The absolute cutest picture/video arrived in my email the other week. I was entranced by what I was seeing and needed to immediately find out what it was about and who could come up with such a brilliant idea. Who would have thought that a 3-year-old would choose to have her birthday party at Cedar Market? That is exactly what Alyssa Wasserman suggested to her mom as she is obsessed with shopping there and is well known by the staff and others.

Most kids love Oscar on “Sesame Street” and can easily recognize him, but Alyssa surely would choose Oscar at Cedar Market as her favorite Oscar! If anyone was present on Monday afternoon, Nov. 4 they would have come upon five very serious and anxious shoppers all within the age range of 3-4. Each girl was accompanied by her mom and was asked to bring a “baby” to put into the shopping cart that she received as she entered the store, in place of a goody bag. The pint-sized Cedar Market shopping carts had Cedar Market labels on them and each girl was presented with a store hat and gloves to don while stocking the shelves.

There was a scavenger hunt with each girl holding the brightly colored flyers similar to those distributed at the entrance to the store. Only four items were listed and each “shopper” needed to find them and check them off on their list.

The party also included a tour of the store followed by teaching the girls how to stock the shelves and a special private tutorial on how to make sushi!

A special happy birthday message: “Attention Shoppers, please wish Alyssa a happy birthday” played across the store’s loudspeaker.

They played a “matching the boxes of cereal” game, and this festive event concluded with all of the shoppers partaking in singing “Happy Birthday” and devouring the yummy birthday cake which they chose during their spree. This was followed by Alyssa blowing out all of her (three and one extra) candles.

Wondering how such an event came about, I was informed by Alyssa’s mom, Stephanie, that truly her daughter is obsessed with going there. She knows her mother runs in frequently to get whatever she needs and has become familiar with the aisles and who works there. Stephanie said that on a rainy day when activities are limited Alyssa will accompany her, taking her special wagon out of the car, and always finds something that the family kitchen needs. Cedar Market has become such an integral part of Alyssa’s life that she often asks her mommy to take her there prior to the start of the school day so she can purchase an apple or fruit for her school snack. I did not hear anything about pretzels, chips or cookies!

Once the idea was presented to the staff at Cedar Market, they discussed it with Stephanie and ran with it completely, assisting in everything that was necessary to make this party as special and as much fun as it could be for Alyssa. They even bought her a present!

Keeping in mind all that is going on in Israel at the moment, Stephanie and her husband, Dov, heard of an organization in Gush Etzion that provides birthday parties for children whose families have been impacted by the war. In honor of Alyssa, her parents made a generous contribution.

Happy birthday, Alyssa. Let us know where next year’s party will be!

P.S:. The event was filmed by Michelle Frohlich of Bergenfield and anyone who would like to watch the video can do by visiting https://bit.ly/3VwMI0L