I’d guess that most parents dread their kids’ birthday parties. They’re expensive, exhausting and between planning, execution and clean up, seemingly never-ending. On top of the physical toll, there is a sense of Keeping Up with the Joneses that directly clashes with the household budget. And don’t get me started on the guest list that multiplies by the hour. Enter our birthday party savior: Brayden Lawrence. Brayden’s found the perfect party venue – Target. Eight-year-old Brayden rounded up a gaggle of her closest buds, decked them out in Target colors, and took over register eight at the Campcreek Target.
No one loves Target more than 8-year-old Brayden Lawrence!
Brayden hosted her birthday party at her local store Sunday, complete with red shirts and khakis for her friends and treats featuring the signature Target bullseye.
“Brayden is obsessed with Target,” Rikki Jackson, the girl’s aunt, told CNN. “She will literally just ask to go walk up and down the aisles. She loves it and will spend hours in Target.”
Jackson took to Twitter on Sunday to post photos of Brayden’s party, which took place at their Target just outside of Atlanta. She shared that her niece, sporting a sparkly red jacket (also from Target), got to check out her friends at register number eight after each was given a gift card to purchase something from the store.
“We got all the kids uniforms & walkies and the manager made them name tags,” Jackson wrote on Twitter. “They did a scavenger hunt where they had to find stuff throughout the store and then put it back afterwards since that’s what employees do.”
As the article said, Brayden’s aunt, Rikki Jackson, posted pics along with the story to Twitter on Sunday night and it blew up. According to Rikki, Target does not do birthday parties, but Brayden’s family was able to get special permission to have this celebration. The family gave the kids their red shirts and khakis, walkies and gift cards, but the store manager, Albert, made each child their own name badge. Brayden was allowed to ring her party guests up (under Albert’s supervision), plus wear the special-sparkle Target red moto jacket. Obviously, it’s all brilliant but the scavenger hunt was inspired. I would totally attend a Target party. I am much more equipped to discuss how to accessorize a Universal Thread jumpsuit than I am discussing anything having to do with kids soccer leagues.
Target’s not perfect, but they acknowledged it and are trying to atone for their mistakes. Plus their literacy programs are phenomenal. So I could get on board with a Target Party trend. Maybe Serta could host slumber parties? Williams-Sonoma could build a bachelorette baking-party room. GOOP could offer… actually, nevermind.
All of this is to say, Project Hecate Birthday will be in the seasonal aisle of the LA Target next year, BYORC (bring your own red card).
Seriously Manager Albert was the best!!! Thanks so much @Target!!!! pic.twitter.com/nbYy4dUIIH
— Rik (@RikDrip) February 16, 2020
My niece really just had her 8th birthday at Target lol! She’s obsessed 😂 pic.twitter.com/NGJz7xB3JG
— Rik (@RikDrip) February 16, 2020
Bullseye, old soul, extremely loyal, considers going to Target a date, never says no to treats or a run, career-focused but looking for more. Must love dogs. pic.twitter.com/xZVp7B9u8t
— Target (@Target) February 7, 2020
Gonna tell my kids this is our vacation home. pic.twitter.com/u1YfOIvC26
— Target (@Target) November 20, 2019
I love it.
My son (when he was a toddler) would have probably wanted a Costco party. Lots of sample snacks, explore all the aisles, and end up with $1 hotdogs, pizza slices, and ice cream!
Umm I want a Costco party now (I’m 43)
This…this is an option?!!!
Sounds like it’s not. But for a one-off, it was spectacular. The sweetness of people going all out to to indulge a little girl’s adorable dream it brings a tear to my eye.
She’s adorable.
I think this sounds as exhausting as any other kids birthday party though.
I know I probably sound like a jerk,I’m not,I just think parties are out of control.Exhausting.
@Spicecake, totally agree. I set boundaries with my kids early on that we would have a party or experience outside the home, but we weren’t have slumber parties or home parties. The cleaning alone for home parties is enough of a deterrent for me. While more expensive, a park party or sky park party are two hours then they are done, and someone else cleans up. My daughter had an escape room party on Monday for her 15th. Just three hours with 9, 15-year-olds, and my ears are STILL exhausted, almost 2 days later.
Meh. Growing up my brother always got themed parties. Mom went all out. I would run the game booth or something. I had regular old slumber parties. I’m older. His parties I always looked back fondly on, so I went all out with themes for my stepdaughter for birthdays 2-8. Guess what? She still talks about them. They stick out her mind and she remembers all of them. So now with my little boy I will do the same. It’s exhausting to you, but it’s a life time of find memories for them. So I figure suck it up, it’s one day a year they get to feel like royalty.
I love this!!! That little girl is too cute in her sparkly jacket! And I love how they have all the guests gift cards. Sounds like a blast all around.
What a cute story! The manager looks like he’s having fun too. If Target doesn’t normally do it, how did they get Target to agree? I wonder if they know someone who works there? Like an upper level employee? That’s a unique idea. I wonder how people with kids do it. Seems like so much work
Love it and the Manager sounds amazing. I am sure the kids had a blast.
This reminds me that I used to put myself to sleep around age 8 by daydreaming about a sleepover party in a grocery store. I am pretty sure I know how magical this was for Brayden, so kudos to her family and the store management for making it happen!
Haha, I had similar fantasies of being in a mall or museum overnight. Reminds me of The Mixed Up Files of Basil E Frankweiler.
And the detail of letting the girl do her friends’ checkouts is amazing. It’s so kid-like to be fascinated with that aspect. My friends and I loved playing cashier and running pretend credit cards, all that stuff. So fun.
“Baloney!” I loved that book. At 7, I was so envious when a friend got a birthday present that included fake grocery items, play money, and a plastic cash register. Whee!
Oh how my youngest would have loved this! She hated shopping of any kind except at Target. Looks like all those darlings had such fun.
Made me smile today.
Looks like one of the un-ruined Targets! Prior to the wreck of the Target stores, I would have been totally onboard with this for myself. Super cute little girl.
I really, really hate the Target updates and have quit shopping there.
What did they change? Last time I was in a Target was several months ago and it’s a smaller/lower volume one so always last on the list for updates, super limited for special partnership products, etc.
How fun! She’s such a cutie and I love their little outfits.
God, I love Target.
Absolutely love it. Kids under the age of say…around 8ish love love love Target, Walmart, Toys’R’Us, etc. And sometimes it’s a frantic love. Other times, it’s a well thought out purposeful love lol. When my middle kid was seven, all he dreamed of was an unlimited ‘money card’ and a trip to Walmart. So we hid a gift card in a small box only reachable by opening about a dozen gift-wrapped boxes decreasing in size lol. We spent three hours in Walmart that day, and he visited every department. Every. Department. Some two or three times. This child had shoes, clothing, school supplies, sports, crafts, kitchen and bathroom items, wall decals from home improvement, jewelry and, of course, toys and electronics in his shopping cart. To this day, that was his favorite birthday evah.
FWIW I work part time at a Williams Sonoma and we do special event parties all the time, mostly cooking classes of some sort since our store has a full teaching cooktop. We’ve had bachelorettes, couple Valentine’s Day parties, kids birthday parties, corporate team building, etc. We let people bring in beer and wine, even their own instructors, and it’s super reasonable.
This is important information, thank you.
Now I am screwed.
This story makes me happy, I also have an 8 year old girl. We only do Birthday parties at parks and have pizza delivered-so easy, and there is always a piñata! Kids birthday parties only suck when adults over complicate them.
They have a legit Icee machine. Eight year old HK9 would party there in a heartbeat. I love everything about this.
This is super cute. Glad they all had fun.
What a crazy world we live in that it’s considered cute and fun to have a kids birthday party at one of the biggest corporate giants, that only promotes more consumerism. Shopping. Materialism. At the tender age of 8. This is pure marketing and we are so asleep we don’t even see it. Kim kardashian must be kissed she didn’t think of this first.