Build-a-bear

Today was the last day of summer vacation (for Annika at least, Emmett still has another week until he starts preschool) and I wanted to do something special with the kids, so I took them to Build-A-Bear in the mall.  We had never been there before, and the kids loved it.

Annika "stuffing" her kitty.  Emmett was a little wary of the stuffing machine, and I had to help him with his bear.

Giving their animals a "bath" and getting them ready to get dressed.

Picking out their outfits was no easy task, with so many options! (You can't see it in this picture, but Annika's kitty has a dress on).  Emmett picked an orange shirt (go figure) for his bear.

All done!

Building bears is hard work, which requires a donut afterwards. ;)

Annika and her kitty, Isabella

Emmett and his bear, Trike (he picked the name himself - I don't judge).

The kids had a blast at the store, but I have to admit, I ended up spending more than what I was planning to (isn't that always the case?).  I wasn't very good at saying "no" to them, although the sales guy didn't help.  I thought he would tell us about the different options (you can have a sound put in the bear, a beating heart, a smell - all for an extra cost) and ask me which we wanted.  Instead, he just starting showing everything to the kids, and saying, "next we do this..." - which made it a lot harder to say no to things!  I said no to the sound (I don't like toys that make noise) and the beating heart, but I let them each get a smell (Annika picked cotton candy and Emmett picked strawberry).  In hindsight, I also should've made them pick one of the cheaper bears (the bears themselves range in price from $12 to about $30 I think), so we could've spent more on the accessories, which are really the fun part.  I also kind of wished I had encouraged Annika to pick a bear instead of the cat, since the clothing options for the cat were more limited (the dress she picked out was actually for a bear, but it happened to fit the kitty as well), but she really, really wanted the kitty (and as we've already established, mommy wasn't saying no to much). ;)  We had fun though, so mission accomplished.  It's not something that we'll do every day, so I think it's okay to splurge every now and then.

Next up... kindergarten starts tomorrow!  Don't even ask me if I'm ready for this.