Kansas couple stage absurd scenes using their children's plastic dinosaurs and await their confused reaction when they wake

Parents Refe and Susan Tuma hit upon a creative way to entertain their four children

Dinovember has now become a web hit with more than 75,000 'likes' on Facebook

Other parents are now doing the same thing and posting their results to the page


When sleep deprived parents Refe and Susan Tuma decided to pose their children's toy dinosaurs to make it look like they were coming to life at night they sparked a family tradition and a global internet craze.

The couple, from Kansas City, US, started Dinovember last year as a way to encourage Adeia, six, Alethea, five and Leif, two to sleep through the night.

With the promise of seeing what the dinosaurs had been up to the next morning the children slept through the night, looking forward to their morning surprise.



And after sharing their pictures on Facebook, parents all over the world are joining in by sharing their creative results.



Refe and Susan's aim is to convince the children that their toys came to life while they were asleep. Here the pesky prehistorics are seen spraying graffiti all over the walls of the family's home

During the month of November the couple's children wake up to find the dinosaurs looking like they have caused new mayhem every morning.

The mischief the dinosaurs have so far 'caused' includes, painting graffiti on the walls, unraveling the toilet paper in the bathroom and breaking eggs all over the family's kitchen floor.

In one slightly darker scene, the dinosaurs appear to be torturing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure, in an image reminiscent of gangster drama The Sopranos.



Bathroom blast: The children awoke on this November morning to find that their plastic toys had made a gargantuan toilet paper mess in the bathroom

Perhaps these dinosaurs thought they would have Jurassic japes by smashing eggs all over the kitchen floor?

Here the dinosaurs look like they were trying to make amends by cooking breakfast, but with disastrous results

This is the second year that the couple have staged Dinovember, which is now being enjoyed by their new baby Amarie too.

They have used the children's own toys to create the scenes, some of which belonged to stay-at-home-mum and artist Susan when she was a child.



Refe, 27, who works as a writer, said: 'It started when our son who was one at the time wasn't sleeping through the night.

'We were all tired through the day after being up all night and we found ourselves putting the kids in from of the TV and not engaging in the way we wanted to be with them.

Even washing up is a Jurassic lark in the Tuma household, with these dinosaurs ready to lend a hand

The dinosaurs are clearly more refined than a prehistoric picnic, and look like they hosted a lovely late night tea party while the children are asleep

Smash and grab: The Tuma's young children no doubt had something to say when their toys raided the sweetie jar

'One night Susan my wife put the dinosaurs in the bathroom sink to make it look like they were brushing their teeth.

'The next morning Adeia came running in and told us all about it and really believed it, it just carried on from there.'

After sharing the idea with friends and family the couple decided to set up a Dinovember Facebook page, to share their idea with other users around the world.

Even decking the halls ended in a a big mess when the dinosaurs 'decided to decorate at midnight'

The group is already followed by more than 76,000 people many of whom have been inspired to make their own dinosaur scenes.



Refe said: 'At first it was a way to show our family what we were doing for the kids and everybody loved it. They were talking about it for months afterwards.

'What we wanted to do with the Facebook page is show other parents that they could do something like it.

'Plastic dinosaurs are something every child has, but no one really ever thinks about it until something like this.'

A fire-breathing dragon scene was created by Refe and Susan Tuma to convince their children that their toys had come to life