Kids Safari Costumes, Kids Costumes, Adult Costumes

Pretend Play Builds Social and Emotional Skills. When your child engages in pretend (or dramatic) play, he is actively experimenting with the social and emotional roles of life. Through cooperative play, he learns how to take turns, share responsibility, and creatively problem-solve. When your child pretends to be different characters, he has the experience of "walking in someone else's shoes," which helps teach the important moral development skill of empathy. It is normal for young children to see the world from their own egocentric point of view, but through maturation and cooperative play, your child will begin to understand the feelings of others. Your child also builds self-esteem when he discovers he can be anything just by pretending!

ArkMiPa Costumes was founded by Shirley Johnson. "Where did you get the name, you might ask"? Shirley is originally from Arkansas where she spent most of her adult life. After meeting the man of her dreams, he swept her off to Michigan to start a new adventure in the mid nintety's and have now settled in Pennsylvania, walah....ArkMiPa was born and established in 2004.

The Kids Safari line of costumes made their debut first on the website of Landon and Lydia's Gift Boutique where they were a huge success. Shirley and her crew were quickly alerted to the fact that costumes were not just for Halloween anymore. Orders began piling in for different events, plays, daily play, playdates, and from zoos and aquariums across the country and the fun began.

Costumes bring so many smiles to the faces of not only who wears it but to all who see you wearing it and the interest began to grow, Soon Shirley decided she wanted to be a part of the Kids Safari Costume Craze. Communication began to be frequent with the Designer and Owner of Kids Safari and they decided to combine their efforts with the business and bring their exclusive line of these fabulous costumes into the USA.

Jacqui Martin, Designer for Kids Safari Costumes has been designing costumes since 2002. She has many accomplished degrees in both art and education and has been teaching art for 17 plus years. Her designs are unique and the quality is second to none, with each costume going through a seven step quality inspection process to ensure customer satisfaction. Jacqui has many new childrens designs in 2010 as well as introducing and Adult Safari line of costumes. We expect great things in the future from this spectacular Designer and ArkMiPa Costumes is proud to be distributing the Kids Safari Brand of Costumes.

Our goal at ArkMiPa Costumes is to provide top of the line Customer Service to all their customers. ArkMiPa prides themselves with the best customer service team anywhere. Emails are always answered in a timely manner and they take each inquiry serious, getting back with the customer as soon as possible to an answer their questions. Shirley, the owner of ArkMiPa Costumes is always on hand and works as hard as all of her employees, answering phone calls, emails, and shipping. All weekend calls are taken by Shirley because she understands that not all people have the luxury of shopping during the week.

Adults love costumes too. How many times do you find yourself waving at a mascot on the side of the street or at an event? Costumes release love and caring and that's what we do here at ArkMiPa. We want you to be suited up in the perfect costume spreading joy to all who see you whether you are a young child, a tween or an adult.

Shirley loves costumes. She often wishes she could step back in time and be a kid again. She says she used to make bicycle tracks around her parents lawn that were permanent features as she would ride around talking to the trees, pulling up and parking, backing up into parking places, etc. "If I had only had the priviledge of a Kids Safari Costume, or any costume for that matter. My pretend play was made up by me no matter what I did. In the summer time when I was out of school, my mom locked me out of the house in the morning, threw a sandwich out for lunch as I sat on the 3x5 slab and ate with my pretend friends, opened the door at supper time and after eating, I was back out the door again until dark thirty. Imaginary friends were all I had. Parents need to be involved with their children and encourage play without batteries or television. Allow little imaginations to come to life and suit them up with many costumes that are Kid Powered." Don't get me wrong, my life was not all that bad but I needed parent enteraction in a bad way. I just happened to be a kid that loved pretend play because I had little enteraction with my mom or dad. Ahhh to be a child again. I think that is somewhat why I love these costumes. They make me feel young again and being young is so important if you have the right tools. I encouarge parents to get involved. Play with your children and allow them to pretend and get rowdy. After all, it's a part of being a kid and if you don't want to teach and encourage your children, why did you have them?