Promise Pets - Build A Bear

Little J was invited last week to visit our local Build A Bear to make a Promise Pet. We love Build A Bear and over the years we have made so many. We have had dogs, bears, an Alvin (from the chipmunks) and most recently Olaf from Frozen. Building A Bear is a lovely experience for children and I know over the years big J has had so much fun and has given lots of love to the teddies he created.

Now little J is a toddler we are getting to experience everything again and its lovely that Build A Bear is as popular as ever and have just launched Promise Pets. There are four Promise Pets to choose from, Black Labrador, Golden Retriever, Springer Spaniel and Persian Kitty. Little J went all shy when he was asked which Pet he would like to choose so I have to admit I edged him towards the Golden Retriever because it was so cute.

If you haven't been to Build A Bear before it is basically what it says you Build A Bear from scratch. All the bears are waiting to be built with lots of stuffing so all you have to do is choose which one you want. Once you have chosen you then move along to the next part of the experience, the stuffing machine. (Not actually sure what its called but I like calling it that).

Little J was a little more excited when we got to the machine to get his Golden Retriever stuffed. We handed our dog to the man and he then asked us how we wanted our dog to feel, hard or soft and cuddly? We chose soft and cuddly but we wanted him to be able to stand up. Next he put the dog onto the machine and here the children can press their foot down on the pedal to stuff the bear.

Little J was too busy choosing a little silk heart to put in the dog so I pressed on the pedal to stuff our dog. Once our dog was ready little J popped the heart inside him. Every time we have been before the staff usually ask you to do things with the little silk heart but this time he didn't which was a shame as its a nice touch and the kids love it. I'm not sure if they do it anymore but they used to make the kids rub the heart on their head so the bear is clever. Rub the heart on their tummy so it would not be hungry and lots of other things including spinning round. Maybe the man thought little J was too young so left this out.

Next you can visit the clothing and accessories. There is so much to choose from. I saw a mini Star Wars costume and roller skates. We bought a lead for our dog so we could take it for a walk.

Once you have finished you then head over to the computer to create a birth certificate for your bear. It's very simple to use and it's a lovely touch because the children can choose a name for their bear and it prints out a full birth certificate at the till. There is no charge for this.

Once we had finished we headed to the till and our Golden Retriever, called Goldie was popped in to a cardboard kennel so we could take him home.

The atmosphere in Build A Bear is really exciting as children pick out bears or clothes for existing bears they have already. It's a fun shop and extremely popular. Like I said earlier we have built many bears and I am sure as little J gets older there will be many more Build A Bears coming home with us.



*we received a Build a Bear experience for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, opinions and photos are our own*