[Irishgirl]

Has anyone ever been to one of these parties - am thinking of booking one at Warringah Mall - what do you do for food/cake etc?

[mumto3princesses]

We did one once for DD#1.

We took all the girls in ourselves. Had the party at the Build A Bear place and took them all to the foodcourt and just had McDonalds for lunch. Then we went home for the Birthday Cake. There was a Michele's Patisserie there though and we did think about organising a cake and just have it there but decided to go back home instead.

[FreeRangeMum]

In the shopping centre that our closest buildabear is here in Brisbane, there is a donut king across from the BaB shop. They have some sort of mutual arrangement that means if you book a BaB party, you get 20% off a bday cake at donut king.

Might be worth asking if they do any 'deals' with food places nearby!

[barrington]

DD1 went to one recently. Following build-a-bear they went to sushi train for lunch and cake.

[3mummy3]

My dd had one last year and we didnt do food/cake at all, just gave out lolly bags at the end.

[Beltie]

DD2 went to a Build a Bear party at the Mall and loved it. She did say that it wasn't a real party because there wasn't cake or the birthday song.

Perhaps ask the coffee cart outside the Mac1 around the corner if you can use their little seating area for the cake. Shout the parents all a coffee from the cart (tell the cart you will be buying 8+ coffees if you can use their seats) and have the song and cake cutting. There are 2 bins nearby and cleanup is a breeze!

If the cake isn't possible perhaps partybags or individual cupcakes in boxes from that cupcake place outside Woolworths? They would be easy to hand out after singing the happy birthday song in the bear shop.

[cward]

Both my DD's have been to Build a Bear parties. DD1 went to one when they were at Castle Towers, at the time there was a coffee shop opposite so after they went there and had something to eat and cake.

DD2 went to one recently at Parramatta and afterwards they went downstairs to McDonalds. I would not recommend this. Luckily most of the parents had arrived back by this stage or there may have been missing children as there were lots of stragglers.

Personally I hate Build a Bear parties, the kids are always perstering their parents when they return to buy extra accessories and then one parent does and its one "but so and so got to but a dress" and so on.