Highway Robbery aka Build-a-Bear

Brad & Greene the Koala

My goodness, by the sounds of my friends posts on FB when I was venting about the prices, I should be thankful that we just purchased our first Build-a-Bears, and Olivia is 4.5 years old.  Some of my FB friends were commenting that they have between 10-40 of them in their homes, are these things like Beanie Babies? What in the world is the draw to these expensive stuffed friends? I am guessing its the dressing and "building" that reels the kiddos in and the smiles on their faces just acts as a wallet opener, so the cash starts flowing and the bears done sequin purses before you can catch onto what is going on. It all happened so fast and to be honest, it wasn't until I looked at the price tag on the shoes that I realized how expensive things were.  The bears themselves in my opinion are actually reasonably priced, it is all the accessories that really do you in.

Brad's Parents were in town for the night to celebrate Avery's Birthday (Brad's Dad is having Surgery this week and won't be able to come up to celebrate on her actual Birthday - please keep him in your thoughts & prayers this week) so we all packed up and hit Stony Point so the girls could Build-a-Bear.  I was not prepared for how this store has grown over the last 10 years. I don't think I have really been in one since I made one for Brad in 2002. (for the record, it was cute and simple, and its name was Cakes, short for Babycakes)

It took the girls a little while to decide on the actual "bear". Olivia spotted this purple one covered in peace signs and I instantly threw up in my mouth. Brad did a fantastic job (like medal worthy) of redirecting her to someone a little less stroke inducing.  Olivia ended up with a brown dog.  Avery was stuck on the huge penguin for quite some time until Brad's Mom casually introduced her to the Koala, which happened to have been the animal Diego saved last night, so it was an instant him and the penguin went back in the bin.

The woman who stuffed the bears did a great job with the girls, and when we told her we were celebrating Avery's Birthday early, we all picked hearts and put them in Avery's Koala - so this Koala has 6 hearts in it.

I always kick myself after Brad's Parents leave when I realize I haven't captured a shot of them with the girls - I need be better about that.

Here we are stuffing Greene full of hearts...

The girls had a blast, despite the dent in our savings account (slight dramatization), and they are already asking when they can go back. My hope is we can hold them off until Olivia's Birthday, but there is no telling with these two beauties.