Millie turned 9 last month. My baby. My youngest is NINE. *sniff* HOW did this happen? Time, you are but a tricky one. Speaking of time, somehow it slipped away from me because we had this awesome Build-A-Bear Birthday Party on October 6 and here it is, November already. I’m still scratching my head here.

At any rate, it was a BEARY fun party. And I took so many photos I’m a little overwhelmed at figuring out which ones to show here because I want to post all 246 of them, but that seems a little like overkill to me. You? So bear with me here while I choose the beary best of them (Okay, I’ll stop with the bear puns now).

We invited all the girls in Millie’s class plus a couple of girls from the other class. We were given a gift card that had enough in value to allow for 10 kids to have at it in the store. We were really trying to keep the head count to 10 so the girls could have the full experience. In the end, we had more girls than originally expected, but it turned out okay. We just lowered everyone’s budget by a few dollars and they were good to go.

It was actually a pretty good lesson in economics for these 3rd graders. I explained to them at the beginning how much they each had to spend and, like typical 8 and 9 year old girls, they each immediately went to the most expensive end of the bear section. When I told them at that point that it was fine if they chose that animal, but they needed to understand that doing so meant they wouldn’t be able to choose an outfit too, as a herd, they all rushed down to the least expensive end of the bear section. It was really pretty funny to watch that happen. They all made their selections and then we had the bear ceremony.

Then, of course, came the stuffing, the fluffing, and the dressing of everyone’s new friend:

The staff did a great job of making the girls feel welcome and Millie, in particular, extra special. She really hates having the spotlight on her, so she was embarrassed when they called out to the entire store that it was her birthday and they were going to sing. But it was good for her. *wink*

After the party we went out to the food court area where I had a party table set up. It was Sonic Happy Hour, so we got everyone a drink of her choice. I found these cute little drink tags at Target so we put each of the girls’ names on one with her drink order on the other. Two of my daughters took care of placing the orders while we were finishing up at Build-A-Bear Workshop. And we had a Groupon for Sara Sara Cupcakes, so we had awesome treats for the party!

It was a super fun party and a super great group of girls. And Millie felt extra special. Win-win all the way around!

Thanks, Build-A-Bear Workshop, for helping make Millie’s ninth birthday BEARY memorable!

I am one of Build-A-Bear Workshop’s 15 Friends in 2012 and receive occasional product and compensation in exchange for posting honest feedback on my blog.  All thoughts are and will continue to remain my own.