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!