Decked out in colorful, comfy pajamas, many carrying stuffed Pooh Bear dolls, Fort Dale Academy kindergartners celebrated the 80th birthday Winnie the Pooh, one of the most beloved children's book characters ever.

&#8220We do this each year in honor of the classic children's book authors,” said Fort Dale kindergarten teacher Ellinor Nelson. &#8220I know (Pooh) is one of my favorite childhood memories.”

To celebrate the event, students were allowed to dress in pajamas and bring stuffed likenesses of the cuddly little bear all stuffed with fluff or any of his friends.

&#8220They (students) start anticipating this weeks ahead,” Nelson said. &#8220Mention to them they can wear pajamas to school and that's all they talk about.”

To cure that &#8220rumbly in their tumbly” students were treated to a brightly decorated birthday cake shaped like Pooh.

&#8220I love cake, it makes me get all sugared up,” said Nelson Taylor, 5.

Tucker Whiddon, 6, said she likes Pooh because he's fun to snuggle up to.

&#8220I like him because he's furry,” she said. &#8220I like today's party because it was all about Pooh.”

Winnie the Pooh and his 100 Acre Woods friends were created in the early 1920's by noted playwright and author A.A. Milne, when his son, Christopher Robin Milne, took a shine to a Canadian black bear named Winnie at the London Zoo.

On Dec. 24, the first Pooh story was published in the London Evening News. The story was so popular it was broadcast the next day (Christmas Day) by BBC radio.

A.A. Milne lived to be 104 years old, penning two Pooh books; &#8220Winnie the Pooh” in 1926 and &#8220The House on Pooh Corner in 1928.” Christopher Robin Milne died in 1996, but not before he led efforts to preserve the wooded area near his childhood home that had been the inspiration for his father's stories and books about Pooh.