Introducing Over the Rainbow Take-Away Activity Days!

Starting Monday, June 29^th, Over the Rainbow islaunching a new series of activities. Instead of our in-store Kidtivities, which some of you may haveparticipated in years past, we are offering a set of new, exclusive activitypacks.  Get your family outdoors, or trysomething fun and new inside on a rainy day! Kits include and loads of suggested activities to do with the includedmaterials as well as other items and information you’re likely to have aroundthe house.  Each kit costs $10 and willbe available in our store for two weeks.

The first in the series of four, available while supplieslast June 29^th – July 12^th is our Planes And FlightActivity Pack.  Learn about the mechanicsof flight and the history of the modern aircraft while using artistic andengineering skills to create your own flying machines!

Coming up: Just-add-water Bubbles, Puppet Play Date, andCloud Watching!

Starting this May, Over the Rainbow will be the new pickup point for Rise and Shine Bakery Breads and and Glacier Valley CSA produce boxes!  The current southside pickup location is the lovely Taproot Cafe, which is soon to be expanding into a larger location elsewhere in Anchorage (Ifyou're not familiar with Taproot, it's an excellent cafe with fabulous food and lots of live shows, so next time you're swinging by the toy store make some extra time and treat yourself to lunch.  Taproot is across Huffman from our store). 

 Current pickup times and locations are as follows every wednesday:

1.  Side Street Espresso, 412 G Street, downtown: 8-11am
2.  Tap Root Café, 1330 Huffman Road, across from Carrs: 3-6pm

 Check out the Rise and Shine Bakery website for their current menu and ordering information.  Alison brought us a couple of flavors to try when we were making the arrangements for the change-over in pickup location, and let me tell you... Rise and Shine bread is extremely delicious!

 We're very excited to have this relationship with another locally owned, independant company that shares our vision that business should support and be involved in the local economy and community. 

We're so pleased and excited to let everyone know that Julie and Eric Helleck – both Hellecks have worked here at Over The Rainbow, Julie was here until mid January – have a wonderful son in their family now.   Falon Helleck (named after Eric's best friend and, yes, another one-time employee here!) came into the world Feb 27 after a particularly long wait for his arrival.  None of us believed Julie would make it to her due date in early February, but even though I knew it was hard on Julie, I was glad that the little one waited until I returned from my 2 week trip out east before making his grand entrance, so that I could be here for the event.

Mother and baby – and Dad – are all doing well.  So well, in fact, that Julie has been anxious to return to work so we’re happy to have both she and Falon here at the store.  So if you hear the occasional squawk from the back room, that’s who it is, or if you see Julie on the sales floor with her baby sling full of a happy little one, stop and take a peek at the little bundle of joy.

Does your family have a regular game night?

Games have been an extremely ‘in’ product this year, across the country.  In research as the west-coast freelance correspondent for a toy industry trade magazine, I’ve heard retailers all over say again and again that they’ve seen a marked increase in demand for family-oriented games in the last year.  Personally, I think making more time at home for family is a great idea, so I’m not about to question the trend. 

We’ve brought in some great games to our store in the last year, as well.  The simple, fast-paced word game Bananagrams continues to be wildly popular, as well as the complex strategy game, Settlers of Catan for older kids and adults.  Settlers of Catan is the game of choice among my friends.  Watching a group of twenty-something boys who would otherwise spend their evenings in the isolated solitude of their bedrooms playing computer games cook dinner, gather around a table, and play a board game until the small hours of the morning is pretty amazing.  We’re also anticipating another game in a similar vein called Carcassonne.  I can hardly wait to learn it.

Speaking of learning games, we’ve built a brand new display in our game section where you can try out some of our newest and most popular games.  In the pedestal that used to only hold Blokus (still a favorite; find it on the wall), we’ve opened up display copies of about a dozen games so far (including favorites from Ravensburger, Gamewright, and Mindware) and the selection will continue to grow.  Play a round with your kids, or don’t be afraid to challenge a member of the staff!  We love playing games too.

Toy Fair 2009!

Over the Rainbow Toystore Owner Janet Gregory and myself just returned from an exciting week in New York City attending the TIA International Toy Fair.  For all the people who have come in to our store in South Anchorage and said, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of stuff in here!’, let me tell you… the trade show is quite an experience.  We spent four days trekking around the convention center to look at new products, learn about the last year’s advances in the industry, and brainstorm fresh ideas for our store.  We also have a great time touching base with our good friends at such companies as Beka and Creativity for Kids. 

We were excited to see the new trend for organic, green, and otherwise eco-friendly toys that has started in the last year or two is really gaining momentum.  From sustainably manufactured organic cotton teethers to science kits for building and demonstrating the latest renewable energy technology, every facet of our industry has taken notice of the issues facing our world today. 

The show overall was busting with really positive energy and great moods, totally in spite of the last year’s economic and regulatory concerns that we feared might put a damper on new product development (not to mention frowns on faces).  Not so!  I, for one, have really come away reminded that all of us in the specialty toy industry are concerned primarily with getting the best playthings into the hands of children where they can enrich lives, stimulate curiosity, and facilitate learning.  We also brought home some exciting ideas for in-store changes and our community service program.

Lastly – oh boy! – new products.  We saw some really, really great things in New York.  Meanwhile, our wonderful staff down here at the store has been unpacking the orders Janet placed at the Seattle Gift Show in January.  It’s not too early to start thinking about Easter; we’ve got some precious new plush from Gund, as well as the Playmobil Eggstra and plenty of small treats for candy-free baskets. 

Stay tuned, and have a great weekend!

In winter, the long, dark evenings can easily tempt us toward the mindlessness of the television, and when it’s cold and pitch black out it’s not always as easy to say ‘go out and play!’

So why shouldn’t our kids camp out in front of the TV?  More and more daytime programming contains themes and images that are not appropriate for children.  Whether it’s highly violent or sexually explicit shows that fill drama and reality television, or you’d simply prefer not to be listening to the bathroom humor that permeates many children’s cartoons, finding a quality show that you don’t have to worry about can be a problem. 

In addition, extensive research shows that the rapid-fire imagery that is pumped through the TV no matter what the subject of the programming is contributes to the development, or exacerbates the symptoms, of Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) in children.  

Here's an activity you can get behind this winter.  Start a handcraft with your family.      

Welcome to the Over the Rainbow Toy Store blog!  It’s brand new and we hope that it will give us one more way to keep in touch with, and inform, the community that has supported us for 15 wonderful years of business. 

At Over the Rainbow, we strive to be not only a neighborhood business, locally owned and locally invested, but also a resource for our community.  We hope to provide our customers with a clean, inviting, fun place to shop and bring their children; a place to find wholesome, quality playthings that we stand behind – not only for our business, but for our own families and loved ones; and a resource where people can feel confident that they are receiving the best information and suggestions about toys and games for kids of all ages.  We believe that this how we can help to both nurture and safeguard our community’s most precious and priceless resource – its children – and we hope that, with the feedback of our customers and their families, we can always improve this endeavor.

What would you like to see in the Over the Rainbow Toy Store Blog and email Newsletters?  If you have a specific interest in toy news, comments, or suggestions, please send us an email with the link above (the one that looks like an envelope).  We look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,

Over the Rainbow Toys