Saving Money for A Trip to Build A Bear

When you are little, numbers don't hold the same value. To many little kids $100 is enough to feed the world so when my 6 year old daughter said she wanted to save up her money to go to Build A Bear, I wasn't expecting much from her.  I told her if she raised $20 I would bring her.  And she worked her butt off. Asking to do extra chores (which she never got paid for previously), and negotiating via "If I do.... will you give me $1?" was both entertaining and productive.  She would tell others she was saving up to go and would smile from ear to ear as they handed her a dollar to add to her savings.

I watched with pride as she counted the money she earned. The day she hit the $20 was amazing. She was beaming with pride so we made plans to go a few days later. We've been before but this trip was special.  She saved for it.  She was looking at prices and deciding what to get. I told her that she could pick her bear with her money and I would buy her two outfits.  When the doll she wanted was more than $20, she negotiated again, asking for me to pay for the extra part of the bear and buy her one outfit.  Deal.

Build A Bear has always held a little magic for me.  Both David and I worked there, at separate times, and it was him wearing his Build A Bear shirt at a bar that made me first notice him, so a trip to Build a Bear always makes me smile. 

In the grand scheme of things, it's just a stuffed bear. I easily could have purchased it for her without any issues but there was so much value and magic in her working so hard for it. Did I mention that now that she's saved up for Build A Bear, she wants to save for another Disney vacation?

xo, Heather