From October, 2005:

Some of you are grinning already - you know what’s coming:

The Build-A-Bear stores host birthday parties, and my five-year-old son attended one last night. I did not prejudice him against what I perceived to be a girlish activity. Kenny is not inordinately into stuffed animals, but there’s no reason to spoil an evening out.

The budget was $25 per partygoer. We started with a floppy twelve-dollar bear. Most kids opted for $20 bears. The Candy Corn bear was popular with them. The birthday girl was permitted to select a sound-maker to be sewn into her bear. Other first-timers helped themselves to sound-makers for their bears. I checked my wallet to be sure I could cover any budget overage and approved Kenny’s selection of the “magic” sound, priced at three dollars.

Then the birthday girl was allowed to record a personal message with a "build a sound" device. She popped into the restroom to record her message without background noise. Soon, the other kids were grabbing their own devices and recording their own personal message, all one-at-a-time in the loo. Kenny wanted to too, at the cost of eight more dollars. He and I ducked into the bathroom to record his nasally "I love you". He has a cold.

Someone threw some satiny red and red-checked hearts into the air, and the kids gathered up bunches of hearts and stuffed them into their bears. Next came the stuffing and fluffing. Kenny worked the foot pedal as the store staffer held his bear to the nozzle for stuffing. The bear was stitched closed while we browsed for an outfit. There was plenty of Halloween garb along with the usual apparel influenced by the prevailing pop culture: costumes resembling Spider Man, Jasmine, Dorothy, Buzz Lightyear. Parents were delighted with the novelty of it all. Some of the adults discerned a therapeutic benefit and vowed to return sans enfants to build their own bears.

My son’s close friends chose a Batman and a skeleton Halloween costume for their bears, but Kenny picked a khaki fisherman's outfit comprised of a zippered jacket and belted shorts. To it, he added black rubber boots and a fishing pole with two fish. I supported his clothing choice because it transcended the trendy selections that would be quickly outmoded. Moreover, it reflects his real world desire to go fishing with his father. He asks repeatedly. Forget the "fishers of men" motif.

But, I gotta tell you, even though we went over budget by at least fifteen dollars, I didn't pay anything. The hosting parents picked up the entire expense for the others and us. I was concerned for them at first, but from what I understand from the way they tell it, they are made of money. I must make sure that Kenny never discovers that additional outfits could be purchased for his bear. And now his younger brother wants to go "Build-A-Bear!"