Bedlam at Build-a-Bear......

Who'd have thought that so many little people would be wanting to build a bear just 2 days after Christmas. Yes I know mine were some of them so I shouldn't be so surprised but I was still shocked at the amount of people all crammed in to that little store.  It had already taken us an hour to get there, 45 minutes to find somewhere to park the car (I think I would have wrestled anyone if they had tried to nick the space we found off us) and so by the time we'd disembarked the car and actually got in to the centre the kids were busting to go get themselves a bear each.

Even in its heaving state that shop is a wonderland of yumminess.  Ninja was really good he picked an inexpensive bear that he couldn't be persuaded out of for love nor money and so we offered to let him spend the rest of his voucher money on accessories.  Humf was another story all together, initially it was a pink bear and that was that but I think Daddy made some gentle suggestions for a  perhaps not so girlie bear and that got things totally confused.  Humf ended up crying in his in ability to decide, we had to pry several unstuffed teddies from tightly gripped fingers and the more choice we gave him the more upset he got.  In the end a cat got a smile out of his tear stained face so that was the one we went for.

In all the indecision and trauma I fell in love with a bear myself and decided I was going to build  my very own bear to take home as well. 13 year old thought I was mad and hubbie was just dumbfounded but, the bear reminded me so much of childhood teddies I just couldn't resist him.

Having then spent another 45 minutes waiting in the queue to get our bears stuffed (and yes I did have to do the routine and make a wish before they would hand over my bear) we were finally able to hit the accessories.  OMG those bears have better dress sense and far more stylish clothing then I will ever have.  I loved it all and as I watched people going to the till with 3 little outfits, shoes, hats, glasses and whatever else their new pet bear could want I was sooo jealous.  Ninja got unstuck with finding the perfect outfit for his bear which had now been named "Lightning" He went from a full Woody costume, to an Obi Wan Kanobi costume to a leather bikers jacket and blue denim jeans, Biker jacket and jeans won the day (a classic look that never goes out of style).  My bear got a pair of camouflage boxer shorts, so he's a bear in just his underwear. Humfs cat didn't need any accessories because cats are cool no matter what they look like.

So bears bought and paid for we made our way to our next port of call.  The "Game" shop another nightmare of a place, far to small for its demand and stuffed full of too many people.  I just couldn't face it so sent hubbie and Ninja in for a re-con and tried to find a toilet for humf and I to attend.  I never made it to the loo, I got so profoundly lost trying to find one I decided it wasn't worth it and followed the trail of breadcrumbs I'd left behind me to get back to the game shop only to discovered if only I'd turn right instead of left there was actually one right in front of us.  As it happens when I got back I had the other little one wiggling so now with two in toe we headed once more into the uncharted territory of the shopping city to find a place to relieve ourselves.

You know how you can sometimes be blissfully unaware of what is going on around you, well this wasn't one of those moments. No sooner had we stepped out of the shop than a security guard comes running out behind us bellowing "excuse me sir, have you got a receipt for that item"....Oh crap !!! I grip the kids hands as we watch in utter horror and fascination as the security guard who'd run out from behind us, rugby tackled this man to the ground and straddled him like something out of a really bad cop movies.  I was frozen to the spot and speechless, right until a little voice piped up "Mummy I think that man has been naughty, don't you?" You can imagine the conversation to the toilet being quiet a difficult one from that point forward with lots of "whys?" and "yeah, but's"

So the moral to this tale is this "always avoid doing the January sales, it just isn't worth it"