Our daughter’s 6th birthday party was the best one we have ever had.  How many kids can say they had a birthday party at Home Depot?!?  Our daughter loves the “Kids Workshops” at Home Depot so this party was perfect for her.

The idea for the party actually popped up one Saturday after we attended one of the workshops at a local Home Depot.  Our daughter asked if she could have a Home Depot birthday party because she loves putting together their project kits.  We started with the idea of having the party at our church building but were blown away when a Home Depot store agreed to host the party for us!

Let me make one quick note.  Home Depot is not in the business of doing birthday parties.  This was a special event that the staff at this particular store was excited to facilitate after I made the request.  This is the first birthday party that this this particular location has ever hosted.  I want to give this particular store and its staff a ton of credit for this very nice effort but I have decided not to name the specific location for fear that they might get inundated with party requests.  The staff of this location amazed our family with their kindness and enthusiasm about taking on this special task.  I am sending specific recognition to a corporate contact at Home Depot to make sure that this store and its staff receive the special praise they deserve.

As I mentioned earlier, Home Depot is not in the business of doing birthday parties.  When I called a few local stores I was not surprised when employees were perplexed by my question, “Does your store ever host birthday parties?”  One day, pretty much out of the blue, Fasicka from Home Depot called.  She had been on vacation and had just gotten my message.  She was sitting with Phillip, her store manager, and they wanted to see about making our party idea a reality.  They were both very excited and I was really excited too.

The next day my wife and I went to the Home Depot and met with Fasicka and Phillip to discuss details and see the training room where they wanted to host the event.  They were obviously excited to be hosting this special event and had already gathered ideas from several store employees for the party.  It was so refreshing to see a store and a management team that was so excited about hosting a little girl’s birthday party and giving a little something back to the customers.

On the day of the party we had a good chuckle as we carried a cake, party decorations and drink cooler into the Home Depot.  Fasicka and the staff at Home Depot had done an amazing job of setting up the room!  They had aprons out for all the kids and had decked out the room with Home Depot balloons, caution tape bouquets, and other Home Depot items.  The space didn’t look like a training room anymore.  We added some items my wife had picked up on Oriental Trading and at local stores to complete the room.

Our daughter was very excited as she checked out the special apron that one of the team members had decorated for her.  We spent some time looking around the room and then headed to the front of the store to greet guests and point them in the right direction.  I loved telling people that the party room was at the back of the store between a display of hot water heaters.  Definitely a pleasant change from the monotony of typical locations for children’s birthday parties.

Home Depot had graciously provided two employees to help facilitate our private Kid’s Workshop and birthday party.  Andie and Big Joe were amazing!  We started the party by putting together the wooden football ring toss kits that were the project of the month.  I loved seeing all the parents and kids working together to assemble the kit.  Andie worked her way around the room making sure everything was going smoothly and providing some instruction to the younger kids.  She was the most involved and instructive Home Depot employee I have ever seen with one of the Kid’s Workshops.

If you have never been to one of the workshops, the kids get to hammer, glue, and paint a wooden project.  It might sound like a bad idea to turn a group of 4-10 year olds loose with hammers and paint, but everything went smoothly.  The kids all created some good looking projects and Big Joe and Andie were there to help along the way.

The project took about 30-40 minutes to complete.  My brother-in-law is an amazing story teller so my wife had asked him to read “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” as part of our party.  Everyone got a smile when he dawned a set of wolf ears and a snout and read the story to the kids as only he could.  The kids were mesmerized and Andie, Big Joe, and several of the parents commented about how much they enjoyed the story.  My wife and I used the time to setup the tables for cake and cupcakes.

As part of the construction and building theme for our Home Depot party, my wife had come up with the idea that the kids could decorate their own cupcakes.  My wife and our daughter had made some rainbow cupcakes the night before and we turned the kids loose with homemade icing they could spread on, and liquid icing that they could paint on.  My clever wife also came up with the idea of having caulk guns filled with icing that we could shoot onto the cupcakes for the kids.  I found some empty refillable plastic caulk tubes on Amazon that we paired with some new Home Depot caulk guns.  There were lots of comments about the guns but I never caught anyone piping icing directly into their mouth.

After the kids were all sugared up we sat them down to open gifts.  We were blown away to find out that Home Depot had put together a gift bag for our daughter.  Among the items was a stuffed animal that the employees at the store had custom made for our daughter.  They had found an orange plush monster and had attached a patch with their company values to it.  Fasicka and some of the other employees wanted our daughter to know why they had gone out of their way as individuals and a company to make this party happen.  We talked about some of the values at the party with the kids and later that night we talked about them at bedtime with our daughter.  She has slept with the Home Depot monster ever since.

We wound the party down with a piñata.  The employees at Home Depot had cut a hole in the drop ceiling so a piñata rope could be hung from a beam in the ceiling above.  My wife had found a construction worker piñata on Amazon and had adorned him with some Home Depot logos for the party.  The kids all got a chance to have a swing before the candy went flying.

Our family and friends all had a blast at the birthday party at Home Depot.  I was pleased when Andie talked about how well-behaved all the children were at the party.  We sent our guests on their way with a goody bag and the instructions to buy something as they walked back through the store 🙂

In a business culture that so often is focused on the bottom-line it was so refreshing to find a BIG business that went out of their way to give back to the community in such a kind and unexpected way.  Again, don’t call up Home Depot expecting them to do this for you.  We happened to find the right store, with the right staff, at the right time.  We are very thankful to Fasicka, Phillip, Andie, Big Joe, Chris, and many others for making this party a reality.  It was a very special occasion and has made me an even bigger fan of The Home Depot.

Check out some of my photos and a video at the very end…

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