Build-A-Bear Date

For MONTHS now I have been promising the girls I would take them to Build-A-Bear at the mall. They have been saving their money and looking at the website, planning what to get, dreaming... CAN'T WAIT!!! ... and then there's me. I hate the mall. I hate shopping. I know, I'm a girl and I'm supposed to LIKE doing that sort of stuff. But I don't. I never have. Probably never will. HOWEVER, I have 2 girls and I'm not about to drop them off at the mall by themselves and I KNOW Hunter would never take them, so I got myself all psyched up for the day and finally took them to the mall. We were going to do it right after Penguin's birthday, then the holidays were there and the mall is way too crowded for me. Then after the holidays we bought the house, moved, were doing projects... I could always come up with SOME excuse NOT to take them. But finally I decided that if I didn't do it now, I'd have to drag a new baby with us too, so we went on Saturday morning. Wow, the girls were so excited!!

Of course we had parked about as far away from Build-A-Bear as you can get, so we had to walk forever to get there, but we finally found the store. The girls had a blast looking at all the cute clothes. They had gotten a bear and one outfit from Grandma Linda 2 Christmas's ago and have been wanting to get more clothes. I thought they would each buy a new bear, but they knew they wanted to spend their money on clothes... what clothes to buy was the question.

They checked prices, coordinated colors, looked at shoes and accessories.

They even tried on some of the outfits.

Okay, so I'm a sucker. I let the girls pick out a bear for their baby sister...

They got to push the foot pedal while the guy stuffed the bear. They also got to put a heart in the bear - actually 9 hearts, one heart for each person in our family that loves baby sister.

Then they gave the bear a bath.....

And finally decided on an outfit for the bear - pink bear is her name, until baby sister is old enough to name her. Then (sucker) Zookeeper bought a recordable device... I am going to take it to my next Dr. Appointment and record the baby's heartbeat... take it back to Build-A-Bear and they will put it in the bear. Then we can pus the button and hear the baby's heart beat... can you say sucker!??!!!!! (Hunter big time rolled his eyes when I showed him the bear, the recordable device and then about passed out when I told him how much it cost.. but hey, this is also the guy that bought our baby a chainsaw when he was 8 months old... and how much did he spend on that thing?!!!) :)

Of course every trip to the mall has to end with an Orange Julius! yum! Okay, I have to admit, it wasn't THAT bad going to the mall with the girls. I have never taken them before, and I don't think they have spent much time at the mall with their other parents, so everything was new and fun and exciting for them. They were happy and cheerful and excited about everything, and very fun to be with. I still hate malls, and I probably won't take them there very often, but maybe every now and then. They are already planning on saving up their money to go again, and they thanked me over and over and over for taking them. When we got home they built a ward robe for their bears clothes out of cardboard. It is complete with hangers and drawers and shelves for the shoes. I'll get a picture of it after they paint it. It ended up being a very fun morning - and would have been more fun if it wasn't so uncomfortable waddling around the mall. I should have gotten a wheel chair, but even I have some dignity, although I think the girls would have loved pushing me around. Also, next time I think we'll go to Cold Stone Creamery after instead of getting an Orange Julius... have you bought one of those lately? They were almost $4.00 each - for a small! (and it wasn't as good as the ones I make at home). Okay, so here's my challenge to you. Go and do something you have been dreading with a good attitude, and maybe it will turn out to be... sorta enjoyable. Ya never know! It's all in the attitude!