Build a Bear is the devil in bear's clothing

We had originally planned to go out of town to a friend's house unfortunately the rental costs were just a little much. Our concession was to spend a fun action packed mother-daughter day.  We have been to build a bear once before in Virginia. As you can imagine, a suburban mall in the summer is so much more civilized than going to a midtown new york city location 2 days after thanksgiving. Good lord how may choices can there be. 

This concept is so deliciously ingenious, really. The bears or other stuffed animals cost pretty much the same as other stuffed animals. It's all the extras that will kill you. 

My daughter never goes for the obvious. We started with the koala bear and then she was swayed by hannen's decision to get a dinosaur.  This went on for awhile since I wanted to get something and more importantly cheaper. Alas I did not win that battle. 

Then of course we moved on the accessories. Good lord. Oddly the each item was not all that much. $3-7 a piece but you add them up and next thing you know its $30 worth of stuff plus the sound that is stuffed in the animal. 

And you know what I am going to subjected to for the next god knows months. Bloody hannah montana.   I even tried to get her to switch to high school musical. No luck. This is truly hell on earth. 

We then stood in line to get the animal stuffed. This is actually a nice touch, they ask each child to take a heart and rub it on their forehead, cheeks and tummy and place inside the animal. Alex then went over the drying station and rubbed her new friend. She spend a lot of time doing this and she loved doing it. 

Oh I forgot each doll has stuffed inside the bar code so that in the event its lost, the company can track the child down and have the animal returned. 

Watching Alex  picking out her animal, the clothes and just plain enjoying the experience, pretty much melts my cynical heart. I know she will remember this time together so it was worth the trip.