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Friday, January 9, 2009

Build-A-Bear Fun

For Athena, Samantha, and Nathan's birthdays last year Grandma Lynda gave each of them a certificate to go to Build-A-Bear. We saved them all up so we could take one big trip all together. Finally we found the time during the Christmas break when we could take all the kids and meet up with Grandma all together. The kids were SO EXCITED. I had fun just watching them buzz around the place knowing they finally got to pick out their special animal.

As soon as we got there, Samantha ran right for the zebra, Nathan ran right for the turtle, and Athena sat there and pondered for a minute. She finally decided on a pink monkey that has velcro on it's paws so it can give you hugs.

Once the animals were all decided upon, we went to fill them up. Here is Samantha filling up her zebra. She is standing on the pedal so it will shoot the stuffing into her zebra.
The worker is holding the zebra up to the tube that has the stuffing coming out. She let the kids determine how much stuffing to put in so their animals are firm, soft, or in between. All of our kids chose to have their animals really soft so they are fun to squeeze.


After Samantha was done it was Nathan's turn to push the pedal for his turtle.

I was especially happy to watch him having fun with this whole process. He usually just goes along for the ride and doesn't take part as much. He really thought the Build-A-Bear thing was neat!
All the kids got to choose a heart to make their animal alive. Then they made a promise to love their animals and to take care of them. Nathan just finished giving the heart a kiss and is putting it in his turtle.


Next was Athena! She is standing on the pedal and watching her monkey get all filled up. Grandma Lynda is standing behind her.


Here is Athena with her fluffed up monkey!


The next step in the process is to clean up the animals. The kids put their animals on this little table and stand on the pedal to make air come out of the blowers. Athena is brushing her monkey off to get any extra filling out of her fur while the air blowers fluff the monkey.


All 3 kids were very proud of their choices!


Last, but not least, we selected a going-home outfit for each little animal.

Nathan named his turtle "Turtle". Super creative, I know! He dressed it with little boxer underwear, jeans, a T-shirt with a pirate ship on it, and little hiking boots.

Samantha named her zebra "Crystal". She dressed it with a beautiful silky wedding gown that came complete with a veil, silky slippers, a bouquet, and a garter!

Athena named her monkey "Lizzie". She dressed it in a silky pink evening gown, silky underwear, and a lovely fur jacket to go on top.

Grandma also brought the kid's cousin, Hunter, with her to take part in the Build-A-Bear fun with all of us. He chose to make this cute Husky dog and he named him "Bolt".

We also took the last step and printed out a birth certificate for each of the animals. This turned out to be a fun experience and I'm happy to see that the kids had so much fun. I realize I don't have very many more "kid" years with Athena because she is getting older, so this was the perfect time to do this activity! I've been surprised how much the kids love their animals since we've been home. Even Nathan carries Turtle around with him wherever he goes. I didn't expect that! Thanks Grandma for the fun and the perfect birthday gifts!

6 comments:

Bigskibum said...

Yes I was also surprised that Nathan had such a fun time and still takes his Turtle around with him and that he sleeps with it. It really was a fun time, Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.

Wendy said...

What a great experience for your family--That must have been a blast, and you can see the delight on the children's faces. I got choked up when you said that you don't have many more "kid years" with Athena...what a thought as a mom...so this trip was extra special to Build a Bear because they just grow up right before our eyes in an instant. I just love the gift idea, and how your family could do it together and how the personalities of each child shine thru in the animal and outfit they choose to have for themselves. Anyway, great post! I want my family to go on a trip to do this together!

The Allreds said...

what fun! my kids would probably enjoy that outing, don't know if my house can "house" any more stuffed animals though!??!
great photos! and no, we can't let our eldest children age - we need to hit the FREEZE button : )

Aprilyn said...

Nathan is 10 and has been DYING to go to Build-a-Bear for years now. I just can't afford it. I'm glad you got gift certificates. That's awesome!!

Mama Cat said...

We were at Build-A-Bear on the
2nd...too bad we couldn't have coordinated! Julie's daughter got a cat there for her b-day and named it after our cat (since they look similar), so Julie was going to buy one for Catherine, too, as kind of a link between them. However, they just discontinued that cat and Catherine had to choose another animal. She got a cute penguin and named him Tacky, after the books. It was a fun experience, but we were disappointed that they didn't have any Hawaiian shirts to dress Tacky in. Poor guy had to come home naked!

Sorry I missed seeing you while I was there! I'm glad you guys had a fun Christmas.

dena4kids said...

We love build a bear. I love the little out fits you can buy. They are sooo cute! I need to get Nate his batman build a bear.(if they still have it.=)

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