I think we can all agree that the title of this particular blog is significantly less flash than “Sex in the City” but then again, so are our lives. With the movie about to hit cinemas, it is fascinating to reflect that the population of mamas I hang out with (current company included) are mildly obsessed with the show, its characters, and the soon to be movie. Moms groups and mama friends are buzzing with plans about hitting opening night. Facebook even has an application where you can discover which SITC character you are most like. It’s nothing short of a phenomenon.

Last weekend I had a speaking engagement at the Ontario Camping Association spring training session. One of my Mabel colleagues joined me. On the drive home from Toronto, she found herself bombarded with questions. You see, she is an early thirty-something single who has an apartment, is an artist, dates cute boys, has friends, and is completely accountable to herself. I had forgotten what a woman does when she doesn’t have to go home and fix the disasters that occurred in her absence. I was hungry to be reminded. So the question period began:
“what are you doing this afternoon? Oh, you might go to the park and read? What will you read…..then you might go shopping? Where do you shop? What will you buy? What is cool to wear this spring? Do you have plans for this Saturday night? Are you going out with a cute boy? Will you kiss him? Will you want him to call you tomorrow?”

Needless to say, my kind Mabel friend looked at me like I’m the idiot I so clearly am. She explained that Sex in the City is largely fictional and that just because you have the opportunity to go out all the time, you don’t actually do it. She gently reminded me to go home and enjoy my afternoon at the park, to deal with the mess, and to give the kids a cuddle from her.

So in my best Carrie Bradshaw column impersonation:

“In a world of modern women debating whether they’d rather have husbands or hot dates, Blahniks or babies, parties or playdates, manicures or mini-vans, has the time come for us all to recognize that each of us has a beautiful lawn where the grass is indeed a lovely shade of green?”

At the Mabel office, camp season is upon us. Kim Burke runs our Camp Program and has been hitting all the camp conferences and liaising with all the Camp Directors. Her mission: getting Mabel material to camp offices and stuffed into those camper welcome packs. In case you have not heard, camps are big business and we love nothing better than doing business with folks whose goals include educating kids and providing lasting memories. It’s as though being fun and cool are job requirements. Career change anyone?

I may have already mentioned that while I’m not yet ready to send my little peeps off to sleep-away camp just yet, I did have my son participate in a fantastic hockey camp that is near to our cottage. This allowed him to stay with us, but also to participate in some camp activity while getting summer ice time. For this Momma, it was the best of both worlds.

At hockey camp I had my first Memorable Mabel Moments (MMM) with one of my children. My then five-year-old daughter and I observed the players get off the ice and spread their equipment out in a grass field beside the arena. I assumed it was an attempt to make the smell less offensive. As my daughter and I looked upon a sea of shin pads, elbow guards and helmets, she noticed that many of them were covered with Mabel’s Labels.

She turned to me and said “oh Momma, you are SO nice to give all these campers Mabel’s Labels so they don’t get their stuff all mixed up and lost”.

I accepted my compliment, and saved the hard facts about life in business until she hit the ripe old age of six!

I have just returned from the Ontario Camping Association Conference. For background, we partner with many of the camps because they want the campers arriving with mabels on all their camp gear. If you want to get the idea, check out www.camps.mabel.ca

This is a show I love doing because it is so different to our usual shows, which are jam-packed with wee babies, busy toddlers and ripe bellies. Don’t get me wrong, I love the baby shows and no one out there loves seeing new babies more than this Mabel Momma. But there is something about hanging out with a bunch of camp Directors and Leaders that is pretty refreshing. For example, when they get dressed up for the big closing night banquet, it means they pull out their ‘good’ crocs. I think you get the idea!

But I found myself sitting with one camp Director at the pub last night (that definately doesn’t happen at baby shows!) and he put me to task asking why I was not sending my 8-year-old to camp this year. I had a bit of a sweat about it then I fessed up. My kids have not even had a sleep-over at a friend’s house, no way am I sending them off for a whole week to some crazy place! He then asked me if I was a helicopter mother. A what? Well apparently these are the moms who swoon around taking their kids to activities and places then just HOVER around. Hmmmm, I suppose it wouldn’t be a completely inaccurate account.

So, now I’m left to contemplate the camp experience and when I’ll be ready to dive into it.
In the meantime, I’ll probably just buzz around overhead for a while.

Hey Mabelheads,

Maybe it’s because of summer camp season, but we seem to be getting more and more requests for icons that older kids would like. What exactly is that? That may seem like a silly question, but our kids are all small – we don’t live in ‘big kid’ world yet! If you have any great icon ideas, we’d love to hear them! email icons@mabel.ca and we’ll keep track of all requests. Hopefully we’ll come up with some great ones!

Mabel has an answer! This is definitely the strangest thing to go on around the office:

A few weeks ago, Kim sent a camp a box of brochures to give out to their campers. Pretty routine experience for Kim! Yesterday they called to ask “what’s with the camel?”

“Camel?” asked Kim? Yes, when they opened their box of brochures, they found a Mabel’s Labels magnet and a camel statue!!

Kim did not send this statue. She sent brochures. Who’s the wise guy? UPS? Folks at the border? We have no idea, but it is hilarious! The best part is, the camp thought this was some sort of “welcome to doing business with Mabel’s Labels” gift and expected a box of brochures to arrive the next day.

a) I wish I was that clever and

b) I wish I could afford to UPS random camels to customers for no apparent reason!
Or can I afford not to? Is this the ultimate buzz marketing? They’ll never forget us, and how many people will they tell?

Brewster Day Camp: a box of actual brochures is being sent out today! Sorry for the delay – we ran into camel problems.