hopscotch toys

Divination

2011-01-16T16:47:00.000-08:00

As I arranged the new assortments of Valentine's at hopscotch, one in particular caught my eye. Cootie Catchers. That's what some children's marketer decided to call those pieces of paper that first graders fold into four squared fortune telling devices. In my day, one layer had boys names (who you would marry), one layer had the kind of car you would drive, one layer had the kind of house you would live in. It got me to thinking about all the other toys from Magic 8 balls to Ouji boards to mood rings and fortune telling fish that are based around divining the future. The thing that struck me when I took stock of my inventory was that the reading of the tea leaves starts at such an early age. I am a moderately superstitious person, I read my horoscope, I take my fortune cookies to heart. I HATE the ones that tell you you are a loyal friend. How is that a fortune? I look for omens. Whatever. I know it's silly, and it's more for entertainment than really thinking I have a clue what is going on in my life. But I do give them consideration which always makes me laugh a little at myself. When did this start, and how? It seems to me that I learned to twist the stem off an apple while saying the letters of the alphabet (again to find out who I would marry) at a very early age, and from another child. It also seems that these practices are carried out much more among girls than boys. I know it has been necessary to the survival and strategic positioning of the weaker sex that we gather information constantly, I suppose it makes sense that this information gathering would extend to the future inasmuch as we feel it is possible.
Well, that's it tonight. Just a musing. I'll leave the answers to the sociologists.

Dressing Up!

2010-10-29T22:50:00.000-07:00

As a toy store owner, I feel kind of lame about how little of the estimated $5.8 Billion Halloween dollars I capture. I mean, it's primarily a kid's holiday right? Maybe it's my bad attitude. Because, I not so secretly feel the best Halloween costumes are the home made kind.
There are trick or treater's that do as little as they have to (sometimes nothing) to run amok and score candy, and then there are the people that I go out to see. These people make their own costumes and their children's costumes, and for them, Halloween is an opportunity to entertain us all, a quiet competition with all the other ghouls and greats that roam the streets All Hallows Eve.
These costumes are not to be confused with "dress up" which is what we call our costumes at hopscotch. Halloween costumes are like (and sometimes include) a corset. Uncomfortable, impractical, and can lead to stumbling and shortness of breath. A child can not conduct imaginary play in most Halloween costumes. Take my son the ding dong for instance. There may be two hula hoops in there, but I can assure you, there will be no frivolous play taking place.
Just as much as I hate cheap big box store bought Halloween costumes, I love selling Dress Up. Especially boys dress up because it is often overlooked, and our little boys LOVE to dress up. They want to be astronauts, knights, superhero's, and in my nephew Paul's case, Captain Underpants. He had his mother shave his head and spent an entire summer in underwear and a red cape. Clever boy. Girls want to dress up like princesses, fairies, and fairy princesses. There is no one place in hopscotch as gender specific as dress up. Good quality dress up is as comfortable as every day attire, it has stretch and comfortable seams. It can be put on and taken off with ease by a four year old. Good quality dress up is the best accessory for that crowning jewel of childhood, the vivid imagination. It should be even more durable than regular clothing because there are some who will put it on every single day, and many who will try to convince their mother's that it should be worn to bed as well. It will be worn on the most grand adventures. Adventures that will often include mud, and the rough bark of trees, dog slobber, and bicycle chains. Yes, durability is a must. But then, that goes for most good dealings with an active childhood.

Fall

2010-10-24T21:35:00.001-07:00

Last week I brought my son home from college for the first time since he's been away. When we got out of the car in downtown McMinnville, he inhaled deeply and said "I love how Mac smells. You can always tell what time of year it is." It's so true. In the winter when you walk around town you smell the smoke from wood stoves, rain, and the earthy decay of leaves. In spring, the grass, lilac, and still the rain, but lighter, cleaner. In summer the heat of the day brings the scent of hay being cut and ripe fruit, and when it rains, the mix of all that with dust and welcome cleansing. Now, with fall comes crush and fermenting fruit, the sweet scent of dry leaves falling, and the chill dank of mildew seeping in around the edges. Here at hopscotch the signs are clear also. Leaves blow in through the open door, soccer cleats muddy the floor, and board games, and craft kits reign supreme. I love seeing the supplies for family times indoors going home with my customers. Of course we have the hot items that seem to disappear before I can finish receiving them. Bananagrams, the hemp bracelets book, legos and potholders craft sets come to mind. The ones I really love to sell though, are the sleepers. Pattern blocks, marble runs, and chess just sit around the store unless I almost force my families to "please, trust me!" These were in the category that I called "child traps" in my household. I would just leave them out and an entire morning would be gone building, creating, listening to books on tape and just being together. So, though it makes me sad to see the days growing shorter, I do enjoy the slower pace and indoor activities that the chill weather brings about, and I especially love the anticipation I see in my families as they pick up supplies for their own cozy hibernation's.

Simple Pleasures

2010-07-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

I love the toy store in summer. The kids come in with a few dollars to spend and no adult to help them stretch it or suggest they save it for something better. Grownups just don't get it. It's the little stuff that's magic, and having it right now, with your own money that makes the summer sweeter. I have many suggestions for the kids with a few coins burning a hole through their cut offs. Take a few parachute guys on a trip to the second floor balcony of Hotel Oregon. You can let them float down onto pedestrians and drop into the pints of beer on the sidewalk tables. A handful of mini pigs to hide around your grandmothers house? Under her coffee cup, in the medicine chest. Marbles, by the each. Dime a piece. Need I say more? Old fashioned candy sticks, bazooka bubble gum, medium size jawbreakers, Taffy's, all for a quarter each. Balsa wood flyers, yo-yo's, and hacky sacks are also pretty special, but at $3 to $6 the kids really have to know what they want to blow their whole wad on one item. In the new fad category there are the Japanese Eraser's and those shaped rubber bands. Schleich animals. The kids pay with their own money to collect these great toys.
My favorite has always been bubbles. Magic, wand and all. I could spend (and have) entire afternoons blowing bubbles. The kids and I used to make bubble wands out of any piece of baling wire, slotted spoon or finger crocheted yarn loop. We experimented with home made recipes to support our by the bucket consumption. We took a road trip to Austin, my friend Sarah, our seven young children, and me. Sarah took us to a great toy store (Toy Joy) and introduced me to Pustefix. I was immediately convinced they lasted longer, and were more iridescent than other bubbles I had tried. These were the Best Bubbles Ever! With the zeal of the newly converted I went into the world to preach my truth. I'm still convinced that I see more shimmery rainbows in every Pustefix sphere, but you won't catch me in the store waxing poetic about it. It creeps the customers out.
Though I love the wand, rainbows, and watching them float out of sight, my favorite thing about bubbles is how they bring people together. At an outdoor concert, a picnic, or festival, break out the bubbles and people begin to smile. My children's great grandmother didn't have much energy by the time they came around, but she could sit in a chair and blow bubbles. Soon a dozen of her offspring would be dancing at her feet. That is magic.

2010-03-12T20:57:00.001-08:00

Going 2 see Alice in Wonderland. I'll post a review later. Looking 4ward 2 it.

The Unpredictable Easter Bunny

2010-03-04T23:50:00.000-08:00

Difficult as it is to get an Easter Bunny sighting, it is even harder to predict what that wily character will be putting in the Easter baskets. I never would have known it based on my own upbringing, but that guy (does the EB have a gender? I mean there are trousers in any pictures that show clothing, but really the rabbit drops EGGS right?) Okay, so our androgynous EB...now I am really off on a mental tangent. Bear with me here because the first androgynous character that came to my mind was the old SNL "Pat". Pat the bunny. That's funny right? Maybe you're not as sleep deprived and rummy as I am. Back to my point... EB brings actual presents to LOTS of kids. Not just eggs and little stuffed chicks and bunnies. Gifts. Not even Easter related gifts. Stomp rockets and dolls. Craft kits and huge stuffed animals. Why the huge discrimination against some children (my siblings and me for example)? Why does EB DELIVER to some homes, and leave eggs at others? Are eggs the equivalent of a lump of coal? The first year I owned hopscotch Easter time buying took me by surprise. Since then I have become more and more prepared. Theoretically. You see EB has years, and EB has YEARS. Whereas Santa has favorites that you know you need to have on hand for him every year (tricycles, doll houses, electric trains, chemistry sets, etc.) It's anybody's guess what EB is going to be looking for. I think, androgyny aside, EB is pretty cutting edge. One hip bunny. What's hot sells like crazy, so it's important for me to figure out what that is going to be starting in January so I can put off ordering it until the end of February then fret over every order that is not getting here fast enough. This year, I predict that EB will put a lot of Japanese erasers in the baskets and buckyballs should be big. Webkinz, yes still, and the East coast EB will definitely be putting those animal shaped rubber bands in the basket. Our west coast EB is a little less of a trend setter here and they haven't quite caught on. The plush kings have outdone themselves with some of the cutest spring lambs, chicks and ducklings coming from Gund, Douglas, Ganz and Manhattan to name a few. We are already moving some of those out the door. As far as things that don't fit in the basket, those silly Perfect Petzzz, and Wild Creation Frogs are going to top the list. The EZ Roller, Bruder trucks, and Kettler Trikes should weigh in pretty good too. Hope there is peace and health this Easter if not equity in distribution of goods. If you should catch a glimpse of the old EB this spring, could you please drop me a line and let me know what your take is... Patrick or Patricia?

Brainy baby or Overstimulated?

2010-02-28T22:57:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying that we don't have television. We do watch movies with our kids, but we have not had a television subscription the whole time we have been raising children. Nearly 19 years now. There was that one time we signed up so my husband could watch the world cup in the comfort of his own home, but we couldn't wait for that 18 month subscription to be over. Just too much noise! Too much monitoring. Too much fear mongering. Give me my rose colored glasses and get the glowing box out of my house!
At Toy Fair I met a really nice woman who worked at Brainy Baby. She was very excited because a new study was just published that shows that Brainy Baby DVD's help toddlers learn and remember. This was huge for them because the whole industry had been given a black eye by an earlier study that stated the opposite about the Baby Einstein series. I smiled and nodded as she told me how great the findings were, how the products of the company revolutionized early learning. I truly sympathized with the difficult position their company must be in since that Baby Einsteins study seemed to be everywhere. But, nice as she is, I just don't buy it. I mean, I believe that the DVD's do teach children. I've not met a child yet who isn't learning constantly. I just don't believe that putting your child in front of a screen is optimal. I believe in snuggling them on your lap with a book that contains the information you want them to learn, looking at pictures, pointing to them, saying the names. I believe that crawling on the floor playing with good open ended toys will teach them so much more, build a bonded relationship between parent and child, and mellow everyone out. The flashing lights, sounds, and images on a television screen may hold a child's attention, but so will a war scene. Doesn't mean that level of stimulation is appropriate. I'm still thinking this one through, because I know all about the multiple demands on a parents time, and being able to farm some of the basics off on a machine is tantalizing. At first take though, I feel like it's just lazy parenting. We don't have kids to plop them in front of a screen. We have them to share with, to play with, to build relationships with. I think I'd rather have a not so brainy baby who felt good in their own skin and bonded to the people they love.

Safety and Freedom. Can we give our children both?

2009-12-02T00:20:00.000-08:00

Rowan (my youngest) and I have decided to see some old Disney classics this week. All of ours are on VHS, and it's been a while since anyone in this house has watched anything on VHS. Our pics, Snow White, The Fox and The Hound, Bambi, and Aladdin. We watched Bambi, then The Fox and the Hound back to back, and Rowan turned to me and said "Both the mothers die" Well, this is a theme you hear discussed a lot as a mother of small children living in progressive SE Portland. Disney's misogynistic bent. Always offing the mother. I knew this formula, and started to tell Rowan what I knew, first off that every movie we had rented had no mother from the start, or she got killed early on. For the record, I never believed this was misogyny . I just thought it was a convenient formula. Anyway, I start to tell Rowan how leaving the character without a mother puts them into all kinds of danger which allows for a conflict to be resolved through the plot of the story. He said "Oh, I just thought that without the mother, there was no one to stop them from having adventures and experiences that would make a good story." I just shut up. Now, I know all of the psychological Run Away Bunny mumbo jumbo about how it makes the child feel powerless because the mama bunny is always able to bring them home again. Again, never bought into it. I think The Run Away Bunny is Great. I think that Guess How Much I Love You is great. Some psychologists think the daddy bunny in Guess How Much I Love You is always one upping the baby bunny and making him feel powerless. Whatever. My point is that Rowan has never heard these psychologists. He was just giving me his take on offing the mother. Mom gone, adventure ensues. I have an eighteen year old who is really putting me through the paces here lately, and I have been forced to take a real good look at my parenting. Do I do too much for my children? Do I allow them too many freedoms?
Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away... "If you run away" Said his mother, " I will run after you, for you are my little bunny." I guess, if you use the right intonation and inflection it could be construed as a little controlling. But we are supposed to have control. We are supposed to keep them safe. It's our number one biological objective. Have babies, keep them alive. Safety and freedom. Perfect balance, please. Does anyone have the formula?

Playmobil!

2009-10-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

Our holiday Playmobil arrived last week. That includes Advent Calendars and Santa Claus figures that will be stubbornly placed in the basement until I feel I can't hold out any longer. I always aim for the week of Thanksgiving, but give in a bit sooner to the pressures from a retailing perspective. Never do I place stuff mid-October like the big guys, I just can't rush my life like that. So, the advent calendars are sitting on a shelf marked seasonal with all of the Christmas ornaments, bow bedecked Christmas bears, Elf on the Shelf's and I still can't believe I ordered this... Christmas Pickles. The rest of the Playmobil is up on the shelves though, and it brings me great joy to look at it. We got the Egypt stuff in, which is very, very cool, but my favorite in this shipment has got to be the jewel thieves. Nothing like a little toy cat burglar to make me giddy with delight. I never got to have Playmobil when I was a child. We did have the little fisher price stuff though, and I feel like they allow the same kind of play. Playmobil does it with far greater detail, ingenuity, and way more cool little everything. My sisters and I spent hours with our fisher price toys, and when I send a set of Playmobil home with a child, I know the same kind of imaginative play will ensue. Worlds will be created for mini lives to be lived. A yearning to make those worlds come to life will be deeply seated at the core of the play, and that somehow on some level, that is exactly what will take place.

Gratitude and the divine.

2009-10-12T10:29:00.001-07:00

I run. It keeps me somewhat sane. I was going to say sane, but I realize there are many who would debate that, so somewhat sane it is. Every day when I run I pause down by the Yamhill river, take my ear buds out, breathe deep, and give thanks for everything. Here's the catch. I'm not religious..I don't know who or what I'm thanking, I just know that it has to be done. Whether or not there is some higher order I feel I have an obligation as someone who is blessed with abundance to recognize that not everyone is. It has nothing to do with God, though I do feel the divine in my surroundings.
I'm perfectly happy in my lack of faith. I work hard to make the lives of people I touch better, and having been through intensely religious phases in my life can say that I live my life basically the same as I would if I feared judgment from on high. Raising children without religion has proved trickier than I imagined. What I would not give for simple "he's in heaven with Jesus" answers from time to time! I wanted to raise them to be able to make their own decisions regarding the divine order of things. To seek their own truths, and sometimes I fear that I have left giant blank slates for someone else to come along and fill.
I believe in sitting down at meal times and eating with friends and family, and as I have stated, in giving thanks, so at every meal our family says "thankfuls". We go around the table and acknowledge two things that we are sincerely thankful for. That, education about the religious beliefs of other people,and reading bible stories is the extent of our religious indoctrination. Some people worry that not having God and fear of judgment would leave children without a moral compass, but that hasn't been my experience. My children love (and can't stand) their fellow man just as much as any God fearing Christian. They also know that when you are a jerk, people treat you like one which makes your life miserable (Karma).
At hopscotch I have had a hard time deciding which religious materials to have in my product mix. I have some in books (Beautiful Noah's Ark book just came in), some in infant for baptisms and births, some in puzzles,some in educational, and some first communion type lockets and crosses in my jewelry. I want to offer something for everyone, and I truly believe that the tradition and cultures of all faiths are beautiful, diverse, and worthy of preservation. (Now I am hearing all of the childhood sermons about the hottest fires of hell being reserved for those who straddle the fence. Man that stuff stays with you!)) That said, I simply cannot stomach little white bears with angel wings that have sound chips that play electronic greeting card versions of Jesus Loves Me. The hottest fires of my own personal hell have shelves and shelves lined with them playing ceaselessly. Yup. I just tackled religion in a public forum that is directly tied to my business. Not recommended. Don't really care. Politics tomorrow?

Boys and Trains.

2009-10-09T10:12:00.001-07:00

What is it with boys and trains? In an era when most boys have not even seen freight being unloaded from a train let alone ridden in one, many are still obsessed with them. It amazes me! It's not just Thomas either. As a matter of fact, our Thomas sales have taken a dive as our other train sales have climbed. Our electric trains do great particularly at Christmas time. Is it grandfathers passing along their passion? It really seems more organic than that. Eight times out of ten when a little boy comes through the front door of the store he heads right over to our Plan City train table. For some of these guys we are known as the train store though trains make up less than 1% of our inventory. We used to be exclusively Brio and Thomas, but then Brio went and got all strange and new-age with their trains and began manufacturing in China so I stopped ordering them and introduced Melissa and Doug for a generic non-character train. Yes, M&D is manufactured in China also, but they are priced like they are manufactured in china. I brought in Plan as an environmentally friendly option. Manufactured in Thailand from reclaimed rubber-tree wood. I love Plan toys! Boys and cars, I get that. Boys and construction stuff, I get that too. Boys and weapons, I even get that. But trains! I don't understand the drive in this day and age. Still, I must admit that though it is considered trespassing, I can't resist the urge to balance on the rails between 3rd and 5th street on my walk home (where this picture was taken incidentally). I enjoy the sound of the rumble and whistle when the 11:00 blows through town. I am transported by old songs of riding the rails and the freedom that it presented. I look forward to a time when we abandon much of the transportation we currently use and ride the rails once again.

Keeping it Fresh

2009-09-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

We received our new Schleich display today and it is BEAUTIFUL!!Craig is our Schleich rep and he came out to help me put it together. One of my favorite low tech toys has always been a little plastic animal, and Schleich makes them the best. When I was a girl the only ones that were available to me were dinosaurs that had belonged to my dad. I wasn't into dinosaurs, but I spent hours with them forming family groups and enacting drama's large and small. Whether drought, starvation, or predators of unknown origins, survival was top on my list of things to play out. This kind of role playing is important to children learning how to relate to others, and how to interact with others. I can still conjure up the nurturing feelings I felt for my little dino family. One of the best things about these animals as opposed to dolls for this kind of modeling is that they are non-gender specific. Boys and girls alike enjoy playing with them. This makes them an ideal item for a family of mixed genders to collect. And, barring fire or a labrador retriever encounter, they will last for generations.

Community...and parks....

2009-09-17T15:11:00.001-07:00

It's no secret. I love this community. As a mother, one of the things that I appreciate most is the park system. We spend a good portion of the year at various games and practices in Joe Dancer park. My dog and I are down there running the trails nearly every morning. The picture I posted was taken at the City Park, or the dragon park as all of the kids in my family call it. My dad was part of a community crew that built that play structure for the children of this community nearly twenty years ago. There were literally hundreds of people that donated money, time and tools to build it. I love that their grandchildren are playing on it now. With it's water feature, rock wall, skate park, etc. Discovery Meadows is the shiny new playground on the McMinnville park scene, but the city park is by far my favorite. It embodies so much of what makes McMinnville a great community to raise children in. First of all because it has been a gathering place for as long as McMinnville has been here. Secondly because it has that wonderful low tech wooden play structure that was built through community contributions and our volunteer spirit (not every community has that, it's special). Thirdly because it is at the center of our downtown and part of a walkable community with the library and pool right there. For my next blog I'll go on and on about some wonderful toy we have here at hopscotch (there are so many! we are receiving our Christmas inventory and every year I get so excited by it!) For today however, with summer drawn to a close and each sunny day feeling like a theft from the looming rainy season, I wanted to wax poetic one last time about summer days in the park.

Her Hearts Desire

2009-07-30T09:59:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of Gracie Peak's birthday bin. A birthday bin is something we do here at hopscotch that is like a registry, but way cooler because the kids actually get to place their hearts desire into the bin. (the bin size also forces them to choose what they REALLY want, not everything in the store) I have come to look at them as little snapshots of the inner workings of a child at a certain point in time. Gracie is a very well rounded girl, she has her knight dress up stuff, her cupcake box, lots of charms for her charm bracelet, a sword, a huge sucker, the Klutz Guide to Immaturity, and a few other things. My kind of girl. What a child wants is a great insight into what is of value to them and who they are at any given time. I don't keep my children's report cards. I keep their Santa letters.
Wish lists and wants give insight into adult priorities also. I am a project girl, and with every project there are things that I intensely desire. When I look back through my notebooks, whether my want list included a spiral staircase, a Kubota tractor, a composting toilet, a milk cow, a herd of goats, a gambrel truss system, or a new point of sale system, offers great insight into who I was and what I was trying to accomplish at that point in my life. Many of these things I acquired, some of them (goats for instance) I am thankful I did not. That is another thing that is important to remember in these times of immediate and complete gratification. Sometimes the best thing you can give your child is to leave them yearning for that thing that is not appropriate for them or you can't afford. I have keen recollections of all the toys I wanted and never got. The memories of those longings are every bit as sweet as the memories of playing with the toys I did get. Open ended desire, longing, is vilified as lack of fulfillment, but sometimes the fantasy of what your life could be like with that shiny new thing is far more precious than the thing itself.

Beating the Heat!

2009-07-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we all know about the pool, the water gun, the slip and slide and the river, but when temperatures get up above 100 degrees it doesn't prudent to spend any time in it at all. That is why this afternoon, my living room was full of teenagers making hemp bracelets and playing musical instruments. Curtains drawn, well insulated house, and big shade trees made it the perfect place to hole up. My kids learned to weave hemp using the Klutz Hemp Bracelet Book.We broke it out today to teach the other kids. Though the hemp and beads that came with it have long been used, we now have a tin full of various beads, spools of colored hemp, sinew, and beading thread. I have loved Klutz since my son was five and picked up the "How to Draw Marvel Comic Figures" book. Lived with it, drew and drew and moved on to draw more. I think that is what impresses me most about Klutz. We have lots of arts and crafts stuff in the store, but Klutz does more than provide an afternoon project. It gives children new skills. Whether it is embroidery, clay, beading, bracelets, drawing, potholders, quilting, or one of their other titles. They make project books that are based in teaching skills and give you all the components that you need to get started. I was a little worried when Klutz was purchased by Scholastic that some of the ingenuity would go out of the line, but I have been pleased to see more great titles hit the floor every year. Summer takes over and you kind of forget all of those quiet things you used to do when the rain was coming down. I am here to tell you, 100+ degrees is the perfect time to break them out again.

Summer Bounty

2009-07-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

I am fortunate enough to have found a local farmer who will trade produce for toys. As I have found the time I have available to garden much less than it used to be this works out perfectly. They just dropped this bag of gorgeous produce at my door. As much as I think it's important to feed a child's mind and sense of adventure, I think it's doubly important to feed their bodies. Without a well fed brain and body a child can't use even the most vast resources well. One of the things I love about owning a specialty toy store is that most of the families who come through are really invested in their children. They feed them well, mind and body. One of the things I don't love is that it gives me an insulated view of the world and it is too easy to forget that this is not the way many children live their lives. There is so much garbage out there, and too often, children get a steady stream of McDonalds and television for sustenance. I guess I just want to put a shout out to all of you parents who are making conscientious decisions to feed your children body and mind. And also a shout out to Andre', Sheila, their three wonderful children and the bounty they drop at my door every week.

Change

2009-07-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

When my kids were younger we had splattered so much paint and glue on our dining table, and gouged it with leather craft tools, that I suggested that we should divide it into five and each member of the family paint a section. That is the result in the picture there. We used it like that for years and it now hangs on the outside of the shop facing the deck. The family that created it has long since disappeared evolving into a new family with other priorities than those outlined on the table, and I do miss them, but not as much as I value who they have become. The elements are cracking the paint and the images get a little lighter every year but I am able to look at it regularly. One of these days it will be just a gouged up table top again and I will discard it and make way for new experiences and memories. We all keep our photos, our bits of paper, our writings, but most of the experiences of this life can only be archived for a very short time. Even our memory changes so what we think we have stored away is merely fantasy layered over our faulty perception of so called reality. Not much to cling to. As it should be, I say. We should no more hold to and hoard memories than we should old table tops. We can and should use them only as a catalyst for new experiences. We should break them out to freshen bonds that threaten to fray, to laugh and create new experiences, new memories while doing so. I don't know what this has to do with the toy store. It's just what was on my mind this morning as I sat on the deck, drinking coffee, looking at the table top, and that old rocker that Genna and I painted when I chose to bring my son home from the hospital rather than give him up for adoption (now there is a story worthy of a blog, but again having nothing to do with running a toy store.) Change can happen so fast these days. Especially with a house full of teenagers. For me it is somehow comforting to watch my world changing one flake of paint at a time.

Piece Work A Plenty

2009-07-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

Ping, ping, ping. For kids growing up in Carlton in the 1970's and 80's, no sound could make you feel more despondent than the sound of those first few berries hitting an empty picking can. In my memory I see legions of us rubbing bleary eyes riding our bikes down the streets in the first light of dawn, grass still covered with dew. In reality, it was just all the kids I hung out with. We'd hit the fields hard and early because by the time the sun was high in the sky we wanted to have enough money to get into the Carlton pool and buy something at main street market. At night we'd lay out in our yards, or up in our beds with rows and rows of berries haunting our vision. The fields don't hire children anymore and though I can certainly see why (we threw and ate more berries than we weighed by far) it still makes me sad for the generations of American youth who are growing up without the availability of consistent piece work. When kids come into hopscotch with their own money I always ask them what they did to earn it. The answers are varied, birthday money, tooth fairy money, went potty in the toilet, good grades, cavity free dental visit, but the kids who just beam are the kids who have worked hard for those dollars. It means more to them because they did good work and received a wage for it. Our house is here in town, not a farm, but we have lots of fruiting trees and shrubs. First the strawberries come on, then the cherries, then the raspberries, marionberries, blueberries, blackberries, plums, apricots, pears, and finally apples. We pick and process as much of it as we can, and the kids are all required to help. My kids, my sisters kids, they all get paid a dollar for each Nancy's Yogurt container they pick full of blueberries. They also get to enjoy blueberry pancakes, muffins, pies and smoothies through the year, but that's just a fringe benefit. The real benefit goes to us as their parents because they have hard earned pocket money to learn to manage. We have blueberries in the freezer, and the corner store has a steady stream of customers with their own money jingling in their pockets.

Choosing your battles

2009-07-25T15:05:00.001-07:00

Zoe is my fourteen year old daughter. She does wild things with her hair. It's been black, pink, purple, silver, blue, green, platinum, and everything in between. She's naturally a blonde, I think. At least she was the last time that I saw her hair it's natural color. I think she was ten. Traditional wisdom would tell you that if you let your child do wild things you are asking for trouble, but I don't feel that way. I want my children to know that each decision I make for them is based on what I feel they have shown me I can expect from them, and from real consideration on the long standing effects that these decisions could have on their lives. Hair grows (or can be stripped out and re-colored for a mere $150) Facial piercings and tattoos are another thing.For the most part Zoe gets positive reinforcement on her color choices, but a lot of people ask me if I really think I should let her do that, or how I feel about it. I feel great! It's who she is. She is vivacious and jubilant, and probably hot pink by nature. Besides, I get to have a real live doll working at my store, and you can't go wrong with that.

Pinkies Up

2009-07-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

Tea time has always held a certain magic for my children and me. Perhaps it's the decadence associated with a long break mid afternoon. On breezy spring days it means laying out on a blanket in the shade of a tree with a book, a plate of cookies, some light herbal teas and our conversation. During the winter months, tea gives us a cozy break in the form of red tea for the younger children and black tea for me and the older two. Books, knitting, felting, and other hand crafts coupled with long conversations complete our recipe for reprieve. I'm generally a go go mama for whom "just a minute's" and "be there in a sec's" fall all too readily from the lips. But tea gives me something to center my vast energies around and quiet into. I can sit and hold, rub and pat, talk and laugh,and just BE with my children without looking forward at my agenda. Tea is the agenda. My children are the agenda. Something that can bring a flighty girl like myself so deeply into the moment has just got to be magic.

Pet Cemetery

2009-07-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

Any parent who has given in to the plea for a beloved furry companion knows that the shoe box in the photo is more than a mere shoe box. Lined with a scrap of satin (or soft toilet paper in a pinch) stuffed full of Fluffy's favorite toys, maybe a picture of the child or children. Inch per inch, these boxes have more treasured archival material than Tutankhamen's tomb. Oh, and a dead pet. Every family has their methods, and their limits. In my household we bury reptiles and mammals. We'd probably bury a pet bird, but we've never had one. We do not bury potato bugs, ladybugs, or any other insect, though I have never had a three year old beg me to hold services and might cave on that if pressed. Fish do not get a burial. When the kids were younger and fish were precious things to be watched and spoken to daily there were several emergency trips to the pet store to buy replacements, the original unceremoniously flushed. We have gone through six pairs of rats over the years. They really are the best small animal pet, but they succumb to cancer eventually. Yes, all of them, except the last one which was killed by our Jack Russel (who's body will rot in a land fill if my daughter has a say in it...she doesn't) but even that rat had a tumor the size of it's torso. Mercy killing if you ask me. Several reptiles, a few cats, myriad chickens and other farm foul, a hamster... you get the idea. I have stood grave side and said kind words more times than I care to admit. The great thing is that everyone feels better once the earth has been placed over the shoe box. Once honor has been given to the deceased we can quickly move on. Most children learn about mortality in this way. It doesn't take a pronouncement of death for a child to see that their pet is just not present in that small mound of flesh. They see it before you say it, though they still need you to name what it is they have seen. Then, the questions begin. How the questions are answered varies as greatly as the ceremony or lack there of that follows, but death, the greatest of all abstracts, is made very real. That's a good thing. A hard thing, but a good thing.

Children Self-Defined

2009-07-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

Rowan will tell you that he's got a craftsman's hands. That he'll probably be an artist someday. He's got my dads hands and as that was one of my favorite things about my father, Rowan knows all about it. He didn't get to know my dad, but my brother has those hands too, so he can compare and see the similarities. Beautiful, long fingered, masculine, capable hands. But I didn't tell Rowan that he was going to be an artist. He came up with that all on his own. My father was a very skilled leather craftsman, and there are lots of crafty and artistic people in my family, but Rowan spends very little time doing what you would call "art". We do lots of projects together, and he has a certain aptitude, but he is not at all compelled to spend time practicing autonomously. Not the kid who walks around with a pad and pen trying to capture the world. I have wondered if I somehow saddled him with this expectation by comparing his hands to my fathers so often. He seems to get satisfaction from it though. Like he's got something of value in his bag of tricks that he's going to whip out on us someday. A quiet knowing. I grew up one of five siblings, and we all had our labels. In looking back I can not discern whether those labels were given to us, or whether we took those labels on to set ourselves apart from the brood. I have realized that they limited us somewhat. We all have artistic skills, but one sister was the artist and the rest of us stayed off her turf. We all had vocal capabilities, but I was the singer, and the others didn't do much to unseat my reign either. We were all intelligent, but another sister was given the academic arena. Anyway, there were five of us and I can't help but wish that I had done some art, or taken my education a little more seriously and that the others had jumped in and gotten musical sooner(though they all came around eventually). As a parent of course, I encourage my children to explore all of their many talents and consider what they can give to themselves and the world through honing their skills. They still seem to want to define themselves as one thing or another, but that's just human nature. As long as they are defining themselves by what they enjoy doing rather than what brand of clothing they wear, I guess they'll be alright.

Cracking the Code.

2009-07-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

Where children are concerned there is nothing I enjoy more than sitting back and watching those wheels turn. It starts when they are newborn, you can see them thinking, figuring it all out, processing. When they get older and can talk about what it is that they have sorted through the way they look at things can be joyous and enlightening. We adults get bogged down with all of the "truths" that we have learned along the way and the possibilities available to us become fewer and fewer. For children, it is all possible and listening to their theories can open our minds once again to the vast limitless world we once knew. One of the most prevalent confinements we place on our selves, and our children is that of time. Most people will tell you that time is an absolute. My own belief is that it is a contrivance. Another topic altogether. We can all agree that learning about time is very important to a child's ability to function in a world obsessed with the whens of it all. Time to get up, time to eat, time to nap, time to snack, time for dinner, time for bed. In a digital world and with my laid back attitude on most things in general, I realized with horror that my 9 year old did not know how to tell time in an analog format. I considered all of the ways in which you generally teach the pre-school set this skill. Puzzles, placemats, coloring sheets, crocodile clocks, etc. All of these seemed a little babyish for him, so we just strapped a watch on his arm. Human beings are information gathering machines. It is truly a wonder to see it in action. Whether it is on weather.com, NPR, or reading our daily horoscope, we are compelled to try to figure out what is going on, and how it will affect us. He spent so much time trying to crack that code, looking at his watch, looking at a digital clock, looking at his watch, noting that it was time for dinner, looking at his watch, and so forth. Within a week, he had figured out what would have taken me months to instill in him at pre-school age. For my part, I was able to just sit back and enjoy watching those wheels turn.

The Quest for The Perfect Doll

2009-07-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

You would think that it would be easy to make a simple sweet baby doll. You would be wrong. I have been on a quest for the perfect baby doll for years, and I have to say that Corolle is the closest I can find. Corolle dolls are a lot more expensive than dolls the next level down, but they are far superior. It seems to me that shaping the molds sweetly at least would be something that any doll manufacturer could accomplish but none of the cheap dolls can come close to Corolle. So many doll faces are pinched, or flat, and none of them has the translucent quality that the Corolle skin has. I also like the fact that each Corolle doll smells like sweet vanilla, not chemical and plastic. Considering the amount of time they spend snuggled under a child's chin, this is a really nice touch. The doll in the picture is a Berenguer doll, and we carry those too. For some the appeal of a doll that looks like a real baby is great. Not so much for me. They kind of creep me out. I carry them. I sell them well. I like that some are anatomically correct. I understand their appeal to young children, but I don't work late at the store so much when they are in stock.

McMinnville Education Foundation Starry Night

2009-07-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

Last night was the annual fund raising event for the McMinnville Education Foundation. It's a wonderful dinner, auction, wine, art and music event put on each year at Stoller Vineyards outside of Dundee. The McMinnville Education Foundation is comprised of individuals who are dedicated to encouraging excellence in our public school system. They accomplish this by funding a series of programs designed to compliment the education of students. Grants, Artists in residency programs, and the opportunity to work with the Linfield chamber Orchestra are among the opportunities funded by the MEF. Events like these are always full of the usual suspects. People that are active and volunteer for everything. The thing that is striking to me about this event in particular is the number of people out to support the McMinnville Schools that don't have children of school age, send their children to private school, or could afford to send their children to private school but choose instead to be active in creating a strong public school system. It is very impressive to me. My children have always been home schooled, though Devon is in high school now, but I see a thriving public school system as the best hope for our future as a society. I contribute financially at fund raisers and always vote in favor of measures that give more funding to schools, but even with that I have felt guilt at not giving the school system the thing they need most. My children. Children that are being raised conscientiously. Children that will contribute to the overall health and integrity of a classroom. Also, I have given myself and my talents and energy exclusively to my children and the children that end up in my house and my shop. I have not been in the school system making the difference that I know I could make. I hear all kinds of theories on why our children are failing to thrive in our school systems. Theories that range from lack of funding to apathetic unrewarded teachers to no child left behind and teaching to the test. All contribute in some part I think, but the most important part of any education is parental responsibility. We can not check our children at the door of the schoolhouse and expect the teachers to raise them. They need to be prepared, well fed, respectful of themselves and others. They need to have habits of hygiene that will not distract others. They need to know how to treat others well before they hit the classroom. Too many of our children are being warehoused in their formative years when they need to be nurtured and prepared. Funding helps. Passionate teachers are invaluable. Robust art, music and literature programs are a must. But none of it has the impact that dedicated parents and well prepared students can.

Hazardous Materials in Miniature!!

2009-07-18T14:59:00.001-07:00

I don't have very many toys in my private collection. There are just too many great toys out there, and I have never been a collector. I have a few. The one pictured is my favorite. No, it's not valuable. It's treatful. It is a playmobil haz-mat set. Yup, as in hazardous materials. I love playmobil. They are great quality. They last through generations. They engage children (and adults) of both genders, and they literally have little everything. Best of all, the people smile all of the time. It does not matter to them if they are cleaning up nuclear waste. My favorite that is not in my collection is called the "captive prince" This hairy smiling viking has the prince in cuffs and shackles, and the prince is grinning ear to ear.S&M for the very young. That one is still in the store on the shelf with the other playmobil. You'll have to check it out yourself.

The Stars

2009-07-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

When I was a young girl my parents would lay out on a blanket with all of us in the back yard and look at the night sky. My dad would point out the easy constellations and my mother would find a few of the more difficult to recognize constellations, planets, and stars. The real excitement of course were the satellites. We would keep count, and comment on brightness, speed, direction, and duration of visibility until we couldn't make our eyes focus anymore. When I lived in Oklahoma I took the kids on a few road trips back home to Oregon because I just couldn't stay away in the summer. I like to get parks passes and camp my way across the country because it is cheap and an adventure. Particularly with three children ranging in age between three and nine. On this one trip we went down through Colorado, went through the Garden of The Gods(bought them all Kazoos at the gift shop. What WAS I thinking?!) Hit many road side attractions, bug museums and the like, camped at Mesa Verde, and got to the Grand Canyon the next day. I'd lived in Oregon and in Oklahoma and nothing in either of those states had prepared me for the clarity of star gazing that lack of humidity could provide. It was a divine experience. In the gift shop I found a book on constellations by H.A. Rey called simply "The Stars" and my children and I lived with it for the rest of our trip and still pull it out today. "This book is meant for people who want to know just enough about the stars to be able to go out at night and find the major constellations, for the mere pleasure of it." Is the opening passage. And that's what it is. That is all that it is. Beautifully simple and engaging.

Taking Responsibility and Ownership.

2009-07-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons I wanted to buy hopscotch was for my children. To give them a sense of placement in our community. To give them real work to do, a sense of accomplishment and accountability. When I was growing up my parents always owned a business and it made me feel that people knew who I was and what I was supposed to be doing. A little claustrophobic perhaps but I think it ultimately made me a more accountable person. Accountability is something that I stress with my children. I don't teach it as a moral obligation, but as a tool that enables them to take control of any situation. Any bit of an encounter that they can own, they have the ability to change. As long as they are placing blame elsewhere, they are the victim, helpless to do anything to fix the problems, or to ensure that they do not keep occurring. Some people get caught in the victim cycle, but it is not what children want to be. If you can lay it out there for them time and time again that taking responsibility means taking control the responsibility becomes an honor instead of an obligation.

Harry Potter Movie Vs. Book

2009-07-16T23:29:00.000-07:00

My family went to see the latest Harry Potter movie this evening. The effects were magnificent, the acting was good, the characters had been developed over the previous movies, and the newly introduced characters were fully fleshed out and substantial. On our way home though, along with talk of how good the movie was, there was also a discussion about how it failed to engage us emotionally the way the book did. This left me wondering exactly what is it that makes movies so inferior to books? They have such an advantage in their ability to appeal to our senses, and yet, don't compare to what we can derive from reading a book. In talking to children, both my own and others I've found that what they love about the books varies greatly. That is perhaps the most important difference between books and movies. There is so much MORE to choose from. Subplots, characters to love, subtleties that are so much better illustrated in the drawn out format of a book. We have time to find out what is important to us instead of having what is important to the director spoon fed to us. Relevance. It is a rare thing for me to read a book and not find relevance to my life and my experience, and lessons that will help shape me as an individual. It is much more difficult for movies to have that kind of impact. It happens. It's just not as consistent. Perhaps it's as simple as the fact that you steep in the essence of a book for a week or two, and a film is only with you for a couple of hours. Whatever the reason, I am happy to have both, and will continue to insist that my children read the book before they see the movie. If they don't have the opportunity to imagine the world as they see it described on the page before they see the film, the directors world will forever be the only one they can see.

Proper Tools

2009-07-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever worked in a kitchen that was outfitted with everything you needed? Or built something in a shop with all of the chisels, saws, sanders, etc. in good working order? Then you know the benefit of having the proper tools at hand. I am very particular about the art supplies and craft items I will carry in the store because I feel very strongly about providing children with the best tools. Especially children. Sometimes we think we can get by with giving our kids mediocre supplies because they are just starting, or wasteful, or whatever, when really at that stage we should be giving them the best tools we can to encourage them, to make it as easy as possible to succeed. In this picture, my children are doing art work on our front porch with chalk pastels. The colors are so vibrant and the pigments so dense that they can draw anything they want in detail. We've done the porch twice now, and then we spray it with a sealant and it stays for a few years. We carry the Faber Castell blue line of art supplies because I like the quality of the supplies. The kids can create real pieces of art without the art supplies getting in the way. Wherever you pick up your art supplies, make sure they are good enough quality to help your children succeed. You wouldn't put your track star in flip flops, don't supply your young artists with Rose Art.

Benefit and Risk Assessment for the Very Young

2009-07-14T17:48:00.000-07:00

A very common question asked of me at hopscotch is "Do you think this would be safe for a (baby, 8 year old, 3 year old, whatever)?" To which my very uncommon reply is "Well, I can't tell you if it would be safe for yours, but I probably would have given it to mine. I also have a trampoline in my back yard and my twelve year old has access to most tools in the shop, so my safety standards might not be the same as yours."
We bought our trampoline used out of the thrifties (before Craigs List) when my son Devon was four. He is now 18. Dozens of children have spent countless hours jumping, sleeping, reading, sparring, and giggling on that trampoline. Yes, there have been injuries, stitches, bumps, and near concussions, but the experiences these kids have had outweigh the risks they have undertaken. I meet so many parents these days who are terrified of exposing their children to any risk at all, and I wonder if we are not stunting an entire generation? I allow my children a great deal of freedom to roam the neighborhood, to build things from scrap in the yard, to paint and draw on the walls in their bedrooms, to take risks, ride skateboards, take their bikes off of jumps they built. They walk to the corner store and conduct transactions, they go down town and buy ice cream and visit their favorite shops. This is not because I am negligent, or lazy as I can tell you it takes more effort to talk them through these risks, and to clean up the wounds when things go awry than it does to plop them in front of a nice safe television. River is the name of the boy standing in the top of the arborvitae hedge. He is my nephew. He is standing on a platform that the kids built into the hedge about five years ago without my knowledge. They got the scrap, they got the tools, and they built this perch for spying on the world from the hedge. The list of crazy things they have done without my permission goes on and on. My children take risks every day, and I encourage them to do so. I joke that if they are dumb enough to do XYZ I don't want them in the gene pool anyway, but really I feel that I am giving them important tools for creating a vital active life. Most of us get more fearful with age. Our children need to learn what they can accomplish before the limitations even occur to them.

2009-07-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

Every community worth its weight in salt has a home town festival. Here in McMinnville, ours is duhn duhn duhn.... (((((Turkey....Rama))))) That's announcer voice amplification on the sides there. How treats is that? Could it get any better in a bad kind of way? Or worse in a good kind of way? To make a very long story very short, this used to be turkey country, now the only turkeys left are the humans. But, we still have Turkey Rama. We have a biggest Turkey contest, in which I did once compete. I won't tell you what I did for my talent routine because every turkey contest is aired on public access for the whole next year and You Tube is a vicious vicious machine. I did not win the biggest turkey prize, but we raised a ton of money for Hospice. What else do we have? We have a huge turkey barbecue, and of course a street fair with lots and lots of sidewalk sales in which hopscotch does participate. We were on the main drag of the festival until last year when we moved a few blocks away, so this year I had a tent sale in front of the store. Much better. Great way to get rid of stuff I just don't love anymore. We have one more day of that left, and I can't tell you that I'm not looking forward to the weekend being over. It's a lot of work, but it's a great time to see all kinds of people that you only see once or twice a year, hang out on the street and watch the whole community go by, and eat the annual elephant ear from the soroptomists booth. Well, I'm due to volunteer helping kids in and out of the bouncy castle now, so I better get back down there.

Firsts and Lasts.

2009-07-08T23:21:00.000-07:00

Adeline is the youngest member of my extended family so she is of course in charge of everything. She has recently learned to walk with the help of her Wheely Bug. Not exactly what it was intended for but she gets such a great deal of pleasure from chasing us around and running it into our ankles that it motivated her to progress. In stark contrast to Adeline's firsts which just keep coming I have also been spending time with a friend of mine who is experiencing some of his lasts. His kidneys have given him trouble, and he's had a couple of falls that have rather hastened the aging process. He used to walk all over town for the joy of it. Now he needs help making it across the room. I visited him the other night and found myself wondering at many things that seem so messed up about this life process. I also found myself appreciating many things about it. What I really got hung up on though was the notion that when he took his last walk around our neighborhood he didn't know that it would be his last. Something he cherished so much, and he did not know to pay attention and take his time and soak it in.
As a mother there are many moments like that. Lasts that we don't know will be the last. The last time that your child looks at you with complete adoration. The last time they let you see them naked. The last time they insist you tuck them in. The last time they crawl into your lap with a book. The last time they throw a tantrum. And though I feel a certain sadness at this fading away of things, I can not imagine the unbearable weight of sorrow that I would have felt in those moments had I known they were the last. There have to be lasts of course just as there will always be firsts. The hardest thing to remember is to soak them all in as if they just might be... To pay attention and be present. To shriek and run from a little ankle biting Wheely Bug and watch those firsts intently because they often leave a last in their wake.

SummertimeFun!

2009-07-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

I went camping at the beach with my family over the holiday. The weekend included three of my four siblings, friends, and all of our children, and I have not played so hard in a long time. We flew kites, dug in the sand with shovels and pails, made sand castles, played football, and threw a boomerang around. Every time a new toy came out a new activity ensued. We brought cards and board games to play at night, but by the time the sun went down we were too tired and hung out singing and talking by the camp fire instead. My nephew turned seven so we had his birthday celebration at the beach, and he received his first kite. He was so thrilled and excited to learn to fly it. Of course, the Oregon coast is notoriously good for making a first time success out of any kite flying venture. (Our pink flamingo that flew as well as a penguin being the exception to that rule.) His kite was a basic delta flyer and he got it up really high right away. I guess the thing that struck me as I played with all of these kids and their toys was how rich the toys made the experience. It sounds a little strange coming from a toy store owner, but you kind of forget how important the toys really are once they are in the hands of a child. As you talk to a customer about the virtues of open ended play, you forget the reality of it. This weekend I crawled under a parachute with a bunch of community children at a party, had a water fight, flew balsa wood airplanes, and set off rocket balloons. Then I went to the coast and played with my family. The vitality in these kids as they actively played was so contagious and wonderful. It's a great thing when a child takes you by the hand and shows you that you never outgrow play. It just takes some reminding, flexibility, and a little bit of time.

Functional Flyer!

2009-07-03T15:45:00.000-07:00

What do you do with returned merch? Turn it into a piece of functional art of course! This Radio Flyer wagon was one of the first things I sold, and (dubious beginning) it had no guts. Just the wagon pan. I never quite got around to sending it back to the company though, and when hopscotch moved over into a florists shop there were a gazillion sinks. Now, one of them is a Radio Flyer wagon sink. I kept the sink, cut a hole in the wagon bed, bought a pre-fab cabinet, and mounted lawn mower tires for cabinet handles. We use it when we have parties, or just when kids come in all grubby. With the addition of a candy department it's been very nice to have. Yesterday I was able to use it to wash frog rocks!

Frog in a Box at hopscotch!

2009-07-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

I know, we aren't a pet store, but all of my toy store friends told me that kids are just crazy for these frogs, and what the kids are crazy for is exactly what I want to have. They are, first of all, complete eco-systems with a layer of "living gravel" on the bottom, a shoot of bamboo, a frog pooh eating snail, and two darling little frogs. We just call them frogs in a box. The frogs are both male so there won't be a bunch of little tadpoles to bring up. There are two frogs in each box because they like company. And they are sooo cute! They are African Dwarf Frogs. They have little black toe nails. They are supposed to live for about five years, and you only have to feed them twice a week, and change their water once every two years. Coming from a house with two rats, two dogs, two cats, and a full on aquarium that needs wayyyy more maintenance than that it seems to me the perfect gift for that child who is not allowed to have pets. They are a lot more personable than Sea Monkeys, the life span is longer, and the maintenance is about the same. I was always so disappointed that the Sea Monkey with the crown and scepter never did appear in my tank. Talk about your false advertising. Sea Monkey Family indeed!

hopscotch rearranged!

2009-06-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

I changed everything this week!! Okay, not everything, but a fair amount. I was down at hopscotch until the wee hours of the morning with my trusty drill and less trusty, but oh so effective skill saw building new displays, tearing out old displays and giving the old girl a face lift. Come down and check it out! I swapped the books and plush with the role play sections, expanded my educational section, and moved all of the product in arts and crafts and infant and toddler. I love the way all the Ugly dolls look in that wine barrel! I enjoy watching the way people respond when everything has been freshened. Usually they don't know exactly what has been done, but they are so much more excited about the space. It flows through like a breeze. Tangible.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

2009-06-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

I admit, my testosterone levels are significantly lower than they should be for a true appreciation of the finer points of this "film". But I really have not felt so insulted by a movie in a long long time. I enjoyed the first Transformer movie. It does not have to be a monumental work of art for me to appreciate the pure escapist entertainment value of an action flick. Revenge of the Fallen followed such a contrived formula of shoot or blow up everything on the screen, place as many marketable pieces of merch as possible, hot girls doing ridiculous poses on motorcycles, and schmarmy pablum theme music that I think I would have been doubly offended if I was a man. The girls are amazing. Really, but you can get that in a calender. The plot was predictable which is fine for a children's movie, but the way they are selling this movie with violence, sex, and dry humping leads me to think the audience they are going for is older if not more sophisticated than the five year old set who would be awed by the plot and effects. Hasbro also has the GI Joe movie coming up which I was interested to see, but based on Revenge of the Fallen I think I'll pass. And now they are working on a Monopoly movie? Really?

Wanna Duel?....Poke'mon tournaments return!

2009-06-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

Wanna duel? Soon these words will be heard all over hopscotch on Thursday afternoons. There will be no swords, no knights, just wild eyed youngsters flashing decks of Pokemon cards and speaking in a language that involves hit points, Pikachu, Squirtle, Energy, and many other terms that leave parents shaking their heads and happily checking them at the door. hopscotch has held Poke'mon tournaments in the past, and are very excited to be starting them up again for summer entertainment. Most parents know Poke'mon as the cartoon show, and the card packs that their children beg them to buy just so they can leave the precious things lying all over the floor. Those are the only negative aspects of this brilliantly sophisticated card game. In an era when young men crave the intense action that seems to be found only in video games, they are completely excited by Poke'mon. A card game that uses basic math and reading skills over and over and over. A game that allows 8 year olds to approach and interact with 12 year olds on an even playing field. A game that allows kids who are not athletically inclined to excel at something competitive. A game! A face to face game that demands interaction, the honing of interpersonal skills, and clever quips (smattered with a plethora of farting jokes).
When my son was younger and playing Poke'mon he made an interesting and rather compelling case that Poke'mon was a more sophisticated game of strategy than chess. As a mother to many (my own notwithstanding) I love Poke'mon tournaments because it gives these guys a place to hang out and get a little guidance from good solid adults besides their parents. They become quite attached to the process of getting mock scolded for the amount of soda they consume, and the need to trim their finger nails. The kids from some of my first Poke'mon matches have graduated from high school now, but they continue to come by the store and check in on me and proudly display their extra super big slurps (or lack thereof) proudly. I'm happy to see them, love them up a bit and send them on their way, but it's time for a new batch. Wanna duel?

the hopscotch and ASTRA story...

2009-06-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

I jumped into this toy thing blind. I honestly loved McMinnville too much to let a great toy store close up. I knew NOTHING. But, I had been a conscientious consumer. I shopped specialty. I knew the name that would save me, I just didn't know that it would. That name was ASTRA. The American Specialty Toy Retailers Association. Every year I go to conference to get new ideas for improving my business and being a stronger positive force in my community. I just got back from this years St. Paul MN. Conference last night. I feel more inspired than ever. I was able to talk and listen to folks who have been in the industry for decades and generations. People who make toys, people who distribute toys, people who sell toys, and the wealth of their knowledge is invaluable to me. I have formed friendships that will last a lifetime. Every year I meet some new brilliant people who make me look at things anew. I found and ordered lots of exciting new toys, of course, those innovators just don't stop. I'll be sure to keep you posted as they roll in, but for now, I want to say watch for changes. Upgrades. Investments.... A regular blog ;-)

Webkinz ExravagannnZA!

2009-05-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

We hosted a Webkinz Extravaganza event this weekend. Since it was our first one, we were a little nervous. We had heard that these events could be out of control and crazy busy with Webkinz enthusiasts all over the store. This information had come from customers who had attended Webkinz events in past years at other stores as well as other store owners. We decided to spread the event over three days so we did not get mobbed. Let me just say on this side of things that having the Extravaganza event was worth the effort just to hear all of those wee ones say “ExtravagannnnnZA!”
To participate we had to buy a kit from the Webkinz guys that had all of those cool Extravaganza Webkinz, the posters, some of the prize goodies. The kit has the same number of Extravaganza pets for each store whether you live in a town the size of Portland or Carlton, so we still have lots of those left, and we are selling them for a dollar while supplies last with any Webkinz purchase of $15 or more. Ganz doesn’t tell you what kind of events to host though, so we just kind of had to wing it. We decided to try to emulate the online aspect of playing with your Webkinz in life sized events. We did a wishing well, and a jellybean challenge, and a Wheel of Wow. We hosted a coloring contest and a Kinz Style Costume Contest.
For the wishing well the kids had tiles that I put fruit stickers on one side of and stars on the other side. They had to line the tiles up in three rows of three. I had done up fifteen tiles so there were plenty to pull from for variety. I also put a wild card in that was a star on either side to increase their chances of winning. Yeah, I know, it feels like low level gambling to me also, but they did not seem to worry an instant about the slippery slope they were on and they were nearly guaranteed a win, so game on!
For the Jellybean challenge I filled a jar with jellybeans and issued each child a coupon with their registration that had room for their name, phone number, and guess, and they were able to put it in a jar to be considered. Almost a guarantee that if the child was under five, the guess was going to be 100, because there were a lot of jellybeans in that jar, and 100 is a LOT. Don got one little girl who wanted to count them though. Fortunately for Don, she could only count to fifty. Unfortunately for her, that meant there were fifty jellybeans in the jar. She counted them twice. Don tried to get her to go higher, but she was pretty adamant. It was fun really to see the kids stick to their guns when their parents were trying to give them some help with estimation, mathematical averages, etc. Loved the families where the child would come up, make some rash “100!” type of guess and one of the parents would want to do it for the….I mean “help” them, while the other parent was holding them back with admonitions of “let them do it themselves” .
Our grand total, BTW, was 769. We actually had a tie with two guesses at 750.
For the wheel of wow, I borrowed an old roulette type wheel from friends out in Willamina (thanks Matt and Joi!!) and stuck prizes all around the rim. There was one slot of win a Webkinz of your choice, several slots of win an Extravaganza Webkin, bookmarks, trading cards, lipgloss, perfume, etc. pretty self explanatory. You spin the wheel, you get a prize. All of this winning is bound to turn the lot of them into gambling addicts before they get into high school.
Most kids arrived without a really good idea of what they were there for, so we had art supplies on hand so they could enter the drawing contest. Oh my gosh! When I grow up I want to have an art gallery for the twelve and under set. It is such an awesome art form. They were all great. Don is scanning and posting the images onto our website so they can have the real pictures back. And of course, every child was a winner. There were varying degrees of winning based on effort and talent, but I’m sure this was the first time that most of these kids had entered a contest of any kind, so we wanted to encourage them to keep on participating.
Those that did know what was going on brought their Webkinz all dressed up for the Style Kinz Costume Contest. These were some well loved little plushies. We had every kind of Webkin with every kind of costume imaginable, and my descriptions could not do them justice, so check them out in our photo gallery on the hopscotch website. Too cute. One boy made an Indiana Jones costume for his Polar bear out of brown paper bag. He made the hat, the messenger bag, everything. Very cool. Another little girl turned a princess crown into a saddle for her horse. I said I wouldn’t try to describe them didn’t I? These kids were inventive!!
It was a crazy busy weekend. Sales were good at the store, and the energy popped. Having kids that excited about anything is just so much fun. They twinkle from their Saturday morning bed head to their tippy tippy toes. I am pleased to be living my life in such close proximity to that kind of energy.

First Birthdays.

2009-03-16T09:24:00.001-07:00

My niece Adeline turned one yesterday. She is the thirteenth child born to my siblings and me. You would think we'd get tired of it, but we just eat them up each and everyone.

Adeline is particularly delectable as she is a red headed fair skinned butterball, and the first child of the youngest of the siblings who happens to be the only boy in the family. We've never been slackers when it comes to taking care of the babies in our family, but this girl has us all wrapped around her little finger. The fact that we are all done having our own children I'm sure contributes to our complete devotion. So what to get for the girl who has everything, and more than she needs coming her way on her first birthday? It was an interesting question I posed to myself walking through hopscotch on Saturday. Whenever a customer needs a first birthday gift I commiserate with the importance of choosing the right item for this very important day. Something that will stay around, make a lasting impact on the childhood it is meant to facilitate. I always gravitate to wood toys, push toys for the soon to be walker, things that will be around for the next generation, first building blocks, cobblers benches, classics, staples. How surprised I was to find that that was not at all what I wanted for my little Adeline. I wanted to give her something that would give her enjoyment NOW, not be a keepsake for later on. I wanted to shape her day to day one year old existence. I was particularly interested in shaping the experience that her parents have. I haven't shopped for a one year old for almost six years. I was so surprised at what I chose. I know it sounds a little silly, but I wanted to choose gifts that would stack into a tidy pyramid. I love the look of a big box stacked up to a small box. Being a toy store owner I could hardly get away with just one gift, and a pyramid allowed many to be presented as one. The day before my children and I had been tooling around downtown McMinnville popping into our favorite shops, one of which is Third Street Books. My daughter found this groovy pop up cat book. It was a board book, very durable, lots of activities, squeakers, sliders, fuzzy patches to pet, etc. Adeline is obsessed with cats. It was perfect. The next day I pulled a Twilight Turtle off the shelf. It is a light up toy that casts the constellations on the ceiling of your room. It is beautifully designed, the turtle is plush, the shell is acrylic, and the colors are muted neutral greens. My brother and his wife Jessica (like all new parents) need anything that will help Adeline sleep on her own, particularly during the first few hours of the night time which they could actually use to catch up with each other. The package was bigger than the book, so it would stack perfectly. Next, I had heard Jessica say that Adeline needed a new pair of Robeez shoes. What better for a new walker than a hip adorable version of the tried and true moccasin? They can feel the floor through the thin leather sole, but their feet are protected and comfortable. I chose a chocolate brown pair with pink flowers. To go with the little shoes, I selected a Boo-boo bunny which is a plastic ice cube that goes in the freezer until the melon takes a hit, then you pull it out and put it in this little stuffed rabbit that can be placed on the ouchie spot without drips, towels, frost bite, etc. That first year, the melon takes a lot of hits. I thought I was done with my selections when a customer brought a darling puppet to the counter. Puppets! They love puppets at that age. But I needed to choose one that was between the size of the Robeez and the Boo-boo bunny so my pyramid would stack nicely. I chose an Elephant hand puppet from Manhattan based on that criteria. The result is the mountain in the first photo.
I went to a St. Patrick's day party after the one year old party. I was talking to a guy who expressed condolences that I had had to attend a one year party. He then ran through the entire itinerary of the party I had just attended. Baby gets dressed up to look cute, baby gets passed around as guests arrive, most guests more interested in beer or wine than in baby, some guests won't leave baby alone for a second, baby gets plopped in high chair with cake, baby fails to understand that baby needs to REALLY get messy with cake, some assistance, some demonstration, baby gets the idea, and gets thoroughly covered in frosting, flashes go off, presents are opened, and everyone clears out at warp speed to try to salvage some of their Saturday. Baby has a complete overstimulated, sugar let down crash and burn.
My brother and his wife were not going to have a party, but the protest from friends was so great that they felt that they probably should. In spite of the contrived aspects, all set up for photo ops, I really feel good about celebrating the first year of a child's life. Three lives are created anew with the first child. Nothing is the same for anyone, and that bears formal acknowledgment, mourning, and celebration. We could probably ditch the messy cake era. I wonder what new ritual could take the place of the messy first birthday cake?

The Carousel at Albany

2009-03-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

In Albany Oregon they are building a carousel from scratch. Not reassembling, not refurbishing, and not skimping on any of the extras that are essential to creating a work of art of this magnitude. There will be a menagerie of animals, with 52 animals and 2 chariots, all hand carved and hand painted in the traditional style of Gustav Dentzel. The group was gifted the guts of a carousel by Dentzels descendants. The work is being done primarily by volunteers. The day we went by there were retired engineers, cabinet makers, and artists of all kinds. It is a painstaking process. There are renderings of all of the animals hanging from the walls. These renderings were drawn up by Terryl Whitlatch, who has worked with Star Wars’ George Lucas, and Kurt Christensen (artist and graphic designer. These sketchings are based on the desires of the individuals that have sponsored the carousel animal. for instance, there was this wonderful frog in bloomers crouched down mid-hop with a jar of flies under one arm. Her purple bonnet was blown back in the wind, and on her bottom was the word Sugar. The frogs name was Harriette. Harriette was designed in honor of the sponsors grandmother who lived through the great depression, loved frogs, canning, and purple, and had made clothing from sugar and flour sacks. Each of the animals has that kind of story to tell, and there is a book in which you can read all of them. So in front of these renderings, there are big blocks of wood. Some are just that with words like leg, tail, etc. written on them in sharpy. Some are being chiseled while we watch, some are being sanded, and some are being painted. A few are actually finished, and they sit in the foyer where the children are encouraged to climb up and sit on their backs. It's such a wonderful opportunity to see this work in progress. The smells of the workshop, the feel of the wood as it goes from a rough block to a shiny colorful carousel animal. There are many opportunities in this world to ride a carousel, but I don't imagine many to see one being created. You should check it out. While you're there, just up the street is a little toy store called Frogs and Pollywogs. A friend of mine named Celia owns it. She is the one who told me about the carousel project in the first place. Pop in and tell her I sent you.

A space of our own

2009-03-09T23:30:00.000-07:00

It's finally time for the chicken house that I built for chickens to become Rowan's club house. We had chickens, then it was Zoe's play house. She drug all sorts of oddments out there to rot in the Oregon damp. She would play for a week, then abandon and leave many blankets, pillows and towels behind to be populated by the mildew and mold that abounds here. Finally it was abandoned for too long, and her older brother decided he should take it over. I can't recall if there was an exchange of money or favors for this transaction, or if she just let him have it. Devon has had many forts of his own. We lived on 80 acres in Oklahoma and he had two of the coolest forts ever there. He has built forts up in the tops of the arborvitae hedge that we have now. More like a cat walk really along the top of the hedge for about fifteen feet. This time he wanted a place of his own down at ground level. What the heck, Zoe wasn't using it anymore, why not? I'll tell you why not. Because the things that an eleven year old does in a place of his own, and the things that a sixteen year old does in a place of his own are two entirely different things. Devon had that place of his own for about eight months. He and some buddies carried a couch that was out on the street about 3/4 of a mile to furnish the thing. They spent a long wonderful summer out there on that couch in that fort. A summer that I am sure they will remember for the rest of their lives. But, when the weather changed, they continued to want to hang out there. It just did not seem like a good idea and it was becoming more and more obvious that the "He man woman haters club" was not what we had going on in our back yard. That spring, we ordered some chicks from the feed store, and moved Devon out. The chicks had lost all of their downy fluff, and grown to full grown, but were not yet laying when we acquired a Jack Russell terrier. Jack was a very naughty dog. We have no chickens. Our daughter is now vegetarian. Somehow, we still have the dog. It's a long story. The chicken/ play house has sat vacant since that time. Now it's Rowans turn. He and I spent the afternoon out there cleaning it up and getting it ready for the conversion. We got rid of all of the Zoe, and Devon, and chicken. We tore off the addition that Devon had added to the chicken house, and plan to put on a more sturdy addition of our own. Rowan wants windows, and he was talking about dry wall. We'll see what he gets when all is said and done. It's the dreaming and planning that give us the real pleasure. When you get the things you want, you replace the dreams with reality, and reality is never quite as good as the dream. So, Rowan is dreaming, and we are waiting for better weather to come around again (it will someday I'm certain!)I'm pretty sure that every child dreams of and plans an elaborate play house, (or perhaps a very simple one, but mine were always elaborate)and as we become adults very little in that changes. I still remember as a small child watching my dad design his dream house on graph paper. He took very little time off of work, but I remember him spending hours on that one particular dream. He never realized it, but it sure did give him pleasure to plan. We all need a place of our own, a quiet corner to plan our life's escapade. We sell a lot of play house tents, tunnels and tubes at hopscotch. Pop up places for children to enjoy their own space at the youngest of ages. Rowan was not down with that option as good as it sounded to me. Last year, the rocket ship by bazoongi was enough. This year we are building our own. From scratch. With wood, and nails and saws. And time, that of course is the biggest commodity of childhood. Plenty of that.

Santa Claus and saying goodbye

2009-02-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

That's peter. Isn't he darling? And Santa of course. Why do I have a picture of Santa in a late February blog? Quite honestly because when it was time to write about Santa I was getting home late with gift-wrap worn hands and crashing into bed only to wake with a gasp the next morning and start the cycle over. Now, in late February, I find that writing my blog is a great means of avoiding all of the orders that should be written. So I search through my photos and find my next assignment, and here nestled between Valentines day and Easter, is my Santa blog. I chose a picture that had Peter in it because the ones I had of Charlotte, Peter's sister were not quite as good. Peter, Charlotte, and their new brother Calvin whom they adopted from China in the fall of 2008 just moved to Eugene. Their mom and dad, Jenny and John relocated for work related reasons. It always makes me sad to lose a great family from our community. I feel sometimes like we're building a puzzle here, but the pieces are made of clay rather than cardboard, so there is some room for bending and melding to each other, and when a piece is removed, it takes with it a little of us stuck to the sides, and leaves a little of it behind with the rest of us. I know it makes our community richer to have so much ebb and flow, but I do hate to see the good ones go. The Fords are a good family, thoughtful, active contributors to their community. We'll miss them.
The other side of the picture of course, is Santa. Our Santa's helper is none other than my husband Don. He is forever going on about how dreadful his beard is. How he doesn't look as good as this Santa or that Santa. I tell you though, when a child walks up to see Santa, they are not analyzing the quality of his beard. They are completely drawn into the sincerity in his eyes. Don is a sincere Santa. He takes extra measures to make them feel comfortable and unafraid, he gets down from the chair and plays with them at the train table, and when he asks them what they would like to have for Christmas, it is obvious that he really cares about the answer. As they leave he gives each child a task to do on Christmas eve, and whether it is leaving carrots out for the reindeer, or cookies and milk for him, they all walk a little taller just for having been asked. We've done Santa for five years at the store now, and the experiences are priceless. From the fill in Santa who came with his beard on upside down, to the child who insisted that he "didn't want that big red guy to come in his house!" Every year we groan and wonder if we really want to do this again, every year in the middle of the season, Don is sure he does not, and uncertain as to how I roped him into it, and every year after it is over, it has the glow of an unwrapped Christmas tree. Balls are broken, tinsel hangs askance, but the lights are on, the appetites are sated, the work is done, and the magic remains. Happy memories, snapshots, big sighs, and a determination to enjoy the fruit of ones labors. And the children, my Lord, the children! There are many that if they were not accompanied by their parents I would not recognize. Rarely do I get to see them all spit polished and shined. Usually, I get them at 2:00 in the afternoon with rings of sweat and dust from the dragon park on their hot little necks, ice cream from Serendipity's running down their chins, Saturday bed head, and grass stains on their knees. Santa is another story. They come draped in velvet and bows, red and black plaids, button down shirts and mini Stetson's. Santa gets the Sunday best. And they glow! They know how darling they look, and that they are there on an important mission.
Well now, Easter is on it's way, and here I sit all prepped for Christmas. Before I get ahead of myself, I should put this blog away. It just would not do to have me excited to see the plush reps plop open their Christmas catalogs next month. There, that's better, I'm gagging just a little bit already.

barbie, the one and only

2009-02-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

As ASTRA members every year we get to do something that is cooler than cool. We get to have a party at the FAO Schwarz in New York City after hours. Those marvelous tin soldiers are there to greet us and take our coats. We are served and catered to, wined and dined, there is music and dancing. There are no screaming selfish children to interfere with our play time. We get first dibs on the slot car track. We get to have puppets made in our likeness. We get to paint our own pottery, design our own hot wheels, and we get to do it all with a glass of wine in one hand. For me every year the highlight is not the latest educational toy, or the hippest piece of urban art for babies on the bleeding edge of cool. For me the magic is with Barbie.The old girl is fifty this year, aging right alongside the rest of the baby boomers. I understand, as a strong modern woman I am supposed to look at her as the ultimate objectification of woman. Worse yet, of everything a woman can never hope to be. The carrot on a stick that leads our daughters to hate their flat chests and brunette hair, to binge and purge and go the way of the Karen Carpenter. But truly, I think she is magnificent. Maybe it's that I never once for a moment thought that I would be anything like Barbie. I played with fisher price little people and never expected to lose my arms and legs, I played with smurfs and growing up to be blue was a thought I never entertained, I played with Weebles and well, let's not go there. In the same way I played with Barbie and never expected to have size XX breasts with a 12 inch waist, or whatever they have figured out the measurement would be "if Barbie were a real woman". Now, my experience with Barbie was different from most girls. She came into my life when I was in the fifth grade. My family had to move in with my grandparents, and my Aunt Mary had a collection of Barbies from the 60's. These dolls had the zebra print swim suits, and leopard shoes and hand bags. They looked like Jackie O and Audrey Hepburn and every strong gracious female figure you could imagine. And I was older. Perhaps too old to play with dolls, but she was so compelling, and I did have three younger siblings to provide me with a cover. We spent hour after hour, afternoon upon afternoon taking our Barbies to the disco, and to the mall. Building apartments out of apple crates and bathroom towels, shoe box beds and stools made from cans of green beans draped with handkerchief's. We were in our own little world, and it had nothing to do with self loathing. It had to do with creativity and self expression. With growing up and trying on some of those grown up roles without having to really own them. (Ken and Barbie were often found naked in the shoe box together) Feeling our budding sexuality and our sense of what our lives might look like in ten years when we would be free to make our own choices, and drive our convertible to the disco and hang out at the mall, and break up with friends because they are dating our guy behind our back. All of these things, these games we enacted were so crucial to our development that I love Barbie for her beauty and for the service that she provided to me and to all of my little sisters. Barbie looks different now. I personally feel that she is a shadow of what she once was. All that pink and glitter, and much less in the way of class and poise. Her eyes are bigger, and more wide set. Her nose is rounded rather than pointed at the end. Her face is longer, and her lips fuller. I stood and analyzed and tried to give it a positive spin. "Maybe she is a better representation of our multi-cultural world" I thought. But really, I think that the Bratz have been so successful that Mattel has morphed Barbie and made her just a little bratty, which is a shame because a lady like Barbie should never be a brat. Even with these changes and what I feel is a general watering down of Barbie the iconic, I am certain that all over this country there are little girls, and some not so little girls, finding themselves through a 12 inch poseable doll. I am equally certain that the image of the doll is molded and shaped by the child as much as the child's self image is shaped by her play with the doll, and that she has no expectation or even desire to look like Barbie.

New York Toy Fair 2009!!

2009-02-16T19:12:00.001-08:00

I wasn't sure what to expect at the International Toy fair in New York this year. It has been a rough year on everyone in seemingly every industry, but I think it seems particularly hard in the toy industry because toys are supposed to be well, fun. Watching toy stores go out of business, seeing some of our good vendors pull out of the U.S. and having to spend so much time and energy attaining certificates of compliance from people we have come to think of as our friends has been hard for many of us. Knowing the kind of money our vendors have had to spend and the effort and time they have had to put into compliance, it's hard to ask "So, do you have COC's on all of this?" We have built relationships with these companies based on trust. We have taken great pride in hand picking the safest best quality items to set us apart from our competition. These, our manufacturers have made that possible. But it's a question we have had to ask. We are all rowing this boat of liability together.I thought there would be a dark cloud hanging over toy fair. I thought that we would hear over and over again, "Well, with the economy....." "The costs we have incurred this year have made it hard to...." I have found instead a marketplace full of Play. Every isle is full of people with new creative ideas. Yes, there is a finger on the pulse of the American pocketbook. Yes, every vendor has increased it's number of SKU's under $20. Yes, prices on things have gone up substantially due to testing and shipping and raw materials increases, but there is an overall sense of optimism, a sense that we are needed in this world that somehow we will prevail and what doesn't kill us will indeed make us stronger. That toys really are fun. Mini celebrations of our inventive creative character. A symbol of human perseverance. Toy fair so far, has been a blast. An enthusiastic joy filled playing with toys blast. I'll keep you posted with what I've chosen to bring home. Today, I was focused on vinyl art. I ordered little vinyl Ugly Dolls. I'm looking at several other lines. I have teenagers these days and I want my own kids to think that hopscotch is the bees knees more than ever. With any luck, keeping up with their interests will allow your children to find that we are relevant to them as the years pass as well. It's a sad day when all they want is music and clothes. We'll keep them playing as long as possible.

Nudity and button eyes

2009-02-10T23:18:00.000-08:00

My family went the movie theater this evening to see Coraline. My eldest son Devon is a student at the Media Arts and Communications Academy here in McMinnville, and one of his classes had recently toured the studio in Portland where it was produced. My husband is a long time fan of Neil Gaiman's graphic novels, and the kids and I have read the book out loud a couple of times and individually as well.
It (the book) is a work of art. It crawls into your psyche, and you don't know exactly how it got there. Maybe it's the skittering of fingernails across the floor in the middle of the night, maybe it's the rats, or the button eyes, or the impostor world where nothing is what it seems. Like a colorful molten ganasche poured over a putrid moldering cake. Delicious.
Before we went I pulled up some reviews on line and sat there with my kiddo's reading them. "Not a kids production" the reviewer shouted. "Pastie tassles! ....Nudity!" We were all amazed at how much of this we had to wade through before we could get to a review based on the merit of the film production. Was it good? Was it true to the book? What mediums did they use to tell the story? These are the things that interested us.
My children are 11, 13, and 17. Older. I would not recommend this movie to a child younger than 8 unless they had a particularly sophisticated understanding of the difference between reality and fantasy and were able to get good and scared and still sleep at night. The reason I would not recommend this film to some tenderhearted young thing has nothing to do with pasties. It has to do with the fact that the mother has button eyes! She wants to give Coraline button eyes! This is made really clear in every trailer. Knowing this, I just don't understand the trouble with nudity. I'd rather my child see full frontal nudity than a scene where someone is being demeaned, or used, or I'll stop there because I know this topic has been blah, blah, blogged to death. Just my .02 as we ran up upon it tonight. We did all go in spite of the warnings. Coraline was great. This from a book loving family who LOVED the book. Film is wonderful, but it is sorely limited, mainly because a book takes many hours to unfold and a movie only gets a couple. So, some of the suspense was missing. The movie wasn't nearly as creepy as the book. There was a geriatric overweight claymation bare midriff frenzy in the theater scene, but that won't have the kids losing sleep. It is creepy though. Heebie-jeebies creepy. Button eyes creepy, and as fantastic as a parallel existence.

2009-02-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

I was standing in the kitchen yesterday talking to my son Rowan about an upcoming Princess and Knight themed birthday party, and he asked "Mom, why is it that girls only want to be the princess, they don't want to be the Queen, and boys want to be the king, or the knight, but they don't want to be the prince?" I'll spare you the litany that went through my mind as the queen of the house finished up the dishes while the princess read a novel on her bed.... Thought it was an interesting question though. Are girls really hard wired to value youth and beauty over power and stewardship? Is it the romance that compels them? What about those boys? The Prince always gets the girl, he fights the dragon, he is handsome and noble, and maybe just a little too good? Is it the dancing and kissing? Knights rescue damsels in distress, and get kissed. But they don't dance. Must be the dancing....

2009-02-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

When we moved into the new hopscotch space a year ago we began offering birthday parties. Over the last year we have hosted dinosaur parties, monkey parties, tea parties, fairy parties, princess parties, knight parties, horse parties. We try to keep the parties at around eight children so that we are able to do more with them in the way of craft projects, games etc. This is EXTREMELY hard for parents to do I am finding. There is so much pressure on kids today to invite everyone, and to invite everyone's siblings. While I strongly believe that all inclusive should be the way of the world, must it really be the way of the pre-school? Aren't we all getting a watered down experience if we have to bring everyone along? Aren't the best times in life shared with just a few good friends? One mother told me that she wanted to have an all girls party for her daughter and there was a mother at her school who cornered her and was very angry that boys were being excluded. She was near tears by the time the woman finished telling her how hurt the child's feelings were, and he wasn't the only one who felt this way she said. I know mine is not a popular view, but I say these kids need to toughen up. Every child can not be invited to every event, and the child holding the event should be able to invite only who they want to have in attendance. That is what makes birthday parties special. If every Saturday is packed out with a couple of birthday parties, they become obligations rather than celebrations. Granted, obligations with cake and goodie bags, but with our children's time scheduled as tightly as it is these days, another thing on the calendar is just another thing on the calendar. Of course, my business depends on having many party guests on their way to the party. Particularly so close after Christmas and in a down year, the only reason most of us are buying toys is because of a party that we have to go to. Still I feel safe in the knowledge that I am not going to single handedly convince the rampantly inclusive that our children can take it. They can take being excluded. Really, what our kids seem to need most these days is to be reminded that the world does not revolve around them. If they get left home, it is not the end of the world. It is no big deal. Next time, they will be invited, and they will be invited because they are really wanted, not out of a sense of obligation. How special will that be?

Handmade Toy Alliance

2009-02-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

It's all over the news! There has been a stay of implementation on the "SAFE TOY LAW", known to us toy folks as the dread CPSIA. Understandably, with this kind of headline, my customers feel well, a little less safe. First of all, let me state that I would feed my children any toy on my shelf without fear of poisoning them. In all seriousness though, all of our larger manufacturers, Corolle, Melissa and Doug, Ganz, Plan, Toysmith, Schylling, Manhattan, Learning Curve, International Playthings, and on and on, are already compliant.
Secondly, I think we need more than just a stay of implementation. It is my fear that the CPSC is just giving the industry a year to figure out how to comply with the law the way it is written. It's vitally important to amend the content of this law before it is implemented. The tea set in the picture is hand crocheted by Tammy. She crochets while she waits for her husband to finish his chemotherapy. She crochets tea sets,cookies,cakes, tool belts, you name it. The way the law is written now, I could no longer legally sell Tammy's products. They are made from 100% cotton yarn. They are produced in the US. They are well within the limits for lead (the very environment has some lead in it so I won't say lead free, but practically) They are Phthalate free (phthalates are used in plastics to make them more malleable...not in cotton). They are hand made here in my own town. They are some of the coolest most unique items in the store and yet, they would be illegal for me to sell.
Why? Because Tammy can't afford the $300- $4,000 per batch for testing. And,I dare say, you don't want to pay her $300 for a tea set. The way the law is currently written if every strand of yarn she puts into her product has been tested free of lead and phthalates, she still has to test the finished tea sets. There are also no exemptions on testing for materials that don't ever contain lead or phthalates. Unpainted wood, cotton, wool, and other organic materials.
We need standards and requirements. That of course was borne out by the recalls of 2007. We just need to write a law that makes sense, and does not put our small manufacturers out of business. The big guys like Mattel and Hasbro will have no problem meeting these requirements. One test over a batch of a million Bratz dolls only marginally impacts the cost to manufacture each doll. They also have the advantage that the majority of testing labs are in China where they manufacture. The ironic thing is that it was the large manufacturers who had quality control issues in the first place, and as a punishment we are going to put their domestic and European competitors out of business.
There are several European manufacturers, most notably Selecta, that have decided that the US and this law are not worth the trouble, and they will be ceasing shipments to the states. These are great companies with decades of experience selling toys that meet the highest standards in the world, but they can't justify the costs of doing business with us anymore. *sigh*, I call, I fax, I e-mail, I write, and there are thousands of us the handmade toy alliance. It is now time to get to work on influencing amendments to this over-reaching and faulty piece of legislation. We are worried about our cottage industries, our U.S. craftspeople. We don't want to reduce the number of quality toys our children have available to them. We love the folks who are making them. They love making toys for our children. We need to let them keep doing that.

Lollipop. Lollipop, Oh Lolly!

2009-02-03T23:02:00.000-08:00

We finally got our first shipment of candy in the toy store towards the end of December. Most of it arrived just before the big snow hit. We bought it through a local lady who used to have a candy store here in town and now wants to do some distributing for the companies she became familiar with. She brought over three gumball machines, one of which is about five feet tall. So cool. She can't find the keys to it though, and the gumballs in it are about as hard as the jawbreakers in the other machine with no way of getting them out to replace them with fresh gumballs (except quarters of course, but I'm afraid we do not have the keys to empty the coin drop either). A little bit of a tease. They look spectacular, one inch spheres of color promising sweet fruity pleasure, but alas, we have out of order signs on them as of yet.
If you put the lollipops we got in on a scale, they would probably weigh about as much as I do...or about as much as I did before the candy counter was stocked ;-) I love to look at them arranged on the counter. I have stuck them down in clear glass vases of what looks like sugar, but is actually salt (no caking issues, and easier clean up if anyone ever knocks it over). Vase after vase of immediate gratification on a stick. We have bagged candies of course, gummies, chocolates, licorice, old fashioned Kits, Sugar Daddy's, Licorice Pipes, Wax lips, etc. But it's the bright lollie's and eye popping colors of those gumballs that really makes my heart happy. That's the sex appeal I was looking for. Whimsy, promise, sublime succulence. True, I do feel a little like a crack peddler every time I hear a little voice beg, plead, and cajole a parent for a sweet little something. I know there is probably a special place in hell for people like me. But I'm choosing to believe that what I'm really doing is creating mythical memories of a place of joy and fantasy. The child's wonderland where everything you ever wanted was right there for the taking...until Mommy said "No!"

CPSC idiot proofing

2008-11-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

I carry loose marbles in my store. I love to watch the kids go through the pails and select their favorite few. I am required by law to post a sign with them that says "Warning, Loose Marbles...Choking Hazard." etc. and so forth. To this I have added a sign of my own that reads "While we have your attention, we should also like to advise you that running with scissors can lead to missing eyeballs." In other words, we are sorry to insult you (and clutter up our display) with ridiculously obvious warnings. Everyone knows that marbles are a choking hazard. Actually, I would say that everyone BELIEVES that marbles are a choking hazard. I have personally found that standard sized marbles are both too small and too smooth to pose any real choking threat. Contrary to popular belief, they pass through the system without any real changes to the system, or the marble. But, for the sake of today's argument we can say that it is well known that marbles are a choking hazard. Why do I need to post a sign? But I have, no big. Now though, the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) has decided that we need labels on every web image, every catalog image, any print material that aims to sell a toy to a child. Labels on EVERY image that might in some way if miss used harm a child. These requirements do not apply to television commercials (*gasp!* next thing you know they would have to actually say that captain crunch is bad for you on their advertising), but for stores that have a web-site, like hopscotch, and catalog, like hopscotch, it is a real nightmare to become compliant. Worse than that, I believe it defeats the purpose of having warnings. The way it is now, if a toy has a warning, parents read it carefully, they recognize that there are real hazards involved with this toy. I fear that when labels are everywhere, they will become invisible to the consumer. I understand that this is a reaction to the pressure to do something in response to all of the toy recalls from 2007, but I feel that it is too much effort in the wrong direction. Though I must admit that having more careful guidelines may have helped my parents with their toy offerings. And now, I present the top ten worst toys as compiled by radar online
#1: Lawn Darts - Nothing like a metal spike in your head to cement friendship.
#2: The Atomic Energy Lab - complete with Geiger-counter and Uranium bearing ore -
#3: Mini Hammocks that can strangle your children to death.
#4: The Snacktime Cabbage Patch Doll, capable of eating carrots, ponytails or fingers with gay abandon and probably inspiration for the “Chucky” horror movies.
#5: The Skydancer Barbie Rocket - guaranteed to leap from her perch and slice your eyes out.
#6: the Bat Masterson Derringer Belt Gun - because flaming gunpowder near your testicles is a good thing.
#7: The Creepy Crawly Stove-top Goop - toxic and hundreds of degrees in temperature, great to throw at your sister.
#8: The Johnny Reb, 30-inch “authentic civil war” cannon - complete with cannon balls, ramrod and civil war flag - my personal favourite due to the embedded youtube video advert from the early 60’s
#9: The Battlestar Galactica Missile Launcher - missing eyes, torn intestines - cylon love all round.
#10: The Fisher Price Power Wheels Motorcycle - replete with sticking accelerator pedal, guaranteed break-neck Christmas morning fun.

I think recently I would add Aquadots, the SpinMaster product that would create a date rape drug affect in your child if he or she put them in their mouth.
All in all I'd have to say that I trust that intelligent parents are going to know a dangerous toy when they see it, (and sometimes decide that the benefits outweigh the risks). I also believe that no amount of labeling will protect the child of a careless parent, and that sometimes even careful parents find that circumstances conspire to the worst end, again not something that can be prevented by a label. Now I think I'll take my ten year old and go jump on the trampoline.

Live Local, be Local, Buy Local

2008-11-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I am a rabid supporter of local business. I believe that the face of McMinnville would be very drab indeed if local businesses closed and left us all to wallow in the gluttonous mediocrity of the big box offerings. Independent businesses are an important part of the fabric of community that national chains can never be. They are organic growing things constantly responding to the trends and desires of their local community, and in this are a reflection of that

community. Well, I could go on and on, but I do have a point. Last night, we had a party. A party to celebrate all things local. Local music, local businesses, local supporters of business, local non-profits, all strands in the web. There were about twenty local businesses presenting their holiday offerings. There were six tables laden heavy with coupons, catalogs, and samples of goods and services available at these businesses, and many were there collecting the coupons that were out. hopscotch was there of course, and Third Street Books, Movietime video, Found Objects, and Value Pages. I mention these businesses in particular, because we all worked very hard to put this event together. We are step by step, event by event working to develop a strong sense of buy local pride in McMinnville. One window cling at a time we are getting the job done. I was asked today what our mission statement would be if we had one, and I said to support and promote locally owned businesses, and in so doing support the strength and individuality of McMinnville. Even if my business failed it would still be a passion of mine, because community is a passion of mine. Local business creates, supports, and responds to local community. Well, blah blah blah, it was a great night, and with any luck, the ball will keep rolling, the ripples will spread, and Wal Mart will go up in a ball of flames. That would be very pretty to see.

Restoration, Mending, and Maintaining

2008-11-11T00:43:00.000-08:00

I've been planning on putting Candy into the toy store since before we moved into this space. I know I know, it's evil, but they do love it so, and watching them light up just makes my world go 'round, so the parents are going to have to be the ones riding reign. I'm getting candy, and it's going to be beautiful! It's all about the sex appeal for me where candy is concerned. I think I'm more into what it will look like than what it will taste like! Which brings me to the point of my blog this evening. Well, actually morning, 1:00 in the morning. I just finished refurbishing that beautiful oak case pictured above for candy to go into. I don't know how old it is, but it is amazing. Sylla McClellan the owner of Third Street Books asked me if I might be interested in a case that she bought from the hobby shop when it went out of business, so I went down and took a look at it. The glass was falling out, and the joints were all loose, and it had been a little abused, but it was beautiful... And monstrous! Twelve feet long to be exact. Don and my brother Cullen wheeled it down Third Street, and then down Baker once I had stripped the glass out of it. Tonight was the night that I put it all back together. I cleaned the dust out of the joints, and put wood glue on them, sanded and stained all the wood, replaced the end glass with oak panels to make it more solid, cleaned all of the glass and put it back together. The process only took five hours, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There is something deeply satisfying about returning a ruined thing to service. I feel the same about mending, patching, painting, all forms of repair. My father was a cobbler by trade, and I worked with him repairing shoes all through high school and for a few years afterward, so that may be why it gives me so much pleasure. New is nice, but the history and richness apparent in something that has been used, appreciated and maintained is truly beautiful to me. This case is made exclusively of materials that age beautifully. It is all glass, oak, and mirrors. The wood is worn smooth and has a few stains in it. The glass is rippled with age, and the mirrors are all crackled in appearance. There is a metal yard stick attached to the back side of the case with the name of a company inscribed on it. Every piece tells a story. I'll have to ask Sylla if she knows anything more about it, for now, I am falling asleep content in the work I have done.

Toy Store Owners Rule!!

2008-11-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

I went into Portland last night to Green Frog Toys in the Pearl district in Portland. There I met up with some of the coolest people I know, and they all own toy stores. Pat Fielder who owns Green Frog was there of course. You may be more familiar with her other store, Childs Play that is up on Northwest 23rd. Also present was Eddie who owns Mudpuddles in Sherwood, and her manager Rebecca, Katey and Errol Noel from the Toy Factory in Corvallis, Mary Sissons from Kazoodles in Vancouver, Jen from G Willikers in Hood River, Sherri from Let's Play in Hillsboro, Celia from Frogs and Pollywogs in Albany, Merrick from Piccolo Mondo in Bethany village, and Grammy and Nona from Grammy and Nona's on NE Lombard in Portland. At other events we have entertained Bill from Sandcastle toys in Newport, Stacie from Leapin' Lizards in Bend, and Ty and Joan of Thinker Toys in Multnomah village.

We get together to talk toys, and to see how we are all faring with whatever seems to be at issue currently. This year the economy, last year toy recalls, always stinky diapers, and reviews on new toys. We always come away with new ideas to implement in our own stores. New practices that benefit us and our customers. It is through this practice that many of our stores feel so familiar to our customers when they are traveling from one town to another. Most of us are members of ASTRA which is the American Toys Specialty Retailers Association.

I am able to rely on the experience of the other toy store owners, and bring fresh insight and new ways of doing things in return. We help each other fill customer requests so that we don't need to order a minimum to make our people happy. We learn about new items on the market so we can have the best quality most exciting toys in our stores for our customers. Through my association with them, I have discovered Zoobies, Wheelie Bugs, Play foam, Quirkle, and so many more... it would be silly to list them. I guess my point is that I and my customers are so much better off for my knowing these folks. I can stand on their shoulders and speak with the confidence of having decades of experience behind me. Just wanted to mention the men and women behind the curtain because well, they rock.

Princess Grace....our store kitty

2008-11-05T23:06:00.000-08:00

It's time to make an introduction to those of you who have not met our store cat. This is Gracie, or Princess Grace as she has come to be known. Gracie showed up at our home a few months before we moved into our new location and made it very clear that she was far superior to our other cat (she is) and could not abide residing with him. When we moved into our SE Baker St. location, we took Gracie with us. It is truly a testament to her marvelous personality that we haven't put her in a cardboard box in front of the shop. Having a store pet is interesting to say the least. Our first concern was customer response. I was worried that Gracie might scratch a child, but she has been quite good, going limp when caught, but generally managing to evade those who would handle her improperly. Allergies were also a concern, and we have lost one customer for this reason. Even with all of the potential people problems, the main issue with Gracie has been her tendency to defile the merchandise. Take the Melissa and Doug Panda she was napping on in this picture. Gracie thinks that bear is her mother. She will stand on her hind legs, put her front paws on the bears chest, and bury her face in the fur kneading and purring. We have back stock in the basement, so we have given up on trying to make her stop. Then, there was the Stephen Joseph Moses basket we had on display in the store window. A nice sunny store window, with a beautiful blanket and soft toy ...you guessed it her new favorite place to sleep. Rendered the baby bed unsaleable in a couple of minutes, positively wretched in a couple of weeks.

When we arrive in the morning it's time to pick up latex balloons with needle thin holes in them, and decapitated rubber snakes...She's quite the big game hunter. She is just as proud of her virtual kill as any barn cat is of it's field mouse, winding her way around our legs and bragging. But don't get the idea that she is a woosie pussy. One night a neighborhood cat came in through a window and when we got there in the morning, there were tufts of long white fur all over that store. Turns out my cat isn't the only cat that Princess Grace feels superior to. She keeps the place warm while we are away, gives us a warm welcome when we open up in the morning, gives us attitude when her litter box is not cleaned, and gives us a lot of entertainment.

All in all, she's far more popular with our customers than any of us are. They are all so proud to exhibit their acquaintance with her, calling for her loudly as they come through the door. As if... She'll come out for a cat call....but call they do, and that is well worth putting up with a little kitty hair for.

Hopeful about our economy

2008-10-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

I'm hopeful about our economy, and not in the way most people will say. I don't know enough about all of the things that are going down right now to venture a guess as to where we will all end up when the cards land where they will. (That much Sarah Palin and I do have in common) We might see a turn around after the election, as some say. We might see a decade or longer struggle to return to where we were just eight short years ago. At present though, I am seeing changes that I am hopeful will have a lasting effect on our lifestyle choices, our environment, and our concept of ourselves as Americans. So many people that I speak with are re-aligning their priorities. They are striving to return to the conscientious spending and consumption habits of their grandparents. You know the ones I'm referring to, the tin foil re-users, the menu planners, the canners. Customers are coming in and investing in one good open ended toy that will see their children through multiple stages of development, rather than pick up a few bells and whistles throw away's at the big box. I have sold more good old fashioned American made Beka blocks this last year than I have in all of hopscotch's years combined. Puppets, puzzles, "guys" as my boys called them, balls, dolls, marbles, and of course board games are moving out at a steady clip.
I am hearing the sentiment voiced over and over again that we need to fortify our local economy through keeping our dollars local. This comes not from my fellow shop keeps, but from our customers. There is finally a realization that maybe, just maybe the big boxes are really not the answer. At first, I was worried that the fear of less money would make people rush headlong to the "Lowest Price" sale signs of the big boxes, but the opposite has seemed to be true. People get it. If 3rd street were to fall, livability in McMinnville would be greatly reduced. The influx of new residents, new tax dollars, and new industries would be affected. Schools would suffer from the loss of tax revenue, and subsequent to all of these things housing prices would take a huge hit. If Wal Mart closed, would our property values be adversely affected at all? For the first time, I hear others speaking of these issues that have been near and dear to my heart since my parents made their living in their small shop in 3rd street. I don't feel so weird and backwards in my thought processes anymore. All these years I've been on the cutting edge of yesterday!
All of these new awareness's have the potential to have a huge impact on our environment as well. What if we all went down to Boersma's and invested in a $300 vacuum cleaner that we could have serviced rather than throwing several of the $50 big box vacuums into the landfill when they crash and burn? Ummm, maybe they wouldn't need a dump expansion... oh yeah, that's Portland's dead vacuums they need to expand for. But I digress.
Frugality and cheapness are not the same thing. Frugality is a mindset wherein you keep track of your assets. You manage them. You place your money where it will give you the most return, where it will be serviceable as an asset in your home, and you will not have to replace it over and over and over again. Cheapness, is spending a little and getting less over and over and over until there is nothing but a big pile of broken plastic parts and McDonald's wrappers to reconcile at the end of the month. I see our population moving away from the cheap and toward the frugal, and that means a better quality of life for us all. Yes, I am very hopeful indeed.

A Toy Expert

2008-10-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

I find the concept of "Expert" an interesting one. I remember my first day at hopscotch when a customer asked me for a recommendation. She thought I was the expert. I was the Toy Store Owner, of course she thought I was an expert! I felt like such a phony showing her the things I liked, things my children liked, and explaining the why's as I perceived them. That first week I made many recommendations to customers. I recommended the Darda track because of my memories of my own son playing with the track at Kids at Heart in Portland, his desire brimming over, and the birthday on which he received it. Oh, the glorious day! I recommended Gertie balls for children who had developmental challenges and for two year olds. I did this because I had purchased one for my daughter as an impulse buy at Child's Play in Northwest Portland when she was about two. That ball was in and out of diaper bags, chewed on, washed off, inflated, deflated, and always easy for Zoe to catch, so I recommended it. But I was just a mother, not an expert, and felt like a complete poser! I didn't fully appreciate the value of my own accumulated knowledge. I had been a homeschooling mother of three for 12 years at that point. I had purchased countless birthday gifts, seen what worked, what broke, what the kids loved IN SPITE of it breaking... Balsa Wood Airplanes come to mind. Now, five years down the road I have made recommendations for THOUSANDS of gifts. I have read many books, gone to more trade shows than I would like, been mentored by many members of the American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) some of whom have decades of expereince in the toy industry. I have squeezed, pushed, pulled, and ridden some of the craziest most wonderful inventions in the known universe. I have written "body organ slime $2.50" in big letters and my best handwriting.
I am a Toy Expert. I'm afraid to date, the position does not come with a cape, but I do get to wear a great apron complete with scissors, sharpies, and a box knife. With that and my trusty price gun I am quite a well equipped superhero indeed. So now, I've amassed enough information that I think that I have a lot of useful things to say, about toys, children, and life in general. Welcome to the hopscotch blog.