Blog-iversary, Part II

As promised yesterday, here are the Top 5 of my favourite moments from the first full year of OWL blogging. Enjoy!

#5: The first Reverse Mailbag
Thanks to blog reader Tyler for the idea. The first Reverse Mailbag — in which I ask you the questions, as opposed to the other way around — was a huge success, and every other reverse mailbag has been awesome as well.

#4: The first OWL blog YouTube clip:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDN3L621ASI&feature=related]

#3: The first OWL blog serial fiction
It took a little while for you guys to warm up to the idea of sending in stories, but when you did it was like a tidal wave of words in the OWL blog inbox! Blog reader Sinead sent in the first part of a story about a dog named Longear in August, and as of today we’ve published three parts in the saga. (Another blog reader, Katie, even helped come up with the title!) Here are parts one, two, and three of “Rejected.” Who knows: maybe we’ll get part four sometime soon!

#2: The Cute-off
This started as a single question in the reverse mailbag, but it sort of took on a life of its own. We boldly set out to find the cutest animal in the animal kingdom, and for the moment baby penguins are Cute-off champions. (Though, to be fair, pandas held the title for most of the year.) For permanent record, we collectively decided penguins are cuter than pandas, which are cuter than sea otters and/or skunks.

Just for fun, which do you guys prefer: baby sea otters or baby skunks?

#1: The comments on the first-ever blog post
This probably doesn’t count as a single moment, but it’s still my fave. When I posted the first blog, I had no idea if anyone would read it. But I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Blog reader Madison jumped right in and wrote, “Awesome blog, Craig!,” on February 15 and the rest is history. To date, we have over 100 comments on that one post alone. You guys sure know how to make a blogger feel special!

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Wow, lots of fun stuff so far, huh? But the truth is we’re just getting started! What do you guys want to see on the blog? What do you want to know about OWL? Post a comment below, and I’ll answer everything I find.

Talk to you soon.

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

P.S. Before I go, I want to recognize all those — besides you guys! — who help make the OWL blog great. Many thanks to guest bloggers Mandy and Aron, and to Susan, Angela, Mary Beth, and Paul for their help in putting stuff together. I couldn’t do it without them!