Welcome to our first blog post—we are so thrilled to be meeting you!

The world of toys is so exciting and limitless, allowing us to develop new skills and new understanding of the people and world around us. What a wonderful way to discover things about yourself when the only limit is your imagination! Being new to RVA we hope to learn and grow with you and thought we’d play a little getting to know you by sharing our memories of our favourite childhood toys.

What are or were some of your favourite things to play with? What do you love about play? Connect with us below!

Shannon: Growing up Shannon loved dress up and the elaborate stories she and her friends would make up and play out together. She was happy to frequently play whomever no one else was willing to act out and would dig through a chest of her family’s old clothing to ensure everyone looked their parts. Sometimes she wishes she could harness the massive imagination she had as a kid, but now realises that it’s probably still hers, just playing out differently. 

Yasmin: A favorite pastime and an escape to a magical world was going to a local toy store where individual pages of paper dolls and their clothes could be purchased for a few pennies. They would be cut out, the dresses had paper tabs around them which would fold over the paper doll's shoulders. Over time, the tabs changed to magnets. She loved dressing up the dolls.

Jon: As a boy Jon had always treated toys as if they were as much his friends as other kids his age. Whether it was performing awesome stunts like a string zip-line or recreating daring drama like the freezing of Han Solo in Carbonite with a glass of water in the freezer, he and his plastic pals always had countless hours of play together. Jon found his toys to be a guide into his imagination that helped shape him into the life of play that he lives now.

Nero: Since puppyhood Nero has always been very focused on his toys. From squeaky plushies to one of his plastic bones, you’ll usually find him entertained with something. Some of his current favourite toys to parade around with are his squeaky Christmas tree and his Bark Box toys. Whenever you return home to him, Nero will be there to greet you, toy in mouth and tail twitching. He’s a very good boy, but will likely never learn to share.