Prehistoric lark

10:23am Tuesday 8th April 2008

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EMILY roared with delight like something from prehistory when she saw the advert in the newspaper.

Come and take part in the Dinosaur Dig at Eureka! this Easter, it read.

So we took her to the Halifax museum for children on Saturday, crossing the Pennines via the M62, through flakes of snow tumbling around us.

Emily was wearing her head-to-toe Tyrannosaurus Rex outfit as the advert promised all children attired as dinosaurs would get in free.

So we arrived in the dark satanic milltown and dashed across the slush-spattered car park, shivering like jelly, to Eureka!

And Emily was the only child -- I mean, literally, the only child -- sporting a dinosaur look.

It might have been disappointing, but it actually made it special for us, as Emily garnered so much attention. Parents asked where she'd got the suit from, other children gave admiring glances, while a security guard told her it was 'cool'.

The beam on her face was priceless.

It turned out she was only the second child during the entire Easter break who bothered to get into character.

So after filling up on Dinosaur food, we went to the Dinosaur Dig tent where we found a giant sand pit with hidden mock dinosaur skeletons which the children had to uncover, like palaeontologists, using little brushes.

Emily got stuck in.

Meanwhile, Matthew took to the sand pit like Lawrence of Arabia, managing to somehow tip half the Sahara into his nappy.

Gentle snores from T-Rex and the King of the Desert drifted from the back seats as we wended our way back across the snow-dusted M62 that evening.