Excess.

Call me simplistic. Maybe just call me poor.

I attended my first build-a-bear birthday party today. For those of you without kids (which is just about everyone who reads this blog) I will explain the concept of a build-a-bear party.

You show up at build-a-bear store in a local mall near you. Your daughter and all of the 18-20 0ther 6 to 7-year-old girls greet each other with squeals and giggles. They dance around as if they haven't seen each other in years (it could have been just yesterday and they would act the same I'm sure) and then run around the store in glee looking at all of the options for their build-a-bear (BAB). I have to hand it to BAB in that they really know how to make money. You buy the bear, buy the noisemaker that goes in the bear, buy the outfits that go with the bear, buy the accessories that go with the outfits that go with the bear, buy toys for the bear to "play" with, buy the closet that houses the outfits for the bear, and buy the toy chest to put the toys in that the bear plays with, buy the miniature stuffed animals for the bear, buy furniture for the bear, you get the point. The list goes on.

So for a birthday party, the birthday girl gives each girl a gift card to spend in the store totaling $15 dollars. Any money their parent wants to put up after that is between the bargaining and pleading little eyes of their own child and the parent.

Then the BAB associate walks the girls through the entire process of picking out the animal, stuffing them, fluffing them, and dressing them. The $15 will essentially buy a lower end bear (just as nice in my opinion) and one outfit. That's a pretty decent gift for 18-20 girls who are there to celebrate with the birthday girl.

Thankfully, I have a child who is very easy to please. She doesn't care if it's $15 or $50. It's cute and fuzzy, she's happy.

Other children are used to having more and I would venture to say they may not be as happy even with having more. I watched the girls as they ran around. Some of them wanted everything. Some of them just stuck with the basic animal and one outfit. Some got an accessory or two. One of them stood out of the group though. I guess I should say she didn't stand out as much as her mom stood out. For all I know, this little girl is satisfied just playing with a corncob and sunflower stem. I watched as the mom's walked their girls up to the checkout and proceeded with their purchases. This lady kept going on and on about what a great idea BAB was and how she wished they would have had one when she was a kid. When she walked away from the counter, I have no doubt that she left there with no less than $100 dollars worth of BAB paraphernalia. She started out with the $22 dollar dog that comes with accompanying smaller magnetic puppy dog-already surpassing the gift card amount. Then the accompanying doggie sound byte for another $5. She bought the pink flower leash for another $5, a puppy dress outfit, pink silk doggie bed, hair bows, and etc. Everything you would purchase for a real dog, except it wasn't real.

As the girls were waiting around for everyone to receive their carry home box and birth certificate, the lady went on and on about their real dog at home and everything that it has. I found myself smiling as she kept talking. I don't know why. I find humor in the small things in life.

I guess the only point of this is that I find myself being very simple sometimes. I like nice things. I like quality things. I don't like junk that falls apart, but I don't see the point of collecting millions of little things and will just go unnoticed in a week or two. It seems like a waste. A collection of nonsense. As much as kids seem to REALLY want things one day, they won't even remember that they wanted it the next. I like seeing the smile on my kids face as she is carrying around her $15 dollar bear and accompanying outfit. I would venture to say she is just as happy as any other kid there today. Maybe even more so.