older son just turned four and asked for a volcano cake with dinosaurs. We had great fun making this!

I baked two chocolate sponge cakes which we cut into a volcano shape and poured melted chocolate over. Once the chocolate set we added red fondant lava.

I made a T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Dimetrodon, Triceratops, Parasaurolophus and Pterodactyl from colored fondant. We had a very happy four year old!

More detail and more dinosaur cakes:

Snow is coming - time for a sled!

The weather is getting very wintery! Last year it was tricky to buy a sled locally once the snow arrived so this year we're prepared and I've bought the boys a red sled each. If it doesn't snow before Christmas they'll get them as Christmas gifts.

View sleds:

Dinosaur Games for Little Kids

Lots of new games added at Dinosaur Games for Kids including Dino Dig games and Dinosaur Arcade Games:

DinosaurEgg on Squidoo

Visit DinosaurEgg to see what we've been up to over on Squidoo. Lots of stuff on dinosaurs, of course: dinosaur costumes, dinosaur coloring, dinosaur cakes and dinosaur timeline are some of the most popular pages at the moment.

The Dinosaur Coloring Store

The Dinosaur Coloring Store is open! We've got loads of dinosaur coloring books; dinosaur posters, puzzles and T-shirts to color. Loads of dinosaur coloring activities include dinosaur masks and even dinosaur stained glass coloring!

Dinosaur Coloring - New Pages Added

We've added some new sections to our Dinosaur Coloring collection.

Paul Stickland Dinosaur Coloring. The dinosaur picture to the right is from the Paul Stickland collection. Stickland is the illustrator of the brilliant Dinosaur Roar

We've also added a set of T-Rex coloring pages.

While we love all dinosuars Tyrannosaurus Rex is the most requested.

Have fun. Raah!

Torosaurus = Mature Triceratops?

Paleontologists recently reported evidence that Torosaurus not a separate species, but the mature form of the popular Triceratops dinosaur. Can we keep using the name Triceratops? Read on to find out ...

Create a Dinosaur Bedroom for a dino fan.

We've put together some great ideas for creating a prehistoric dinosaur themed bedroom that young dinosaur fans will love.

It's got a bed with dinosaur bedding that they'll be keen to get into. Lots of matching dinosaur accessories. And don't forget a flying pterosaur!

Take a look at our Dinosaur Bedroom.

Early Retirement Extreme Book by Jacob Lund Fisker

The brand new Early Retirement Extreme book is available from Amazon.

Early Retirement Extreme: A philosophical and practical guide to financial independence by Jacob Lund Fisker.

This book will change your life. Seriously. Read our page about the Early Retirement Extreme book to find out why.

Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart Pop Up Books

We've recently discovered the amazing pop up books of Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart. These guys are real artists and paper engineers who obviously love their craft and their subject matter.

This video gives a great introduction to their work:

Seriously, take a look - these guys are brilliant. And it's not just for kids.

We've put together some pages covering their work:
Encyclopedia Prehistorica - Dinosaurs, Sharks, Mega-Beasts
Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy
Robert Sabuda - Pop Up Artist
Matthew Reinhart - Pop Up Artist
DC Super Heroes: Ultimate Pop Up Book
Introduction to Sabuda and Reinhart Pop-Up Books - Surprise!
Beauty & the Beast: A Pop-up Book of the Classic Fairy Tale

Save Energy at Home - 10 Step Plan

We've managed to reduce our electricity usage quite significantly this year.



To help others reduce their electric bills we've written the Save Energy at Home 10 Step Plan .

Terra Nova - Spielberg's New Dinosaur Drama

Steven Spielberg's new prehistoric dinosaur drama is set to film in Queensland, Australia. We've got all the latest news over at Terra Nova.

Best Dinosaur Coloring Pages, Books and Paint Games

We've been doing lots of dinosaur coloring recently. So I've collected together the best dinosaur coloring pages so they're all in one place. Also included are online dinosaur paint games and dinosaur coloring books.

Have fun.

Halloween Dinosaur Costumes - Raah

We've been thinking about Dinosaur Costumes for Halloween.


No, not that sort! We mean dinosaur costumes for kids (and adults) to dress up in for Halloween.

We've put together this page full of Halloween Dinosaur Costumes - Raah . Which one will you make or buy?

Dinosaur Cakes

This is the Triceratops Cake that we made for DS1's third birthday:


His fourth birthday is coming up and we've been looking for ideas for another dinosaur themed cake.

At the moment DS1 is asking for a Volcano cake with dinosaurs. We found a very cool one.

Here's our page on how to Make a Dinosaur Cake. We've found lots of brilliant ideas. Some easy, some beyond our skills!

Dinosaur Timeline

[graphic created by DinosaurEgg]

We had been talking about which dinosaurs were around and the same time as other dinosaurs and which dinosaurs came first and I realized I didn't know much! So I researched the dinosaur timeline, found lots of interesting facts and put together the Dinosaur Timeline page.

Hope you learn something!

Take the Dinosaur Quiz

Think you know all about dinosaurs? Know your Tyrannosaurus Rex from your Parasaurolophus? Can tell a herbivore from a carnivore? Are you full of dinosaur facts?

Try it at: Dinosaur Quiz.

Dinosaur Games for Kids

Just created a Dinosaur Games for Kids guide:

Our favorite dinosaur game so far is Diego Dinosaur Rescue:

Dinosaur Train

We've recently discovered the Dinosaur Train Kids TV Series from PBS. Very cool.



More details at our Dinosaur Train page.

Note for UK readers: Dinosaur Train hasn't been released in the UK yet, but the above guide tells you how to get hold of the Dinosaur Train DVD: Dinosaurs Under the Sea, and also Dinosaur Train books.

Jonathan Miller

I'm a big Jonathan Miller fan. It's amazing that someone can be so productive in so many different fields. It's his atheism advocacy that first brought him to my attention several years ago and I started watching and listening to anything with him in.

I met Jonathan Miller once. I saw him queuing for the same flight as me. I was rather excited when I realized I had the seat next to him. Fascinating guy. I was rather star-struck!

I recently watched Laurie Taylor's interview with Jonathan Miller and it inspired me to put together a guide to Jonathan Miller. Enjoy.

British Dinosaurs

DS1 and I had a discussion about which dinosaurs came from our country (Britain). I started looking into this and got a bit carried away resulting in the following resource about British Dinosaurs. I think I should be able to keep ahead of DS1's questions on this topic for a while.

Dinosaur Songs

The boys both love dinosaurs and are starting to enjoy music. We had fun finding dinosaur songs to listen to.
Johnny Cash's Dinosaur Song is my favourite. The Dinosaurs Song from Big Green Rabbit is superb and has an accompanying animation.

See our Dinosaur Songs collection and vote for your favourite.

PV Solar Panel Payback Calculator

We've made a PV Solar Panel Payback Calculator which you can use to work out what return you could get by investing in solar panels versus leaving the cash in a savings account.

Here's an example graph for a 3.76kWh system with the following assumptions:
Cost of system = 3.76 x 4000 = £15040
System output: 3008 kWh/year
Tax rate: 40%
Savings rate: 5%
RPI: 3%
Annual increase in elec cost: 6%
Percentage of generated electricity which is used: 50%
Cost of a unit of electricity: 12p
And we'll won't treat the solar panels as an asset (i.e. we'll say they have 100% initial depreciation).

3.76kWp Solar PV Payback

Try the PV Solar Panel Payback Calculator with your figures and see if you can make money.

Dinosaur and Wildlife Park - Combe Martin

We had a brilliant time at the Dinosaur and Wildlife Park in Combe Martin when we visited North Devon earlier this year.

We've written up a Dinosaur and Wildlife Park review.

Winchester with Kids Google Map

We've created a new Winchester with Kids google map. We've included museums, children's playgrounds, landmarks, toyshops and other places to visit if you live in Winchester or are visiting with kids.

Haven't had chance to add photos yet, but will do.


View Winchester with Kids in a larger map

Dinosaurs Unleashed at the BIC

Dinosaurs Unleashed is currently on at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC). We paid a visit and wrote up a Dinosaurs Unleashed Review with photos and planning tips.

Extract: "When we arrived in the BIC there were two large moving dinosaurs in the foyer. These dinosaurs are in a public area so can be viewed without paying. If you're not sure if your children will enjoy the exhibit and you live near by, taking them to see these dinosaurs would be a great way to test the waters.

The kids watched these dinosaurs while I went to buy tickets which was excellent. Luckily there were no queues, but they would have been happy there for a while."

Read more about our visit to Dinosaurs Unleashed at the BIC.

Bolderwood, New Forest, Hampshire

We've just had a lovely afternoon at Bolderwood - New Forest. We saw lots of deer and really enjoyed the forest. We've put together a write up with photos.

Here's an extract: "We've lived near the New Forest for over ten years and visited the forest many times, but we'd never made it to Bolderwood before. We were reminded about it at a stand at the New Forest Show where one of the rangers told us that they feed the deer between 2 and 4 each afternoon and you have a really good chance of seeing them."

Read more about our trip to Bolderwood - New Forest

Payback for Solar pv

We've written a squidoo lens on how to evaluate payback of solar pv panels in the UK. We cover how the government feed in tariffs work. And show how to calculate whether solar pv makes sense for you.

Extract "The UK government has recently introduced Feed-In-Tariffs (FiTs). FiTs provide tax-free, index-linked payments for 25 years. These payments mean that it can actually make financial sense to install photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on your roof. It won't make you rich, but when considered along with the environmental benefits it can be worthwhile.

The potential payout is dependent on many factors. We'll take you through the factors and give figures for some samples systems so you can get an idea of how much money you can make from solar PV."
Read more Payback of PV Solar Panels.

DinosaurEgg Roundup First Post

This blog will provide a summary of what we're up to on the web. With pointers to stuff we've done.

General themes include
- family and children
- days out and things to do with kids
- money saving and value for money
- home automation
- rational approach to life, humanism

Welcome to DinosaurEgg roundup.

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