GIVEAWAY: Early Rider Lite Balance Bike ($160)
I don't know about your toddler, but mine is a little uncoordinated. She's had a tricycle for almost a year now and still has no idea how to pedal. She can go backwards. Kind of. But no matter how many times I put my hands on her feet and push them in the right direction, she just doesn't seem to get it.
Then my friend Alex, owner of Piccolini, the adorable toy shop on Mulberry Street in the heart of lower Manhattan, told me about the Easy Rider Balance Bike.
Apparently, balance bikes, which have no pedals at all, are the new way to teach kids how to ride. My own stepbrother swears by them— he says both his kids went straight from a balance bike to a regular bike (no training wheels) in just one year.
They are also a helluva lot cooler than any tricycle I've ever seen. Check out Mazzy on the bad boy below. It's called the Early Rider Lite and it's billed as the perfect first bike, which you can start your kid on as early as 20 months.
Better yet, Piccolini is giving away an Early Rider Lite ($160) to a Mommy Shorts reader— but keep reading because this contest has NOTHING to do with luck.
One of things I love about Piccolini is their awesome window displays. To show-off the bike, they (and by "they" I mean Alex and her parents) put together a scene from ET using the toys from inside their shop.
The moon is rigged to light up at night and that's "ET" wrapped in an Aden and Anais swaddle. Pretty inspired, don't you think?
To win the Early Rider Lite Balance Bike giveaway, Piccolini is asking Mommy Shorts readers to come up with their next window display by September 6th. Just scan the toys from their shop, come up with a concept and submit it in the comment section below. It can be as simple or as conceptual as you like.
Piccolini and I will select the best window display idea (whether Alex and her family can be pull it off will also be taken into consideration) and that person will not only win the Early Rider Lite (value $160), their window idea will be executed and unveiled on September 26th.
How cool is that??
Here are a selection of their toys (pink inflatable cows, unicorn towels, minature pianos, toddler-sized fedoras, etc.) to get your creative juices flowing, but you can find more by visiting LovePiccolini.com.
GIVEAWAY RULES:
1) If you are not one already, you must become a Mommy Shorts Facebook Fan and a Piccolini Facebook Fan to enter. Then write your window display idea in the comment section below.
2) If you tweet about the giveaway, you are allowed to submit a second window display idea.
Example tweet:
My @PiccoliniNYC window display idea is going to win my toddler a BADASS BALANCE BIKE via @MommyShorts http://bit.ly/MVJ4aF
Winner will be announced on Sept. 6th. Bikes cannot be shipped outside the U.S.
May the best window win!
Tickle Monster (as recommended from Mommy Shorts) is our daughters FAVORITE! SO, I would do a psuedo Halloween theme with the monster gloves from the books (maybe the hands coming out of sneaky places and corners) and dressing up some of the large stuffed animals in the blue and purple monster hooded towels (which I may now have to get because Bugs LOVES all things monster). Or the hands on the other stuffed animals tickling each other would be cute too!
Seriously though, you need that book for a good set of giggles!
my second entry for tweeting is a mock dress up with a vanity and a jewlery box to display the adorable bangles and cupcake necklaces and also including the chewbeads (GENIUS!). I would have the giant stuffed giraffe in the legwarmers or socks and sunglasses and a necklace trying to decide which accessories she would want! And of course incorporating the purse rattle and metro card because those are hilarious!
I would do a stuffed animal jam session. Have a few stuffed animals wearing the band t-shirts (Ramones, The Who, The Beatles)and they can play the piano, drums, and guitar sold in the store. Idea #2 is a stuffed animal birthday party. They could wear party hats, have a birthday cake, balloons and there could be partially unwrapped presents showing toys sold in the store.
My favorite items are the awesome onesies and the musical toys, so I love the idea of a Piccolini-palooza. They could put the onesies on the stuffed animals and set-up a little music festival using the instruments. Lady Gaga, The Who and WuTang…right on Mulberry Street!
I’d go for a “Grease” theme. Teddy Bear T-Birds on their bad-ass bikes, jeans cuffed, shades, rolled white shirts, and black leather jackets.
i’ve spent most of my time figuring out how to work a unicorn into the display and…ALICE IN WONDERLAND! There’s a unicorn in that book. There’s a TON of stuff in that book, so basically you could do ALMOST anything. Especially with tea sets.
We are LOVING the admissions so far and its not even 12 !!!! Keep em coming !!!
Put a bad-ass biker, complete with leather and do-rag on one of the bikes- but also put a tutu on him.
I’m thinking of a window display that is the exploded view of the bike. Each piece independently hanging near where it is meant to go and on top, we do an exploded view of a stuffed animal or perhaps just the clothes hanging in position above said exploded bike. and if the store is smart they will have mazzy intern there as eyecandy. in two months, binghamton will probably honor 4 credits in business.
How about Autumn in New York? You could create a backdrop with that City Growth Wall Decal, and then stage a street scene with the cab and fire truck rattles – or borrow from the City Squirtee bath toy set which has cabs, mopeds, etc. Might look cool to grab some fishing wire and get the helicopter and plane up in the air against the backdrop. Scatter fake fall leaves on the ground if you need them. Dress up the mannequins in back-to-school clothes, and feature some of the NYC books like A Walk in New York and Larry Gets Lost. Of course, I don’t know how to install any of this myself. So go with g-d on this one my Piccolini friends.
In honor of NYC’s back to school in September, I would do a window display of “School of Rock” featuring Piccolini’s selection of Schoenhut’s instruments, guitars and Melissa & Doug’s band in a box. The students (aka – your JellyCat plush toys) will jam to the tunes of various Rockabye Baby tunes that hang from the front window ceiling.
Don’t have the time to enter the contest, but that is one SWEET bike. Forget my toddler, I want one of those to go from room to room in my house. I’m gonna put it on my Christmas list for my wife. Maybe me and my daughter can get a matching pair.
broadway theme.. different dolls or stuffed animals could be the stars… different marquees using tub letters or puzzles.
Ok so I am seeing Curious George.
Create a tree with a big yellow had under it with the bike against the tree. The little monkey could be George.
This way you can also feature books/back to school theme/fall theme.
I’d love to see a window all about individuality and being proud of who you are. I see a Gaga onesie. Mannequins/Dolls dressed in “mismatched” clothing. A “boy” who loves dolls. A “girl” who loves trucks. Can’t wait to see what you pick!!!
I’d like to see the musical horse & buggy from “And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street” (Dr. Seuss). Get some of the stuffed animals to pull a plain cardboard box (unless Piccolini has wagons, I didn’t see any on the website), and fill the box to teetering with the piano, harp and other musical toys. Add a street sign and a disbelieving child (mannequin or doll), and voila!
Okay for my second entry (I TWEETED OKAY!)
You know that spooky house poem by Shel Silverstein? (Don’t make me look it up)
Fine.
Here:
Enter this Deserted House:
But please walk softly as you do.
Frogs dwell here and crickets too.
Ain’t no ceiling, only blue.
Jays dwell here and sunbeams too.
Floors are flowers – take a few
Ferns grow here and daisies too.
Swoosh, whoosh – too-whit, too-woo
Bats dwell here and hoot owls too.
Ha-ha-ha, hee-hee, hoo-hoooo,
Gnomes dwell here and goblins too.
And my child, I thought you knew
SO MY POINT IS: make a spooky house and use the toys to illustrate the poem. Wooden frogs, plush bunnies, scary blue monster towel, tickle monster kit, garden party squirties, blah blah blah. Maybe you could build the house out of tegu blocks. You don’t need a roof…wooden mobile owls, etc.
My idea is a high light of the stuffed animals and the rock a bye baby music and do a animal rock concert!
What Would Your Zike Bike Book Like?
Use teal, yellow & red streamers to “color” the Early Rider like the Zike Bike in the Marvin K. Mooney Seuss book. Or simply paint one in that color scheme.
Put a orangey plush dog in a purple pjs (don’t forget the yellow dot!) on that bike and display Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! on the window ledge. Have him riding over green “grass” (baby blankets? Wash cloths?) with lavender “bushes” (towels? rompers?) in the background.
You can have other plush animals “going” in different means as listed in the book (by cow, in a hat, by fish, by lion’s tail, etc), depending on the inventory of toys you have that coordinate with all the different ways to go.
My idea is to use the piano and set up a baby version of a lounge scene. A girl on top of the piano in cute Trumpette socks, leg warmers, jewelry, sunglasses, etc as the singer, and a fanciful Elton John-ish baby playing the piano with animal print legwarmers, big sunglasses, hat etc.
Celebrate the start of preschool by developing multiple sections within the window. i.e. reading section with the books, play area (perhaps consider making a sand box or a water table so the stuffed animals can pretend to play with or wash their toys, or wooden blocks area), reading area where the cow is the teacher and is reading to the stuffed animals (they can display some books there too) etc.
This is an awesome bike- we have one and they’re worth every penny! And since I have twins- I would say to incoorporate a twin scene with two bikes in the window- one boy and one girl since they’re perfectly gender neutral.
((awesome ideas here folks- the ET one was perfect))
What about a Godzilla theme? You can use the city growth wall decal (or a couple) to make the city setting, the city squirty bath toys as rescue vehicles, the taxi and fire truck rattles for the street scene. You could even show some overturned. I would use either the blue monster hooded towel or the one-eyed purple monster hooded towel as Godzilla. I didn’t see any Lego or little people-type people in the online shop, but if you have those, you could have them positioned as if they are running away from Godzilla.
Bouncy cow jumped over the moon. The moon is over NYC. Displaying the NY books underneath. And the dish ran away with the spoon.
That big pink cow definitely wants to be on a farm in the fall – apple picking, pumpkins, corn maze, petting zoo.
Fall hues, but all stemming from the pink cow (reds to oranges). Think of the colors! You could have a small city skyline in the far background (like you’ve gotten out of town for the day), tree(s) with coordinating leaves, cow munching grass/apples.
There are tons of books about fall and going to the farm that you can display.
Have fun!
Inspired by the “Rockabye Baby!” Lullaby Renditions of the Beatles CD (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/more-lullaby-renditions-of-the-beatles/) (my toddler’s personal favorite “go to sleep already!!” driving music), and by that AMAZING junior drum set…I would set up a tableau of The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.
The junior drum set (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/junior-5-piece-drum-set/), a couple guitars (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/electric-guitar-amp/ and http://www.lovepiccolini.com/six-string-oak-student-guitar/), and a plush animal Fab Four would take the stage.
They’d perform their lullabies before an adoring crowd of Woodland Babe Bunnies (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/woodland-babe-bunny/), Bashful Lambs (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/bashful-lamb/), and of course, Woodland Babe Foxes (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/woodland-babe-fox/), all wearing Ballerina slippers (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/ballerina-0-12-m/) or classic Mary Janes (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/mary-jane-brights-infant-socks-box-set/) and clutching their purse rattles (http://www.lovepiccolini.com/purse-rattle/) as they sobbed before their pop idols.
My idea for a window would be a nature theme to promote how awesome being outside can be and how fun it would be to take the bike on an adventure. It would spark a child’s imagination and really show how creative and fun a bike ride can be. There can be trees and leaves and just really promote the fall coming into season. A child on a bike dressed in a hoodie with a pair of jeans and some shoes. There could also be a bunch of flowers along the window sill to show the pathway for the rider. I think this is a great way to really show the true fun of the bike while promoting the beauty in nature which is something that needs protecting and should be enjoyed by everyone.