Category Archives: Holidays

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Customized Easter Baskets at Earth Explorer Toys

Indianapolis toy storeEarth Explorer Toys is THE place to fill up your Easter baskets this spring. We can help you create customized Easter baskets for children of all ages, and we’ll even wrap them up with pretty cellophane and a beautiful bow!

You begin by choosing either a plastic bucket or soft plastic tote. The buckets and totes come in a wide variety of bright colors and they are personalized with your choice of design and the child’s name. We have a design book to look through for inspiration or our artist can create just about anything with her whimsical art. The personalized buckets and totes are $8.99.

Next, you can cruise through the store to pick out all kinds of cool books and toys to fill up the tote or bucket. You name it, we have it in a variety of price points. Jewelry? Got it. Stuffed animals? Got it. Collectibles, craft items, light-up toys? Got ‘em!

If you’re tight on time and aren’t able to customize the basket yourself, we can help! And right now, we’re offering a special deal if you’d like for us to create the basket for you: All items selected for the basket are 15% off through Easter 2012.

As an added bonus, the buckets and totes are reusable! You can use them for storing or carrying your child’s everyday items.

Let us know if you have any questions, or just hop on by (we couldn’t resist!) Earth Explorer Toys and we’ll help you get started on your customized Easter basket today!

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Toys to Encourage Your Budding Artist

Earth Explorer Toys in Zionsville, INPainting, drawing and other art projects aren’t just for rainy days. Some kids love to create every day, and there are so many great products out there that encourage a child’s creative side.

One way to get started is to think about what your child is interested in. For example, does your child love Star Wars movies and all the action figures? Maybe your little Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia would like Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars ($16.95). This drawing set, made by Klutz, takes your child through all the steps and levels of tracing stick figures, practicing shapes and ultimately learning the correct way to draw a figure from the inside out. The book really is an amazing lesson in drawing techniques.

For kids who like a little free-flow painting, our Deluxe Easel ($79.99) is a great choice. The easel is made of natural hard maple in Minnesota, includes a storage shelf and is suitable for children aged 3-8, so it will grow with your child. We also carry an Easel Companion Supply set that includes easel paper roll, rainbow chalk, paint cups, medium paint brushes and more. Kids will love painting or drawing and being able to let creativity flow. You’ll just have to make room on the wall for all their masterpieces! And when the weather is great, consider taking the easel outside for a little plein air painting!

We also have a lot of great kits, such as the Young Artist Coloring Gift Set ($19.99). This award-winning kit includes 12 Faber-Castell beeswax crayons, 6 duo-tip markers, 6 jumbo colored eco-pencils, paper and more, all in a cool bag.

In addition to creating every day masterpieces, consider getting one of these kits to help entertain your child while you’re traveling or at a restaurant. They also make perfect gifts. Plus, they’re not drawing on the walls, and that’s a good thing, right?

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Family Game Night

Earth Explorer Toys in Zionsville, INHow many different directions is your family going each week? We feel your pain and have a suggestion for reeling everyone in for some family face time (and not of the iPhone variety).

We’re talking about scheduling a regular family game night. You can prepare yourself for a few “Awww, Mom!” reactions, especially from your tween or teen. But once you get going, they’ll love it. And family game night will be something they look forward to, eventually cherish and hopefully repeat with their own families some day.

Here are a few tips from Kaboose.com for pulling off a great family game night:

  1. Clear the books. Make this an important date. This sends a good message about family priorities and it gives everyone something to anticipate.
  2. Keep it to the family. You may want to make other game evenings when you invite guests, but for this night, make sure it’s all about your immediate family. This fosters communication, comfort and helps everyone build a strong sense of family identity.
  3. No interruptions. Let the machine get phone calls, turn off your cell and PDA, and make sure all homework is done beforehand.
  4. Choose the right game. Make sure that everyone can enjoy playing the game and let different family members choose the game. In fact, you might share the duties of being “in charge” of the night so that everyone gets a turn to create the event. (Of course Mom and Dad can assist the youngest players.)
  5. Vary the games you play. It doesn’t really matter what you play, as long as everyone can feel like a participant. But balance games of skill with games of luck so that everyone gets a chance to do something they’re good at — and improve the odds of having a winning night.
  6. Use this as a teaching time. Family game night is a great time to reinforce things like manners, being a good sport, taking turns and other social skills that children will need as they grow up and go out in the world. This can all be done with good humor in the context of game play and the family, and it gives kids a chance to practice these positive behaviors.

What games should you play?

Earth Explorer Toys loves Say Anything Family Edition ($19.99), a fun question-answer game the whole family can play. Everyone gets to answer questions like, “What should never be brought home as a pet,” and everyone takes turns being the “judge.” The one with the best (or most hilarious) answer wins.

The Amazing Labyrinth ($29.99) is another fun game. It contains a maze game board and 12 maze cards with encrypted messages. The first one to collect all their treasures and return to the starting point wins!

Earth Explorer Toys has so many games to choose from and you can click here to browse a few of our selections. Plus, we also have a game borrowing program, so if you’re sick of all the ones you have at home, come out browse our library of games and check one out.

What’s your favorite family game?