Build A Bear Trip

The boyshave been begging for bears from Build A Bear Workshop for a long time. They each had a stuffed bear that they received from Grandma E for Christmas several years ago that they loved and slept with every night, so I couldn’t justify spending so much on a toy that would probably end up at the bottom of the toy box.Over the years however, the teddy bears have become increasingly bedraggled and threadbare until our dog decided that they should be his personal chew toys and chewed the eyes and noses right off the poor things.

So last week Seth and I decided to take both boys bear shopping as a Christmas surprise. They could hardly believe it when we got to the store and told them that they could each pick out a bear and an outfit.

I don’t have a picture of the finished bears, but they are so perfect and soft and cute in their little camo army uniforms and the sales girl was so nice and did so well with helping the boys. The boys had a great experience and have been sleeping with their bears every night since. That this shopping trip turned out so nice and calm is huge for our little family since any public outings we make normally result in the boys being absolutely horrible, feeding off of each other’s bad behavior, and salespeople either giving us the evil eye or trying to parent our children for us since we are so obviously the world’s worst parents and need all of the help we can get.

Now that I’m done ranting……here’s a picture of my sweet little angels holding the gingerbread houses that their bears came in. The boxes even came with stickers for decorating. How cute is that! Tucker fell asleep on the way home so after we finished decorating Jackson’s box, Jackson took it upon himself to sneak into their bedroom and decorate Tucker’s also…..in the dark, which makes for some pretty amazing sticker placement. At least they won’t have any trouble figuring out which box belongs to which kid.

On Monday evening, Erin, Grandma Lilly, and Seth’s parents brought our nieces to see Jackson perform Christmas carols with the rest of his grade. He didn’t try to run away and only stepped off the riser once. In fact, he behaved beautifully. He blew me kisses, sang at the top of his lungs, put his arm around the girl next to him while he helped her find where her parents were sitting, and even threw in some fancy dance moves during a few songs that had everyone laughing.

I was so proud of my little man!