Read this quick before I delete it.

Why is it that they call that store in West Edmonton Mall "Build-a-Bear" when you can't actually build the bear? It's not like you can put on 3 heads and lop off an arm if you want to. I find that very misleading.

A friend and I were talking, and she dared me to post the tale of Kylie's mock Build-a-Bear birthday party that we held a couple of years back. In fact, she double-dared me...so here it is :D . I may take this whole post down tomorrow when I realize the extent of letting you know how cheap I am, but I have the nerve right now to tell you what happened.

For Kylie's 8th birthday, we planned a Bear Adoption party. For about 3 months prior to her birthday, I shopped Goodwill and Value Village stores, looking for brand-new condition bears. My limit was $2 per bear, and the bear had to be in pristine condition (in actuality, 6 out of the 8 bears still had the original tags on them). I bought all different bears, but all the same size and quality. To prepare them for the party, I first put them through a very hot dryer...just in case. I then opened the back seam of the bear and took out the stuffing, leaving the arms, legs and head stuffed. I clothes-pinned a number to the ear of each bear and then put all the bears in a large sac (my old laundry bag). When the girls arrived at the party, I had them each pull a number from a hat. Then we pulled the bears from the bag one at a time to reveal who got which bear. The girls were ecstatic and hugged their limp, lifeless bears LOL.

The next step was to give each girl a small wooden heart, purchased in a baggie at Michael's with a coupon. Then the girls were to color their hearts, write a wish on it, decorate with stickers...whatever they wanted to do. After the heart was decorated, they placed it in the bear and then proceeded to stuff them with the stuffing that I had pulled out of the bears in the first place. I had a big bag of stuffing from another project...I just tore all the stuffing apart and mixed it up in my giant bread-mixing bowl. There was a flurry of giggles and stuffing flew all over the place LOL...then I sewed the bears back up.

That was the hard part...quickly sewing up 8 bears while Auntie Sheri helped the girls make necklaces for their bears and matching bracelets for themselves. Sheri had a giant gar of sparkly pony beads and cording from another project and donated them to Kylie's party :D . She's a great Auntie :D .

Then we took a picture of all the girls holding their completed bears! The party went great, and each girl took home the bear, along with an envelope that contained a funky pencil, a mini chocolate bar and an adoption certificate that they had to fill out at home. I couldn't have hoped for it to go better...and the project cost $20 for 8 girls including the bears and the wooden hearts.

Would some of those parents be insulted that their child brought home a bear that had been bought second-hand? Maybe. Do I care? No (lol). Kylie had an awesome time at her party and so did I. And I did it all on the cheap, which was my goal :D .




(sorry for the picture quality...I had to scan some not-so-good pics)