Build-A-Great-Birthday-Present

Earlier this week I spent some time reading through my blog archives with Hannah. She loved seeing all the pictures of herself when she was a little girl, especially this post where she explains how to operate a microwave. Today's post is for the Hannah of the future. One day, in a year or two, we will sit down and read this together and she will love that each moment of the day was captured for her to remember.

And, for the rest of you... the pics are from my camera phone and if you've been to Build-A-Bear you don't have to read the step-by-step.

For Hannah's fifth birthday her brother took her to Build-A-Bear (and by "he took her" I mean that I drove and I paid and he got all the credit). It was a perfect present for Hannah as she has been longing to build a bear for nearly a year.

Build-A-Bear is a total racket! It reminds me of the Care Bear craze of the mid-80's. There are more bear/clothing/shoe/accessories combinations than there are people in the mall at any given time... maybe more than there are people in my town at any given time.

However ultra-American it may be, it was MADE for my daughter. When the brains that sat down and planned out the Build-A-Bear experience envisioned a child moving through their store it surely looked like our afternoon.

First Hannah deliberated for nearly 15 minutes on which animal to choose. At one point she stood, hugging a bear and a bunny, and exclaimed, "Oh Mom, I don't think I can choose! I'm just so sad to leave all these other friends behind!"

She finally decided on a brown bunny with pink sparkly ears and feet. Christopher, on the other hand, picked out his camouflaged bear within 45 seconds of entering the store.

We then moved over to the stuffing machine where a nice lady named Michelle had the kids each press on a pedal while fluff shot out of a tube and into the animal skin (shell? husk?).

Then they each picked out a red satin heart and Michelle had them warm it up in their hands (so their bear would have a warm heart)...

...rub it on their foreheads (so their bear would be smart)...

...rub it on their muscles (so their bear would be strong)...

...make a wish...

...reach up high and jump five times and spin around (so their wish would come true)...

At this point Hannah, not realizing what the heart was for, asked, "Oh, could I put this heart IN my bear so I can keep it forever?!"

Then Michelle stitched up the bears and sent us over to the air bath to brush off any extra fluff.

Then it was on to pick out clothing. I wish I had taken a picture of the clothing options. There was a greater selection than over at Baby Gap, including costumes and trademarked characters. Hannah picked ballet pajamas with bunny slippers and Christopher picked a Redskins uniform with Chucks.

There were little tables available for you to dress your bear.

Then it was on to make a birth certificate at the computer and pay. When we got back out into the mall the kids wanted lots of pictures with their new friends.

Hannah's birthday party is tomorrow but it was really fun to start the festivities this afternoon with my kiddos.