Anyone done a build a bear party?

[Reastie]

Considering it for DD. The idea only occured to me this morning. There's one relatively locally to us.

DD doesn't seem to be a boisterous hall filled with children running around type of child and I'm thinking of bucking the trend of asking her whole nursery class (about 15) and just asking the girls (6 or 7 of them) as she only plays with the girls. I was thinking build a bear followed by lunch in TGI Fridays or Eds diner (both are close to BaB).

The cost would be around the same as a traditional hall with entertainer type of party with the whole class and I think DD would enjoy it far more. There's also the bonus of no need for a party bag as they have their toys!

Has anyone had a build a bear party? Any hints or tips or pointers as to if it's any good? If there are only 6 of them and they are 4 would they be finished in 10 minutes?! Would it be appropriate to expect these parents to drive likely up to half an hour for some of them to the party venue? (they all have cars)

It lasts about an hour. The host runs it so that every stage lasts a few minutes,from choosing to putting in use heart, stuffing etc. there are a few little songs and activities along the way.

When I did it a couple of years ago,with 6 kids, we had them meet at our house and drove them the in 2 cars. They enjoyed the car journey too. As the party is pretty short, it made it all feel longer. They were 6 though and I could easily manage to look after them, with my husband there too. You def need at least 1 other adult for loo visits etc.

I'm never keen on parties which require a long drive as a guest parent. Often means you end up hanging about for 2 hours as it's not worth going home. If you can, I think its best to transport them yourself. Realise this age might make that tricky. Are you wanting the parents to stay in the shop with you?

I'm happy for parents to stay or go, whatever they'd like really. It's in a shopping centre so I'm imagining parents would rather go and do some shopping/go to a cafe if their DC will let them. I've just checked addresses and 2 of them are 20 minutes drive (and are 20 minutes drive from the pre school anyway so can't see that being an issue) a couple more are 30 minutes drive (would do it in less if traffic is good). I'm not sure about the others. It definitely wouldn't be worth them going home though. They have playgrounds etc at the shopping centre if they had other siblings...