The Build A Bear Experience

So for Christmas my sister and brother in law gave the boys a gift card to Build A Bear.  If you know me...I am not a fan of stuffed animals at all.  They really are kinda worthless and take up more space than anything.  I voiced my opinion of this when my sister said she was thinking about getting it for them.  She insisted that it wasn't about the toy it was about having the experience and making a family memory.  She always could manipulate my mind to make me agree with her.  I had been waiting for the right time to go and we were not busy two weeks ago so we ventured to the mall.  My mom was in town for the weekend so it was an extra set of hands to help and I know that she wanted to see them do it also.  When we got to the mall I told Bob that I would take them to the play area while he shopped and then we would help to Build A Bear together.  We made it to the play area and there were kids all over the place.  It reminded me of watching ants crawl all over each other on a crumb of food...oh yes that crazy!  I quickly turned the wagon around and walked toward Build A Bear.  If this was a sign of how crowded the mall was I was going to have to prepare the boys for a change of plans.  When we made it to Build A Bear we were the only ones in the store...serious!  This was awesome because then they could roam the store first to see what they wanted and then focus in on the whole process.  I had guidelines of what they could choose...no bears!  Too boring.  Carter chose a monkey and Landon chose a tiger.  In hindsight I should have made them choose the same animal because you can only imagine the arguments we have each day over who made what.
Once they chose the animal the woman let them press the foot pedal to add stuffing to the creature.  They then added a heart.  She made them rub it on their head for smarts, on their heart for love, and their feet for speed.  She put it inside and quickly tied up the hole.  Later Carter showed me where she closed it up and he was trying to give the monkey open heart surgery to remove the heart.  Hopefully this is a sign that he will become a heart surgeon when he grows up.  After this they took their animal to the "air bath".  This was just a gust of air that came out as they used a brush on their animal.  Landon loved this he could have bathed his tiger for hours.

Last we made birth certificates on the computer.  This was fun because the directions were easy enough that they boys could follow along and press the buttons.  Carter named his monkey, "Monkey" and with help from Bob, Landon named his tiger, "Paws".  

 Creating the birth certificate

All in all, it was a great experience and the boys really enjoyed it.  I have to admit I love seeing them carry around those big stuffed animals.  Check out Landon cuddling with the tiger in the wagon.