Build a Bear...have you tired this?  

I am a collector of stuffed bears, so this store is like heaven for me. The most recent one I got was last Mother's Day, as a present from my daughters. They stuffed a koala for me, dressed her in a Tinkerbell costume, and named her Tink. She now sits on my nightstand beside my bed, along with my stuffed Mumble from Happy Feet and my stuffed Eeyore.

we don't have a build a bear company near us but we found a website that sells basically the same thing. it's called bear in a box. you get the body the stuffing the clothes and the sound chip. i bought my daughter one for christmas 2 years ago. it was a little lamb and it is so cute.

I have always wanted to go there but now I see its pretty expensive.

My daughter is dying to go and really wants to have her borthday party there. I doubt very much that we will be doing that mainly due to the fact that it is so expensive. $75 for a stuffed animal is way beyond our budget, let alone taking several children. Plus the closest one is quite a distance from us.

I took my son in there and he had no interest in it! I kept offering him different animals and he pushed them all away. My niece and nephew loved what they got, I can't remember exactly but they even had little cradles for them to carry them in around the mall.

I collect bears too and I have been there quite a few times but could not get myself to spend that much for a bear. However, one of my friends gifted me with one for Christmas and I absolutely adore it. I named her Pia. I will try to upload a photo of her in my profile.

I think that it's an absolutely cool and fun way for parents to bond with their kids.

I love that place! I have actually never gone there though, except to look. It is so expensive, and I would have to get FOUR! I've actually thought of just going there on my own because I LOVE stuffed animals... but it would look sort of weird!

My son has Winnie The Pooh and the cow with bell around neck. I got a dog with a cheer leading outfit for Mother's day. It is a great store but exspensive! None of ours have the sound chips and thankfully our son has Autism as he is happy with what ever he gets and loves them with or with out clothing! LOL!

Truly a wonderful store! :)

it seems to be very nice and fun. i have v=never visited this type of store. I doubt whether we have this type in our country or not.reading your post i really was feeling the fun in it.From which country you are?

I used to work at Build-a-Bear and let me just tell you guys that it was hell for me...I was the one who hosted the parties we would have...the parents would think these bears were cheap and then get mad at us...singing the songs and doing the "Bear Prayer" became un-bearable (no pun intended) It is a fairly large franchise and I just don't understand why anybody would want to pay so much for a stuffed anything..the stuff was cute, but come on..it was good to help the kids find clothes for their bears and other animals, but after a while, I found myself walking around in there like a cheerful zombie..