We built a bear

Okay, so clear back at the beginning of August, we met my sister Lexi at my mom and dad's house with the sole purpose of going to Build-a-Bear together in Las Vegas. As a side benefit, it was nice to see everyone, of course, but really, the trip was planned around the bears. You may be thinking how sweet that we wanted to take the kids to make bears, but let's be real here. I wanted to make a bear. So did Lexi. I decided the kids had enough unused Birthday and Christmas money to make bears too, so they got to tag along. :)
Choosing the bear was harder for some than others. Isaac saw the Panda bear and immediately grabbed it. Decision over. Sareny tried to pick the Hello Kitty with a humungous head, but mean parent that I am, I vetoed it. She considered a unicorn, but finally settled on the limited edition Hannah Montana bear.

Lexi and I were the slowest to choose our bears. These important decisions take time. I chose curly bear, because it was so cute and soft, and Lexi chose Read Bear, which was also cute. Then you help fill your bear with fluff.

Putting the heart in your bear is an essential and long-revered experience. They have a whole process you have to go through, like kissing the heart, rubbing it on your tummy, jumping up and down with it, and they make adults do it too. Fortunately, they can't also force adults to post pictures of themselves doing these things on their blogs though.

Then you have to carefully bathe your bear.

And finally, it's time to choose your bear's outfit and accessories, a process that can take hours. Unless you're Isaac, and knew before you even got there that you wanted the batman costume. He also opted for the tighty-whitey underclothing instead of the camo boxers.

Sareny picked the flamboyant gold lame dress first thing for her bear, although she ended up changing her accessories before the afternoon was through. Oh, all right, probably before I had even selected any part of my bear's outfit. I'm telling you, it was difficult to choose!

Somehow, despite all odds and predictions made by Keith, we did actually choose outfits and accessories for our new furry friends.

Even though she did not get a bear, Finley was pretty happy. I had carefully explained to her beforehand that she simply had not saved up enough allowance money for this excursion, and perhaps next time when she wants to spend her hard-earned money on junk, she'll think twice. I think it did the trick.

The final step is choosing a name for your bear that they print out on an adoption sheet for you.

Below is me with Mitchie, Lexi with Primrose Hannah Montana, Isaac with Bruce Wayne, and Sareny with Selena Gomez. We had a great time!