Category — Play

I’ve been a bag blogger lately! KIWI has been crazy. First I was in Seattle for the ALIVE! Expo and then in San Francisco for the Green Festival. Updates and fun, new products to follow, of course!

Promise, pinky swear, cross my heart– New blogs coming this week!

Here’s hoping there are more treats than tricks in your goodie bag!

Leave me comments with your Halloween costumes! I am sure our creative KIWI readers have some awesome costumes. I am dressed up as a black cat today. You can see my picture in my Cre8Buzz profile.

Also- what are you giving out for candy at your door? I am giving out some healthy granola bars and Stacy’s pita chips!

And now a couple of Halloween related quotes to get you into the “spirit” of things!

“Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween Night.”- Steve Almond

Ghosts, like ladies, never speak till spoke to. -Richard Harris Barham
“Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, ‘Go beg for it.’ I didn’t know what to do. I’d knock on people’s doors and go, ‘Trick or treat. No thank you.’”- Rita Rudner

So, HAPPY HALLOWEEN from all of us at KIWI!

Who doesn’t love Build-A-Bears? I know I do. (I have one and I’m 23! And look how cute that ghost is!). They are so cute and it’s wonderful that kids (and adults) can create their own stuffed animal friends– pick exactly which animal, what clothes it should wear, and even give it a name with a birth certificate.

KIWI loves companies like Build-A-Bear, ones that encourage a child’s imagination. We love it even more when they give back to the community and to the Earth– that’s why this fuzzy friend is our pick of the week, this week. In honor of Build-A-Bear’s 10th Birthday, aka their “Year of Friendship,” they planned an extensive party– full of giving back! Among their plans are their “Stuffed With Hugs” and “Huggable Heroes” programs. “Stuffed With Hugs” invites kids to make bears to donate to children’s organizations– for free! “Huggable Heroes” works to encourage children to give back to their communities.

Our favorite part is that this adorable company is going to plant more than 280,000 trees in celebration of their 10th birthday! The first 10,000 trees were planted in Apache and Sitgreaves National Forests in Arizona on October 16. These trees are a result of the “Friendship Forrest” campaign held in the workshops in the US, UK and Canada where guests were asked to donate a tree in honor of a friend or family member.

So thank you beary, beary much Build-A-Bear!

It was so exciting today to get the new American Girl catalog and to see that AMG has finally added an Asian doll to their line of historical dolls! It’s been a bone of contention for many of us adoptive parents that American Girl did not feature an Asian doll with corresponding books as they do with other ethnicities.

As anyone with little girls knows, American Girl dolls and books are extremely popular and are powerful in influencing young girls. Now, American Girl brings us Ivy Ling. She’s Julie Albright’s best friend and their story takes place in the ‘70’s. One of the books even celebrates Chinese New Year. Okay, so Ivy isn’t the “star” of the story, but I’m happy with this first step and think that other parents will be too.

So, thanks American Girl from everyone with an Asian daughter. Ivy will surely be on Maylee’s holiday wish list!

Note: I write this as Maylee heads out for an American Girl party. She’s leaving with catalog in hand, excited to share the news with her friends!
—Maxine Wolf,

Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble!

-The witches in MacBeth by William Shakespeare

“I want you to listen to me very carefully Harry. You’re not a bad person. You’re a very good person, who bad things have happened to. You understand? Besides, the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. We have all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the power we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.”

- Sirius Black in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (movie).

I spent this past weekend in the lovely city of Chicago at the Naturally Healthy Children’s Expo. I met lots of great, new (and some seasoned) green parents and, of course, adorable kids! We gave away lots of magazines and KIWI Care Packages. It was a great time. There are many reasons, like the NHCE, why the Windy City is our Pick of the Week.

• City Hall has a 20,300-square-foot rooftop garden.
• The city has 2.5 million-square-feet of green roofs planned or already in use.
• They host a Green Festival. Next year’s fest is in May!
• On the city’s website, has a Center for Green Technology that is set up to help business and home owners learn about green technology.
• Chicago’s Green City Market, the Windy City’s sustainable farmer’s market.
• Chicago’s architecture is getting a green makeover.
• They even have a guide for building green roofs!

Need we say more? Chicago is a great city, but when you add in their green initiatives, it really soars!
Chicago’s City Hall before the garden (pictured above).
Chicago’s City Hall after its great green makeover.

We all wish we could be a super hero from time to time. (Captain Planet anyone?) That’s what makes this video from Sienna Miller and Global Cool extra funny.

Just a little laughter to end our summer holidays and start Autumn off right! Not only is it funny, it’s environmentally friendly. We should all try and be environmental super heroes, but we’ll keep our underwear on the inside, thanks!

Welcome back to work and school!

This week KIWI has decided to focus our pick on a organization that has been given a bad name by certain members– the NFL!

Lately a lot of focus dealing with the NFL has been on Michael Vick (ick!) and his involvement with dogfighting. While this is not a matter to be taken lightly at all, I thought maybe it was time to check up on all the good the NFL is doing. In today’s world, there is so much focus on the bad news, KIWI likes to bring light on the good!

Under the large umbrella of the NFL exists the NFL Charities. Within this organization, they have many programs ranging from youth to health programs. One of their programs includes the youth orientated “What Moves U” health and fitness program. Designed to help fight child obesity, the program includes the following:

1. An in-school activity kit created for teachers, by teachers, which includes curriculum-based activity sheets, program–specific learning materials.
2. School promotional materials.
3. An interactive fitness-focused website for children.
4. A national public awareness campaign that will include television, radio, print, movie cinema PSAs, and community outreach events through NFL teams and American Heart Association division.

And undoubtedly, my (and KIWI’S as well) favorite program existing in the NFL is the Philadelphia Eagles’ Go Green Program (E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!). I first heard of the The Go Green initative while walking in Franklin Square in Philadelphia. I looked up and saw a sign that read, “In just one week of recycling, we can each save 17 trees.” I thought, “Oh that’s nice.” And I really thought nothing of it.

But the Eagles are backing up these signs with some serious action. The Birds are reimbursing employees who purchase wind energy through PECO Wind and New Jersey Clean Power Energy Programs (the first NFL organization to do so). The program also includes:

1. A donation of $125,000 to Treevitalize, to restore tree cover in Philly.
2. A “Go Green” Energy Calculator located on their site (pictured above).
3. A hardcore recycling program at Lincoln Financial Field.
4. Renewable energy project with the Saint Louis Rams to offset game-related carbon emissions.
5. Providing close to 200 shrubs and trees to spruce up the same Franklin Square where their lovely tip signs are located.

So, in honor of all the good things coming out of the NFL, KIWI would like to thank the NFL for doing their part for the youth of today and, especially the Eagles for helping the youth of tomorrow. Go EAGLES! I mean… =)

-Stacey

My favorite television show is The Office. My favorite night of television is easily the NBC Thursday Night line-up or “Comedy Night Done Right” as they coined it. Which is why I was really excited to hear NBC Universal is going completely green for a week.

From the article, “We will have every single one of our prime-time shows with storylines themed to green with our characters … being agents of change and being proactive, positive, green members of our going-green society,” said Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. Every show is getting an eco makeover, including Sunday Night Football, Deal or No Deal, 30 Rock, and many others. Even the late shows are getting in on the act.

And green themed storylines? Can you imagine Michael Scott spouting environmental advice– that’s comedic gold right there! I am almost giggling with anticipation!

In the words of the funny John Krasinski aka Jim from The Office, “We’re a paper company. We’re going to get hammered.”

So hooray for the Peacock! We here at Kiwi, personally cannot wait until “Green is Universal” appears on our home television sets!

To read more about it, click here.