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No more plastic toys at Birthday Parties

When my young girl turned 4, we organised a mega birthday party for her. 20 kids total. We rented a mega play zone, ordered lots of pizza and she received lots of toys. Lots of plastic toys. Lots of Dora stuff, sponge bob, and alike. So cheap, but so expensive... You know what I mean.

Then, of course, we were invited to 20 birthday parties... I promised myself not to buy those plastiquy, cheesy toys... (some of the ones she received are still in the box) At the same time as I was looking for original gifts, my 4 year old received a letter from grandma. It was full of stickers and connect the dots and coloring pages and stuff to build. She was so excited... Even more excited then when she received all the gifts at her birthday. So I got the idea to start surpriseinthemail

I started Surprise in the Mail by giving 6 month subscription to all the kids parties I was going to. I created the concept I was looking for, but couldn't find. Something that lasts and that teaches skills and create excitements for months to come. Not Dora, not Franklin, not Caillou, not Sponge Bob. No. It is an original craft in a colorful envelope showing up every month in the mail. A personalised letter. How exciting for a young kid. It scores big points every time it is given away.

All the moms told me it was the best gift ever and they started giving this as well to all the birthday parties they had to attend. I then had to get my act together and put the concept on-line and organise it a bit. I spent many years of my life trying to think of a business to start, building plans, studying markets and financial analysis etc... And in a flash, I had this idea that took off almost instantanly without a plan and without market analysis... But it works and kids like it. Moms too. Aunties and grandmas across Canada are sending me thank you notes after getting some feed back from their grandkids...

One of them told me: This is a gift that keeps on giving. So I started to use this as my promo line.

Isabelle Larose
Founder of Surprise in the Mail

About the Author

Mother of 2 girls, Rosalie 6 years old and Eloise 3 years old.

Founder of surpriseinthemail

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Things From Another World Posted Sat, 11/01/2008 - 8:12am by MPC Average: Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome Your rating: None Tags: comics, TFAW, television memorabilia, television, statues, movies, movie memorabilia, memorabilia, graphic novels, film memorabilia, film, tv memorabilia, tv, toys, Things From Another World, TFAW.com 38 reads