Build-A-Bear, aka What Was I Thinking?

Those sneaky Build-A-Bear people sent me a coupon for a free bear. If you know anything about me, you know that free is my favorite word. The last day to use the coupon was on a Saturday, and I of course procrastinated until the very last minute, and decided that a Saturday evening was the perfect time to take the girls out for a little fun. Saturday evening, at the mall, in the middle of Christmas shopping season. It didn't take long after arriving in the parking lot to realize that maybe this wasn't the best idea. The mall parking lot was so full that I had to park as far away as was possible and still be in the parking lot. I got out of the car and realized that I had not yet moved the stroller from the trunk of the old car to the new one. (Oh, yeah, remember the whole car mess? Yeah, that car is dead, dead, dead. So we have a new one that is not really that spectacular, but it starts! Hooray! Gotta love that part.) But I had a coupon! It was free! No turning back now, so I put the diaper bag on my shoulder, Princess on my hip and grabbed Sweetheart's hand. 

A few years later we finally make it through the parking lot and into the store, only to see that the line was very, very long. Apparently when they send out coupons like this, they send them to more people than just me. I know, weird, right? We were able to squeeze in and pick out the bears right away, but then we had to stand in line to get them stuffed.

Forty-five minutes later (not exaggerating this time), after chasing my monkeys around the store and Sweetheart being kissed by some random little girl we didn't know, we finally made it to the stuffing machine. And then I remembered what I was thinking when I decided to go. 

They loved  it. Of course they did, I wasn't surprised, but after all that trouble it was so fun to see their little faces as the bears went from flat to fluffy, as they gave them their test hug, and then gave them a brush and a bath. I then had to lug a diaper bag, two big boxes, one girl on my hip and one holding my hand back through a few miles of parking lot to our car again in the cold, but on the way out we saw some good friends and Sweetheart's future husband.  We got home to the delicious, hot shepherd's pie Marquis had made for us while we were gone. Our adventure might have taken way longer than I had planned on and maybe we did have to deal with the Christmas shopping craziness, but it was a good night. And the way they have been packing those bears around ever since has made it well worth the trouble!