Last week I announced the #GirlMomsMeetup that my blogging friends and I had organised! I didn’t give away too much information as we wanted it to be a surprise, and what a super surprise it was! One of the sponsors who were super excited to work with us from early on in our planning was the amazing Toy Kingdom. They invited us and our girls to experience their Build A Bear Workshop at their Toy Kingdom store in Boksburg at the East Rand Mall. The #girlmomsmeetup Toy Kingdom experience was on!

It was epic! For those of you who didn’t read it (shame on you! Kidding!) the idea behind our meet-up is that we, as moms of girls who are no longer babies but are not yet teenagers, needed to get together to see what was out there, and chat about the hot topics we are all facing trying to parenting the future generation of women!

Disney Princess – Be Amazing

Prior to the day, each of us who had confirmed we would attend received a surprise package from Toy Kingdom in the post. Inside were gifts for the girls – their very own Disney Princess! Both my girls received an Elsa doll and they were over the moon!

 

My girls were so over the moon! I hadn’t really told them too much about it in advance. As all moms of little girls know, they have very little concept of time so I really did delay it as long as I possible could so that I had as few “how much longer?” conversations as possible!

The Big Day Finally Arrived!

We arrived at Toy Kingdom East Rand Mall a bit ahead of schedule. I managed to sneak in a few pictures of the set-up before the chaos descended! I’m not joking! Six moms who are bloggers, and ten little girls between us! It was sheer unadulterated joyful screaming and excited, epic chaos, all at once, for two hours!

The Build A Bear Workshop Experience at Toy Kingdom

The excitement got underway as soon as we all got there. The Toy Kingdom staff were so kind, so patient and so unfazed by the chaos unfolding before them.

First things first, each child got to pick an unstuffed teddy from the Disney Princess range. Here is the full range, if you wanted to see.

After that the bears all go to get stuffed. It’s a really cool process. They let the kids help, and basically they ‘plug’ the bear into the machine with all the fluff in, the kids step on the pedal and it’s like a reverse vacuum that fills the bear with the stuffing.

Once the bear is stuffed, they got to choose an outfit each. Obviously the whole Disney Be Amazing theme was strong, as was the sheer volume of little girls so there were about three Auroras, at least two belles, and a few Elsas, with a couple other random characters thrown in.

Cherish (one of the lovely party hosts) then gives each child a red heart. The heart gets placed inside the bear and they all sing such a sweet song about how they love the bear. Then the bears gets stitched up.

Do you know what I loved! I loved how Cherish sat down on the floor, she gave each one of the girls her individual attention whilst sewing up their bear. And whilst she was doing this, all the other girls sat and patiently waited for their turn. Amidst the chaos, this was such a sweet and touching moment! Thank you again Cherish!

After the bears are stitched, the moms get to help their girls dress their bears. I’m not kidding, there is an unbelievable array of different outfits, shoes, hats, knickers, sunglasses, bows, and other accessories available. It can actually be quite hard to focus the girls’ attention on choosing outfits that fit their chosen bear!

It gets Bear-ter! (See what I did there?)

Once the Bear is finished, mommy gets to help her kids and you get to fill in all the necessary information to create your bear’s very own Birth Certificate! Look how cute!

Build-A-Bear-Birth-Certificate

Here are a few of the finalised Build A Bear creations from the Disney Princess range that our very creative little girls came up with at the #girlmomsmeetup Toy Kingdom event yesterday!

Disney-Princess-Build-A-Bear

Snack-Time!

After the excitement of the Build A Bear Workshop, the kids needed a break.

The lovely people from Fournos Bakery had kindly sponsored the #girlmomsmeetup Toy Kingdom event with some platters for us! Here are the pics I managed to Instagram before it got demolished!

Okay, it was my kids. They are the ones who demolished it!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhi4dsRlrcO/?hl=en&taken-by=momoftwolittlegirls

As for us moms, who are all mommy bloggers obviously, we needed to do some social media work, instagramming, chatting, selfies and refueling! Here’s how that went!

GirlMomsMeetUp-selfies

Can you match the mom blogger name to their face?

Disney Princess’ – Be Amazing

Now there is no getting away from the fact that Toy Kingdom also stock a HUGE range of Disney Princess dolls. Huge! Not only that but they are having a massive sale at the moment.

The wonderful Cherish got the party going once again and ran a series of games where the girls could win a Disney Princess doll. So proud that my eldest was the winner of the biggest bubble blowing competition! She is very competitive so I’m really chuffed she won! Her sister, not so chuffed. #girls!

The other winner of one of the games was the loveable Zee! Well done girls! You were awesome. Continue to always be amazing.

And then, as if they hadn’t had enough, Toadie came to visit and gave all the girls even more presents! Honestly, Toy Kingdom really did go all out for us! Each little girls got another Disney Princess doll, and a Disney Princess DVD! They were so spoilt!

Thank You Toy Kingdom

I can’t begin to thank Toy Kingdom, the Build-A-Bear Workshop and the Disney Princess’ Be Amazing campaign and of course Fournos Bakery. They all contributed the girls and us having the most amazing day!

If this looks like something your kids would enjoy the good news is that Toy Kingdom host Build-A-Bear Parties at Toy Kingdom stores across South Africa. This is definitely approved and recommended by some of the best mom bloggers I am proud to call my friends.

What’s Next for the #GirlMomsMeetUp ?

Over the next two weeks myself and my co-founders, Charlene, Chanene will be busy putting the final touches to the last event for this meetup theme, for now.

Please follow our Instagram account – @girlmomsmeetup  and also keep an eye on all the other south african mom bloggers who will be attending the event on the 28th by following the hashtag #girlmomsmeetup on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter!

The reviews by those who attended this event will be coming through thick and fast this week. I will keep updating this post to link back to them. Here is Charlene’s for now – Girl Moms MeetUp | Disney Toy Kingdom

For the event on the 28th we have some amazing sponsors on board who are itching to be announced as part of our initiative. On the day we will also be having some in-depth discussions about issues we as moms of girls face in the modern world, what products are out there that suit our girls, our lifestyles as busy moms from different backgrounds, and we will also be showcasing some exciting new products and brands specifically targeting girls between the ages of 5 and 10 years old! And of course as bloggers we will be chatting to some of the PR and Brands we work with to find out how we can grow our relationships to become trusted influencers to all the moms of girls out there who follow us on our blogs and social media.

Thanks again to Toy Kingdom for hosting part one of our #GirlMomsMeetUp! You guys were amazing!

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