First Build-A-Bear

I'm a little late on getting this out there. It seems with spring time comes a lot activity.

Elizabeth had two very fun friends birthday parties in March. She even picked out her friends birthday gifts all on her own. Both were hits. It was fun to watch her decide which ones she thought her friends would like.

One was a Build-a-Bear party. We have kind of avoided this place. Anyone who has been there can probably imagine why. Thankfully, Katherine was at home with Dennis. Elizabeth's entire 4 year-old class (12 students) were in attendance along with a few of Haley's friends from her class last year. The process is not a quick one with that many kids. I was impressed on how patient and well behaved all of the kids were.

First they got to pick their stuffed animal. All of the boys and Elizabeth chose a Koala bear and the girls were fairly mixed with their choices. Then they received a cloth heart that they got to place inside their animal. The gals chatted away and asked questions while the kids one by one got to fill their animal with stuffing and have it stitched closed. Then they had a group picture taken. We managed to bypass all of the stuffed animals accessories. PHEW! From there we headed to the food court. The kids had ice cream cups and a piece of a giant chocolate chip birthday cookie. They enjoyed watching Haley open gifts. Elizabeth did a great job picking out her gift for Haley. Haley was moving away the next morning so it was wonderful that the kids got to have one big celebration with her before she left.

The other one was at Little Gym, which Elizabeth has not been to in ages. It was as if she had never stopped going and a few of the things that intimidated here didn't bother her at all. If anything she was a step ahead of all of the other kids since she kind of knew what to they would be doing. Haley even made it to the party and the kids loved seeing her again.

Meeting Sir Purr

On Saturday, October 11th, we helped Elizabeth's friend, Matteo celebrate his 4th birthday at Bank of America Stadium. It was a lot of fun. We started out with a tour of the facilities for the adults. It was hard to keep all of those kids interested as we got all of the nitty gritty details about the stadium and the Panthers. It was actually pretty interesting.

We got to sit in seats down along the field as various things were pointed out to us. They have put in new HD big screens since Dennis and I had been there for a game. Then we crammed (we were packed in there like sardines) a lot of people into a elevator. We got to go into an executive suite the same size as the Panther's owners. Very nice with a great view of the field. Then we got to see where all of the TV broadcast are set up at and where all of the writers hang out. We swung by a nice lounge area before heading down to wait for Sir Purr's (the mascot) arrival.

The kids had a blast waiting for him. They finally got to run around like crazy kids. When he arrived the kids were thrilled. Katherine was in love at first sight. She could hardly wait her turn to get her picture taken. I'm certain she was the 2nd kid (after the birthday boy) to get her picture taken with him. We had a hard time keeping her out of everyone else's pictures. Elizabeth was very patient and waited her turn.

The kids were thrilled to get to play a little catch with Sir Purr. Elizabeth kept lining up on the line like she was playing football. That's my girl! Do you think she watches too much football? She kept asking when we were going to get to go and watch the game.

Elizabeth got a Panther paw print temporary tattoo air brushed on her arm. She was so proud of it. It was cute to watch the kids get them because the air brush tickled. She was very sad when it finally washed off.

While we were eating pizza we learned that players were arriving to take the buses to the airport for their game the next day. The buses were parked just below the area where the party was located. All of the Dad's and a few Mom's camped out watching hoping to catch glimpse of any of the players. We did get to see one player arrive. I'd tell you who it was if I was a Panther fan, but I'm not at all.

It was a very cool birthday party! I think that both of the girls were sound asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot. There are additional pictures in our Fall Pictures.