Meet Arbor Annie – The Newest Member of the Ann Arbor with Kids Family
As many parents have experienced, my daughter is growing up so fast. In just under 2 months she will turn 10 and officially be a tween. While I love how grown up she is, as the owner of Ann Arbor with Kids it can sometimes cause problems.
I was looking for pictures from the Ann Arbor District Library Baby Playgroups. It’s been 8 years since we attended Baby Playgroup. My photos from playgroup are so old that they are from the old Northeast branch before the Traverwood Branch was opened.
This attitude was exemplified when I applied for a sponsored post on pre-packaged grapes with Frozen labeling on them. My daughter was not-so secretly relieved that I wasn’t selected to participate. Her exact words were:
“Mom I can’t take a Frozen lunch box to school. That would be SOOOO embarrassing!“
Ad:
Obviously I can’t take a 10 year old to Baby Playgroup and I feel funny attending baby/toddler events by myself. Since I only use photos of my own child on the website, it also doesn’t allow me to take very interesting photos at events that she is not the right age for.
In recent discussions with the operators of sites similar to mine, I discovered that several of them were using a stuffed animal mascot to take pictures around town. My daughter and I batted around a few animal ideas before settling on an owl since it lives in the trees and Ann Arbor is known as Tree Town. Being that I’m not an artist, I commissioned my friend Holly to make our new mascot. She did a great job creating our new mascot.
After some wonderful suggestions from readers, I fell in love with the name Arbor Annie. I’ll be using the #ArborAnnie hashtag on Instagram.
Arbor Annie has already had two adventures. Her first trip was a visit to Brairwood Mall to see Santa on Friday. Last night she dined with us at No Thai.
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- 2015 Briarwood Mall Santa
Arbor Annie around Town
I actually have two sizes of Arbor Annie. The one in the pictures above and a smaller one that is the size of a Beanie Boo. I am also planning to turn the digital drawing into a Flat Arbor Annie for times when I forget to bring her with me.
Arbor Annie will be exploring Ann Arbor and surrounding communities with my family over the next few weeks. If you run a local business and would like to arrange for Arbor Annie to visit, please contact me.
As Arbor Annie makes her way around town and I have a stock of photos, I plan to introduce a weekly “Where is Arbor Annie?” post.
Where should Arbor Annie visit next?
If you see Arbor Annie around town, be sure to come say hi! I’m sure she’d love to receive hugs from your kids.
Do you have a suggestion for where Arbor Annie should visit? Add it in the comments below.
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Come to Dexter! The story time on 12/22 will feature a live reindeer although I’m sure your readers will want to know about that one beforehand. All the town decorations are up & there seem to be some fun kids events planned (Holiday Hustle, Luminaries, Letter to Santa Mailbox on Main, etc)…