File this under

“can’t believe I haven’t blogged this yet”

My sweet baby turned four this past summer, and we had her birthday party at the local Wal-Mart. No, not a typo. I am absolutely serious. And no, they don’t do parties. And yes, it was her choice. Crazy? sure. But dare I say still the best birthday party ever?

Backtrack for a minute… how we got from here to there. This spring, a brand spanking new wal-mart was built about a mile from our house. We passed the construction site about twenty times a day, and so my sweet girl was tracking the progress from the backseat like any good Handy Manny fan would.. now there are walls.. now a roof.. now a road.. and so on. She was so excited for the store, we actually went on opening day. Still only in school three days a week, I’d schedule grocery trips on the days she was off, so we could enjoy the luxury of not having anywhere to rush to for once, and we could lazily browse the aisles, visit the fish swimming happily in their tanks, smell the flowers in the garden center, pick our paint samples for imaginary rooms we will have one day, and of COURSE say hello to all of our latest favorite toys. Simple, but sweet.. just like the baby.

And so, when it came time to plan her fourth birthday, we rattled off the list of the usual hot spots but nothing was grabbing her.. until my oldest (in jest) suggested the Wal-Mart. And that was it.. she was sold! So mommy had to do some serious brainstorming to develop a preschooler’s party at the supercenter down the street! Turns out, her simple routine was all we needed, and the party took shape quite nicely!

We met her friends at the front of the store with our specially decorated cart that they piled with her presents. We gave them specially made nametags so everyone could fit in the Wal-Mart wayand she escorted them all to her favorite places, from fish to flowers.

Then each party guest was given a gift card (did you know you can upload your own picture and have it printed directly on the gift card? So cute!) for $10 to spend as they pleased. This part was clearly the most fun.. what little girl doesn’t love to shop til they drop, and $10 can buy a lot at Wal-mart! Much debating later, everyone brought their selections to the front to check out.

We stopped by the bakery for donuts and went to the food court to eat & sing. I couldn’t have imagined a better party, her friends are still talking about it.. I’ve heard from a few moms that their kids want Wal-Mart parties too! I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but for my sweet girl it was perfect.. now if I could only rollback her age and keep her so small!