Build a Bear B-Day party?

[ILUVMYBRIT]

My DD is having her 8th birthday this October. Have any of you ever been to or had a birthday party at Buildabear? If so, how was it? She is inviting 5 of her friends and she is so excited, but I just was wondering how organised they are with keeping the kids purchasing within the set limits?

 

[coolbeans]

My DD went to one with my best friends DD, and 3 other kids. The one we went to was very organized for a Saturday (the store was very busy without the party going on.) They kept the kids together and were pretty good about giving them their options, I think all the kids went over budget and that is when their own mom's and dad's had to step in and cover the difference. The Bear party employee kept the tags that totaled the pre-set spending amount and then gave the appropriate parent the extra tags.

 

[CEDmom]

My DD just had her 7th birthday there. We had 6 kids including her. They did a great job entertaining the kids and keeping them happy while each stuffed their animal. They had them parading around the store, singing and playing simon says.

As far as keeping them in budget they did a great job. You set a limit and once the kids pick their animal they write what they have remaining on the tag. Then they steer each child towards stuff they can afford to pick. Even as they're choosing the animals they'll explain you have $20 and if you pick a $15 animal you'll have enough for a shirt but if you choose a $10 animal you could get an outfit.

 

[Kimberle]

My DD is having her 8th birthday this October. Have any of you ever been to or had a birthday party at Buildabear? If so, how was it? She is inviting 5 of her friends and she is so excited, but I just was wondering how organised they are with keeping the kids purchasing within the set limits?

DD's 7th party was there. We just made 'critters, not clothes. I'd rather spend my $$ on a nice animal, they can get the clothes later if they want. There were 13 kids & they all had a blast. We had pizza & cake in the food court after.

DD has also gone to several other parties. Most just did the animals. One did an animal & sound. Just a couple did the animal & clothes. The ones that did, the store host had a pile of clothes the kids could choose from. She held them up 1 at a time & the kids said which shirt/outfit they wanted. The kids didn't have to think about "budgeting".

 

[milkabum]

It's lots of fun! My friend let us choose a t-shirt from a selected area and make a small bear. I believe pricing starts at $15 for with a small bear and you can add onto that.

 

[My2Cinderellas]

I was very impressed with DD's party. One of the children wasn't able to come at the last minute, so we had 5 instead of 6. They didn't hold us to the 6 kid rule, so I increased the budget per child. there are 2 basic bears at $10, I said they could pick anything up to $16. I also let each child pick a t-shirt, which was $5. my favorite was DD's velvet bear, it is incredibly soft.

the bears/animals are in bins by price, so it makes saying "you can pick anything between this bin and that bin" easy.

they do not allow any food/drinks, so we went down to the food court area (in the middle of the afternoon - not a busy time) and I brought in a cake and cooler of drinks. We also did presents there. worked great!

 

[ILUVMYBRIT]

Thanks for all the replies, I was a bit nervous about the whole thing. DD cannot wait.