Riding the Dinosaur Train

This weekend, Grasshopper, JR and I got to ride the Dinosaur Train at the Georgia Public Broadcasting studios in Midtown Atlanta.

We were invited because of this little blog, which is cooler than I can say. I've been pitched all sorts of things for review or mention here, and I've turned them all down (or merely ignored them) because that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to record snippets of my life and my family that would otherwise be forgotten, and to hopefully connect with other people experiencing similar things. Not to try out laundry detergent and then try to get y'all to buy it. [I have no problem with bloggers who do that (provided they Blog with Integrity, with or without the button) but it's just not why I'm in the blogosphere.]

But this opportunity, this was one that I could not pass up. You see PBS kids is going to be debuting a brand new television series for preschoolers on September 7 called Jim Henson's Dinosaur Train, and we were invited to be among the first people to watch the first 2 episodes, and meet Buddy the dinosaur, the star of the series.

As anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows, Grasshopper is a HUGE fan of dinosaurs, and I knew that this would be right up his alley. Combine that with my mommy-guilt over canceling our trip to Disney World (not that he even knew we were going) so that we can capitalize on our awesome adoption opportunity, and I jumped all over this invitation.

We had a fantastic time previewing the shows, ESPECIALLY once we found out that Buddy is adopted. He even said to another dinosaur child inquiring about his origins, "My Mom and Dad adopted me."

I'm not sure that Grasshopper caught that part of the story during his first viewing as he was so enthralled with everything going on and the knowledge that he would soon Meet.A.Dinosaur! But I know it will register once the series is on each morning, and JR and I are thrilled to have a young hero for our son who is proud of his status as a Chosen Child.

The characters are great, the music is infectious, and it had my three year old telling me, "Mommy, I have a hypothesis!" after just two episodes. I cannot wait to set my DVR for this awesome program since it will air primarily while Grasshopper is at school. There were kids in the audience from age 1 to about 6 and they all seemed to really enjoy the show and be learning a lot about dinosaurs, about science and about what it means to be part of a family.

Here are some of our photos from our fabulous day:


Watching the first episode


Tackling Buddy


Showing Buddy his favorite "Seratops"


Checking out Buddy's teeth, "Them not scary!"


Riding the "train" with Daddy


Trying to sit still for face painting

Thank you to GPB for all of the great children's programming and for inviting us to this fabulous event. We can't wait to ride the Dinosaur Train again.