blogging event | itsamumsworld

I blogged a while ago about the fantastic experience that we had when we took our daughter to the Build-a-Bear workshop to, well, build a bear! You can read about it here. Being a bit of a blogging novice, I don’t really think I expected anyone to read it, let alone anyone who had anything to do with Build-a-Bear, so I was very surprised to get a tweet from the lovely Estelle Boon inviting me to an event that was being held. This gave me a really nice buzz for two reasons:

It was the first time I’d been invited to an event
It was in half term so I was able to go!

Knowing how excited my daughter had been about ‘building’ her beloved Lyla, I was excited about seeing her being able to do this again, especially as it meant going to London. She didn’t quite get this at first because her understanding of London is that it’s where Jenny, her Godmother, lives. The concept that London serves any other purpose whatsoever is something that she couldn’t get her head around!

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, we all came down with a sickness bug at the start of half term, which meant that we couldn’t go. I was really disappointed, both because I knew how much my daughter would have enjoyed it, and also because I was looking forward to meeting some of the friends I’d made on Twitter (is it ok to call them friends even though I’ve never met them?). I also felt very guilty for messing the organisers of the event around.

So I definitely did not expect what happened last week. A note from the postman to let me know there was a parcel that was too big for my letterbox behind my wheelie bin. Upon investigation, it turns out that we couldn’t make it to Build-a-Bear, so Build-a-Bear was brought to us, in the form of ‘Friendly Barry’ (the carefully chosen name my daughter picked – don’t ask)!

Friendly Barry was instantly made to feel part of the family, through a trip to the shop where he was clothed in skinny jeans and biker jacket by our resident Gok Wan. He also now has a wish list of further accesories which apparently every bear needs. My husband actually got quite put out that Evie chose his pictured outfit over the Liverpool strip which was also available, and a perfect fit!

So thank you so much to Build-a-Bear, and you can rest assured that you will never go out of business with my 3 year old around. We thought we’d finished our Christmas shopping last week, until she discovered that the bears can get their very own wardrobes…!