For more than a year now we have kept our doors open seven days a week. After much consideration, we have decided to modify it to six days a week.

Please note our new store hours.

Starting July we will be closed on Sundays. We plan on resuming Sunday hours again closer to Christmas. Our hours for Monday through Saturday remains the same: open from 10 AM to 7 PM.

The good news is that we are planning on a few Saturday events over the next few months! Yay!

Fun Friday is a weekly event at KangarooBoo in Valley Junction. Join us every Friday at 10a.m. for interactive storytelling, singing, and crafts. A fun way to foster a love for reading and develop your child’s imagination. This event is free — no registration required.

What: Fun Friday
Where: KangarooBoo, 415 5th Street, West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
When: Each Friday at 10a.m.
Who: Babies and kids, 6-months to 6 years old.

We are truly honored to have been nominated for the Shine a Light program from American Express! Please help shine a light on our small family business. We need at least 50 endorsements to be eligible to be considered for an American Express business fund of up to $100,000. It will greatly help KangarooBoo to serve our customers and our philanthropy efforts even better!

It takes just a few minutes to send in your endorsement:

Step 1: Register or Login at Shine a Light.

Step 2: Visit the nomination page and click on the “support this story, endorse now” button. The image below shows the button that needs to be clicked.

We greatly appreciate your support! With this grant we will be able to make KangarooBoo even better locally and online!

A very big Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

p.s. Please send in your endorsement by Sunday, September 13th.

p.p.s. Please forward our request to your friends & families via email, Facebook, twitter, myspace or whatever other means. We need your help.

Twitterling Mobile

We have just received a notification from HABA regarding a problem with the Twitterling Mobile.

One isolated complaint was filed with HABA this week regarding a metal piece falling out of the wooden holder at the end of the string. It is the piece in the woman’s hand as seen in the picture on the left. It is important to note that the piece that fell out for this consumer is metal and not magnetic. The actual magnetic piece is sewn inside the fabric on the birds back and is therefore inaccessible.

There are two different design runs on the Twitterling Mobile. The older version has wooden pieces at the end of the string. The newer version has a plastic end on the string to hold the metal piece. There has been no incidents of failure on the version with the plastic end. The complaint Haba received this week was on the version with the wooden end.

For anyone who have purchased a Twittlering Mobile, please check the end of the string to see whether it is wood or plastic that is encasing the metal. We will be sending out an email notification to everyone who has purchased the mobile from us.

If the end of your mobile has wooden casing, please contact us to receive further instructions on how to get a replacement from HABA. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact HABA or us at KangarooBoo.

Thank you and we sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.

On behalf of all of us here at KangarooBoo, I would like to send our best wishes to everyone for a happy, healthy and wonderful 2009!

Congratulations! You will be contacted via email.

A big Thank You to everyone who participated!

Since we strive every day to make customers happy, create value and change the world, these two awards tell us we’re on the right track!

Selecta uses sustainable wood for their toys, and uses the wood chips left over from production for their German factory’s exclusive heat source. The toys feel incredibly sturdy and the wood is a beautiful honey color due to Selecta’s exclusive beeswax finish.

My hands-down favorite is Pedella, the duck push toy. Pedella’s mostly wood, but has flat feet made of heavy fabric. His feet not only slap every time them come down on the floor, the rollers going over the fabric gives the toy a hilarious waddling movement as he’s pushed along. Papagallo is a close second, and we got many other pretty push toys.

I also love the Pepito and Benita stroller toys. I can sometimes get cute overdose, but these guys never fail to make me smile, and their noises are attention getting without being annoying. They’ll definitely keep toddlers entertained when they’re not so excited about being confined to strollers.

Selecta also has something I want for my 10-year-old: activity dice games. My kids know if they say “I’m bored” they immediately have to clean their rooms (the only way I could abolish this annoying phrase), but these oversized dice with different themes, Playing Outside, Rainy Day and How Can I Help, are a great go-to when trying to figure out what to do (and adding a little fun to helping around the house. Hmmmm… wonder if I could weight the “doing dishes” side).

Have questions or comments about Selecta? Let us know!

We are proud to announce the addition of two new charities to our pre-approved charity list.

City at Peace – New York
CP-NY is a local chapter of a national organization that works with teenagers to empower them to create safe, healthy, peaceful lives and communities. The program is a combination of activities that examine the interrelationship of the problems and conflicts that youth care about, and often suffer from. It also develops their capacity for addressing these issues. By using the performing arts as a vehicle, CP-NY is developing the next generation of engaged community leaders.

Bosom Buddies – Cape Town
Bosom Buddies is a non-profit Christian organization started and run by a mom to 3 kids. She was both frustrated and horrified at some of the treatments taking place at state-run hospitals where newborns and new moms receive next to nothing after labor & delivery. Bosom Buddies strive to provide a diaper bag to each and every new mom, filled with basic essentials for baby and mom. They want to ensure that no baby goes home without adequately clothed and each mom feels that their community do care and the birth is recognized and celebrated.

To read more about these organizations that KangarooBoo supports, click on the individual organizations names. We welcome your suggestions of other organizations to be added to our list of supported charities. Please email us and tell us more about the organization(s) that you would like to suggest.