Dropping in with the kids!

City Centre Bahrain is going emoji crazy and there are plenty of desirable fashion deals to be snapped up in the stores and fun to be had.

In recent days families have been flocking to the mall to join in the excitement with prizes galore to be won, as highlighted in GulfWeekly, with unique emoji roaming characters adding to the entertainment over Eid.

Shoppers who spend BD40 or more are eligible to play the destination’s first-ever `emoji drop’ game. The interactive activity, which features numerous emojis or emoticons, is located in the mall’s Central Galleria.

To participate, shoppers have to show their receipt at the customer service desk to receive an emoji disc to drop down a giant counter collector. The aim of the game is to place the disc into a winning slot.

Players watch as their discs tumble down the pegs and land in one of a number of trays which are labelled either as ‘instant prize’ or ‘try again’. The prizes include mall gift vouchers ranging from BD5 to BD50, tickets to see The Emoji Movie, retailers’ vouchers and emoji merchandise.

However, shoppers can double their chances by spending BD40 or more at any of the children fashion retailers … now all I needed were a couple of kids and thanks to my dear friend Ruhi, I was able to borrow hers!

She had time to shop alone while I played mum for the afternoon looking after her adorable and active munchkins, Aryan, seven, and Rayaan, four. Now I truly appreciate the concept of ‘running around after the kids’!

The Capital School students and I did a little modelling first at the Central Galleria to show shoppers some of the cool trends on offer.

In the spirit of emojis, the brothers sported matching smiley face tops in their favourite colours from KAIR which offers comfortable, eco-friendly children’s clothing for boys and girls aged up to 16. Aryan wore a blue T-shirt while Rayaan asked for green, priced at BD4.600.

Those looking for other emoji-inspired clothing for girls and boys can find great outfits at stores such as GAP, ZARA and Justice.

With the boys set for their modelling debut, I couldn’t let them have all the fun and found myself a funky casual look, ideal to wear while running after the children.

Forever 21 is one of my favourite brands and I have a wardrobe full to prove it. I picked up a black-and-white stripped bodycon dress for BD6.900 and paired it with a BD17.900 denim jacket that has cactus, numbers and other emblems embroidered on it to act as my emoji-style offering. I added a few more pins to the denim such as a cherry and a cola bottle just for fun. The pins were priced BD2.

After getting our outfits sorted, we set off to the emoji game where we made quite a fashionable impression on fellow shoppers and gave ‘lady luck’ a go with the smiling discs.

Since Rayaan was too short to drop a disc, being the good ‘pretend mum’ that I am, I picked him up carefully. Sadly, his disc landed on a ‘try again’ spot. Aryan, however, won a cinema ticket and managed to nab a second for his brother.

The duo also walked away with emoji backpacks in blue and green. Although I didn’t win anything, seeing the siblings laughing and smiling was reward in itself. Then again, City Centre Bahrain has always said its vision is to ‘create great moments’ and the promotion’s organisers seem to have achieved that with this game.

I’ve also redeemed my receipt to enter the grand prize draw. Those that spend BD30 or more at any retail, dining or entertainment outlet can enter to win a BD5,000 gift card grand prize.

Meanwhile, a digital photo booth area that places emoji filters onto shoppers’ faces is also located on the ground floor and visitors can select from a range of favourite icons for their pictures to be printed and taken home in a branded frame.

 Also available is a children’s area dedicated to creating emoji masks with colours and crafts. On selected days the ‘Kids Happy emojis’ workshop will immerse children into the different emoji icons and creating their own masks to take home. Adding to the excitement, the mall will also be producing emoji life-size icons displayed around the mall.

The emoji drop game will run until September 16.