About a month ago I asked Iris what kind of theme she wanted for her fourth birthday party… Frozen, Hello Kitty, Star Wars, etc. Her answer? CVS. Yes, as in the second largest pharmacy chain, just behind Walgreens. If you follow me on Instagram you are probably well aware of her love for the store. What you might not know is why the heck our kid loves it so much. Let’s take a look back, shall we?
Here we are making her wildest dreams come true.
A good mail day for Iris Gill!
How to make Iris your best friend.
Here’s a video of Iris in her happy place.
It all started nearly two years ago when construction began on our city’s very first CVS Pharmacy. The site happens to be directly on our path to Iris’ school, so we drive past the location at least twice a day. Being that she was only three when it opened, she watched the progress of the structure being built for nearly half of her life, so naturally it was a big deal when the store finally opened. When Iris first got to step inside the brand new CVS, she was not disappointed. She discovered all the snacks, drinks, toys, chap-stick, and band-aids that her little heart could ever desire.
The store has been open for nearly a year now and stopping in to pick up a sweet treat or a strawberry milk is at least a weekly occurrence for us. There are tears when we drive by and don’t stop, and there are cheers when we do. This girl’s love for CVS is pure and true – so loyal that I recently asked Iris where she’d rather go – CVS or Disneyworld. Her response? “CVS and Disneyworld.” Don’t you dare make a girl choose.
So when your kid puts CVS on the same level as Disneyworld, you embrace it. When they ask for a CVS birthday party, you throw it. One day it won’t be so simple to make her happy, so for now I take her to CVS when we have a few extra minutes to spare and try my best to make her birthday party special, as tricky as it may be (after all, there are no Pinterest boards for this, folks).
But when CVS headquarters heard about Iris’ party, they sent us tons of snacks, favors, and party supplies to celebrate. How cool is that? And when we told the local store manager about what kind of party we were having, he was so sweet to donate some CVS-brand water bottles to add to the goodie bags. Not to mention that her year was MADE when they flashed a big “Happy Birthday” message to Iris up on the big sign out front.
To celebrate CVS style, we gathered at our favorite local park with some of our favorite people. Here are a few photos from our day.
Birthday Girl
Best thing ever.
Party time!
Gotta keep the adults entertained.
Don’t worry. These were Tic Tac favors for the grown-ups only!
Gold Emblem™ snacks (a CVS exclusive) sent directly from their headquarters!
Goodie bags!
A big thank you to all of our friends who celebrated and happily played along (apparently so many people bought her a birthday gift from our local CVS that all the employees knew about the party). And thank you to CVS who helped make Iris’ fourth birthday so special. By the way, this is in no way sponsored by CVS. Just 100% true love.
