It’s been an exciting time for RealKidz as we’ve put our Back to School line of clothing into production for fall.  It’s going to be an exciting line with some cute new fashions and a great color palette for fall.  Be sure to add your name to our mailing list if you’d like to be the first to find out when it’s available.

 I know we have a small line currently.  While our Back to School line isn’t going to be that much bigger, we’re offering more color choices some new styles and everything is mix-and-match which will increase the number of outfits you can make out of what we’re selling.  As a start up clothing company, we just aren’t able to offer much more at this time.  What will help us to be able to continue to add new sizes, styles and color choices is our customers’ continued support through their orders both online and through our style consultants.

 If you’d like to see the clothing in person, just call 877-806-REAL or email info@realkidzinc.com to get the information for a style consultant near you.  She can meet you at your house or a convenient location to show you the clothes and let your daughter try them on for size.  If there isn’t one near you, then you might want to think about becoming one yourself and sharing this awesome line of clothing with your friends, family and neighbors and making some additional money as well!!

 If you live in the Ypsilanti area or are going to be visiting the area, feel free to stop by our offices in Depot Town to see the clothing and shop our small selection of discounted seconds.  Just send an email or call, to make sure someone is at the office.

Stay tuned for our announcement about when the Back to School line will be available for sale!! 

Myra Klarman, our photographer, has done it again! You can check out her blog here. We had our photo shoot this past week and I think you’ll agree it’s a huge improvement to the website! We ended up only having two models. I had tried for more because I wanted a mix of younger and older models and a bit more multi-ethnic feel, but I had bad luck and timing conspire to whittle it down to just two at the end.

My hope and thought is that being able to see how the clothing fits on girls’ bodies will encourage people to place orders. The other challenge we’re having is that for some reason people haven’t been figuring out that they can click on the image with the categories to access more colors and a choice of graphic designs. We have tried to make that clearer through indicating the number of items available and putting text on the page that tells people they can click to find more.

In the meantime, we’re in the process of adjusting our fit to make the back to school line even better. Our designer, Adriana, is gearing up for our back to school production and with our new manufacturer we can count on high quality goods delivered on time and to our specifications. We are still manufacturing in the states, but will now be using a cut and sew operation out of Los Angeles.

We’re also gearing up to launch the style consultant network. We’re having a meeting at the end of June to talk with interested consultants in the area, explain the opportunity, and begin the process of identifying some our founder’s circle leaders.

There is a lot going on and there is also a lot of uncertainty due to the still unresolved funding issue. We have a partial commitment and are working to fill out the rest of what’s needed so that we can move forward with the intiatives that will put us in the marketplace in a strong way.

It’s been awhile since I last posted because things have been CRAZY!! I am wrapping up the deal on investment which means that I’ll be able to roll out the back to school line in August with improvements on the test market line and website. I’ll also be able to launch the style consultant network in late June. We’re putting everything in place to make sure we have a solid foundation for our consultants and great products for our kids!!

I’m busy dealing with all sort of things but I’m super excited about where this is all going. In the meantime, school is almost out for the kiddos so we’re doing all sorts of end of year school things. Ruben started baseball and I’m learning how to coach him with that. Gabi is learning tennis (and Ruben will too) so we’ll all get to go hit balls around together. My babysitter is going to be watching my kids over the summer and I’m SUPER excited about that as well. She’s just a God-send (in every way!!).

We’re doing a photo shoot this coming Wednesday so by the following Monday we’ll have pictures on the website of the girls in our clothing. How exciting! It was frustrating to not be able to get that done sooner but it’s worth the wait to be able to have Myra Klarman taking our pictures again. She’s such a talented and gifted photographer.

Have a great weekend!!

My sister and I have agreed that Halloween is the national Children’s Holiday!! Both my kids and my nephews were super psyched for the BIG day!

My kids had a half day at school, so I took the day off. I took them to school where my son’s house (grades K-1) had Halloween workshops which I helped with, then the whole school had a Halloween parade where all the kids could see one another in their costumes. They started it out with the upper grades winding through the lower house and then they wound their way back to the upper house where the lower grades walked through on their way back to their houses. Everyone ended the day with a party in their own classrooms where lots of sweets and treats and stories and poems were shared by all.

My son was Bobafet this year and my daughter joined with two of her friends to be the three muskateers. We had fun putting together their costumes; and, between Juan, Gabi and myself, we were able to pull off a darn good looking muskateer outfit!

I brought Ruben and the three muskateers home from school and they played while I got the traditional chili and cornbread ready. At six, Juan headed out with the kids and the neighbors and I manned the candy bowl. All the festivities were done with the neighbors and extra muskateers back home and our kids in bed by 8:30 whew!

Another Halloween done and gone! Now it’s time to change the decorations over to Fall for Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a great Halloween and are having a great fall!!

Keep it Real!

Merrill

How many of you have had the joy of putting your child in braces??? My daughter just got hers on yesterday and what an experience that was! First of all, I probably could have titled this entry as “Mother Knows Best!!” because, time and again, that age old saying seems to prove true.

The day started out fairly well. The braces were due to be installed at 10. Gabi’s school is 25 minutes away from the dentist’s office so it didn’t make any sense to send her school. We stopped and had a hearty breakfast before the appointment because I knew from my own experience with braces that she wouldn’t feel much like eatting for the next couple of days. I dropped her off. I took off for my lunch meeting after the important decisions were made….silver or gold braces?? silver please…what color bands?….Gabi’s favorite colors, blue and green…cash, check, or charge?….

My husband picked her up with instructions to drop her back at home to spend the afternoon recuperating or nursing her sore mouth. When he was leaving the nurse said, “Why isn’t she going back to school? She won’t be sore until tomorrow.” Juan called me and I figured, okay, they’re the experts, right?? So Juan schleppes her the 25 miles (the other direction from his work) to school. Sure enough, an hour later I get a call, my daughter in tears, saying her mouth hurts. Doh! I knew it!! (See, mother knows best!) So, no problem…I run to pick her up. Of course, one of the brackets has already popped so instead of the 15 minutes back to the house, we travel back into town to get it fixed. Okay, an hour and a half later she’s safely deposited at home under the caring eyes of our neighbor.

Around 3:30 about an hour after I’ve finally gotten into the office to try to get something accomplished, my phone rings and, lo and behold, we have another popped bracket. I look at my calendar and I’m supposed to be in Ann Arbor for a meeting at 4:30, so I call hubby, who by now is fed up with driving and braces, as am I. Juan picks up our son from the child care center, grabs Gabi and heads back into town for another visit with the orthodontist. Fortunately, they check all the brackets this time and find another loose one as well. Whew! We’re finally done, and, a gallon of gas between the two of us later, we have a child with very cool green and blue braces!