Why I think Indigo Kids is awesome (part 1 of 3), and a giveaway!

One of the more popular posts on this blog, from a traffic standpoint, is the “An experienced mom’s guide to kid birthday parties in Ottawa.” It seems parents are looking for inspiration when it comes to hosting birthday parties for their kids.

Consider this set of three posts the other side of that fence: let me tell you about how Indigo Kids is making birthday party gift giving as painless an experience as possible. Heck, I might even go so far as to say it’s fun!

This post is inspired in part by my own experiences with Indigo Kids in the last few months, which I meant to share at the time but never did get around to blogging. (Twitter really does mess with my supply of blog fodder!) So when I saw that Mom Central Canada was hosting a blog tour and giveaway as part of a promotional campaign, I knew it was a perfect opportunity to share my experiences AND give you a chance to win a gift card.

Indigo

Last fall, Simon had been invited to a birthday party for one of his classmates in Grade 2. I’d just started back at work downtown, and one day on my lunch hour I popped into the Chapters store on Rideau Street, thinking I’d pick out a Pokemon book or something similar as a gift. Since it had been a while since I’d been in the downtown Chapters, I was surprised and delighted to see that they carried a full line of great toys for a wide range of ages, and that they were great quality toys as well.

I perused for a while, and finally settled on a Super Mario Bros Yahtzee set as the perfect gift. I knew Simon’s little buddy shared his love of Nintendo games, and in fact my boys have the same game and love it. As I went to grab one, I realized that stacked behind a couple of the boxes were more wrapped in bright, happy gift paper. I grabbed one and brought it to the clerk, and asked how much extra it was for the gift-wrapped version. “Oh, that’s free!” she said. “We like to make things a little easier for busy parents.”

I was so impressed, and noticed that almost all of the more popular toys had a few wrapped and unwrapped versions available. I meant to blog it at the time, but well, you know. Best of intentions and all of that!

So that’s the FIRST time I was impressed by Indigo Kids this year. (I’ve actually been impressed by Indigo Kids many times over the years, as they’ve made their toy sections comfortable, warm places for kids and adults to spend a little bit or even a lot of time. Maybe this series needs to be four posts long?) But now, the giveaway!

Would you like to win a gift card for Indigo Kids? I knew you would! Here’s the details:

  1. This is a giveaway for a $35 Indigo gift card.
  2. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post telling me why you love Indigo Kids or how you think Indigo Kids could be helpful to you.
  3. This giveaway is open only to Canadian residents, excluding residents of Quebec. (sorry!)
  4. This giveaway will run from today through April 30.
  5. One winner will be chosen from all comments posted on any of the three contest posts on this blog.
  6. You can comment as many times as you like, but you will only be entered into the giveaway once.
  7. You can also enter to win on other blogs, but you can only win once.
  8. If you win, you must be willing to provide your full name and address to me, to share with Mom Central Canada, in order to claim your gift card.
  9. Gift cards will be sent 4 to 6 weeks after the close of the giveaway.

And if you haven’t get checked out the great new Indigo Kids section of your favourite Chapters/Indigo store, this store locator link will help you find a location near you.

Disclosure: I am participating in the Indigo Kids program by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation for my participation in this campaign, but the opinions on this blog are ALWAYS my own. I only participate in promotional campaigns for products and services I feel I can personally endorse.

This week in pictures: “Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights…”

This post is a little redundant, as you’ve already seen nearly half the pictures in my post about my trip to Toronto this week, but I’m a creature of habit, so pardon the repetition.

I’m continuing to enjoy the simplicity of using my iPhone for daily pictures. Funny how it seems to be the next step in the continuum from film through digital. Back in the film days, you had to bring the film into the lab and wait for the prints, a painstakingly long process by digital standards. With a digital SLR, the process was streamlined to transferring the images from the camera to the computer via the memory card, editing them in Lightroom, and then sharing them. With my phone, I can do the editing and posting to Flickr within the phone, making the computer the cumbersome process. (Especially with my aging, cantankerous laptop – oy!) I think I’m just getting lazier. Mobile pictures are the path of least resistance!

Like this one. Truly a throwaway photo, but I liked the raindrop pattern on the glass and it was the kind of day that didn’t leave a lot of room for seeking out a better alternative.

Rainy day

And this one. No doubt, I could have taken a better quality picture with my Nikon, but by the time I grabbed it, the moment would probably be gone. I like to think the grain and blur add character. 🙂

Brothers

I like the serenity of the early morning that comes through in this picture of the morning light just starting to illuminate the National Gallery and MacKenzie Avenue.

Morning light shines on the National Gallery of Canada

This one was about the light and the shadows, and the refraction through the vase. It was *exactly* this kind of day: “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” (Charles Dickens)

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade." ~ Charles Dickens

And a few repeats, from the Toronto pictures. The skyline, a few seconds prior to landing at Center Island airport:

Skyline

A rather spectacular night view from my hotel room:

Toronto at night

And finally, this one. This is on approach to the Ottawa airport, somewhere south-ish and west-ish I think. A minute or two after this, we flew over the Rideau Carleton raceway. The picture is sort of uninteresting, but any time I can incorporate Rush lyrics into my photo of the day, I’m going to have to take that opportunity. 🙂

Subdivisions

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone
Subdivisions —
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions —
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night

Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight

Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights…

Subdivisions