Happy Birthday Natalie!

Brian and I decided we would adapt the "every other year birthday party" idea for our kiddos. That meant no party for NJ this year. So, we took her to Build-a-Bear instead!

I never really know what reaction I will get from this silly girl, but this was a big hit just as we had hoped!  Daddy took off work a little early so we could shop and eat.  We wanted it all to be her ideas of how to create this special animal so the possibilities were endless.

As you can see, NJ wasn't the only happy child here=) Joaquin had a blast! He loved pulling the animals around on their leashes but he really got cracked up when it would fall over on it's side. He thought that was hilarious!

After they played for about 20 minutes, we finally pinned Natalie down to make a choice one which "bear" (or cat or dog or pony or.....) she wanted.  We pointed them all out and were not going to limit her choices. The door was wide open.................we had to refocus her a couple times, but she was finally ready to choose. A longhorn. A longhorn, yes you read that right. Out of the 150 choices (or so it seemed) she haphazardly grabs a longhorn and says, "This is cute." 

Seriously?

Uh... no. Uh uh. Not gonna let that one happen. I'm a die-hard Arkansas Razorback fan that lives in Texas. Just can't do it. I looked at Brian and said, "Sorry! I just can't let her choose this one!"

So, I kindly told her no and showed her all the other amazing choices=) I'm sweet like that.  She settled on a rainbow bear that was super cute and really soft. Whew. Dodged that bullet.

From there the stuffing was added along with heart and sound. We didn't let her get the beating heart, but we did let her pick the sound. Big mistake. Why didn't someone warn us about those! They had some cute sounds such as a giggle, or 5 little sayings, or a magic wand. But oh no! She comes across the 'My Little Pony' theme song and is sold=/ I'm not about to be the one that makes her cry on her birthday excursion so we begrudgingly nodded our heads yes. Fun for us in the future.

Natalie was a little timid with the whole bathing the bear bit, but after I brushed his hair and "blow dried" it she joined me.

Joaquin joined in when we began looking at the clothes for her bear. He immediately spotted the outfits with a ball. He kept shouting "ball!" In the picture above he walked over to Brian, grabbed his hand and said, "come on." Too cute. So glad he had as much fun as she did.

Once Nat settled on a dress, she took her to the dressing table to "try it on."  Since she chose the Cinderella dress she just had to have the matching glass slippers that had a heel. She was obsessed with the high heel shoes for the bears. Such a girlie girl!

Our Build-a-Bear birthday adventure was a success! We left with a Happy 4 year old and her new friend, Clubby! So glad we chose this over a party this year. Fun family adventure with good memories.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!