What a Way to End the Year!

We have had a great New Year's Eve and it isn't even evening yet! Auntie Meg bought the older kiddos Build-A-Bear gift certificates for Christmas this year and today we went to build our animals. Riley and I started our morning with hot chocolate at Caribou, where the nice lady gave me the mall discount so I could get Riley her own kid-size cocoa and mommy could get a larger white cocoa (I had $5 and I didn't want to put it on a card). We sat by the fountain at Ridgedale and drank our hot chocolate. Riley, with her chocolate mustache, looked up at me and said "I'm happy!" and wrinkled her nose up all cute. Then when Meg and Adee arrived we went in to explore the store before Zack, Kiley and Katie met us. We decided on a Penguin who's name is "just Penguin"...Her birth certificate says "Penguin, I left the "just" part out:)

If you've never been to Build-A-Bear, it's great! They have all kinds of animals at all kinds of price points, then you pick a heart for your bear and you can pick a sound box too if you want. Riley's penguin says "I love you" and Roo giggles every time Penguin says it! Then the nice person at the store helps you stuff your own animal...

First, there is a huge exercise in giving the animal it's little satin heart. The kids have to warm it up between their hands, give it a kiss on both sides so it's filled with love, close their eyes tight and make a wish...and hop two times...then the kids get to step on the pedal that feeds the stuffing and they decide if they want it "squishy or hard". After all the stuffing the animal is stitched up and they can take their creation to the "bath" and blow-dry and brush them. Then it's off to pick an outfit. This took Riley FOREVER...We decided on a rainbow tank top for Penguin and white sparkly tennis shoes with butterflies on them. Zack named his bear Lightning and picked a Vikings outfit. He didn't have nearly as much trouble picking his outfit! (Funny, Meg likes rainbows and Vikings, but the kids picked their stuff without her help!) Zacky did skip the noise box part because he was so excited to stuff the animal he didn't want to sit and listen to all his choices...Zack likes things that make noise and the stuffing machine is NOISY! Each animal gets a birth certificate and there is an id tag inside each one so if they ever get lost the animal can be sent back home.

After all that, we went to Applebees for lunch with my sisters and the kids and all the kids crashed when they got home...EVEN ZACK! What a day! And tonight we're going to a party for a little while with my friends Shannon and Breann, then we'll come home a bit early to celebrate the New Year safe in our own living room! Ahhhhh....Happy New Year!