Sunday, March 20, 2011

Seussical Celebration

Hunter and I love Dr Seuss, so it was an obvious choice for the theme for his party.  I was so excited that I started planning like 6 months in advance.  I know that's extreme, but I can't help myself...planning my kids' birthday parties is definitely one of my favorite things.  Luckily I have a husband that plays along perfectly and sisters and a mother who come to the rescue at the last minute...because I'm always running late the day of the party.

I took an excessive amount of pictures (with the help of my little sis).  There are 50+ pictures in this post...consider that your warning, and don't make fun of me...I know how crazy this is, but when  you work on something for this long, you want to remember.  And I want Hunter to remember, too:)

I was super excited about the invite.  Courtney took the pictures and I ordered the invitations from Modern Bebe on etsy...
So cute!

Dr Seuss's birthday was in March, so I found a lot of supplies at Michael's on his actual birthday.  I lined the sidewalk leading up to the house with these pinwheels, but forgot to take a picture until James took them down:(...
Hunter was so excited when they started blowing in the wind.  In fact, he was actually into all of the decorations.  When I was running around setting up, he kept walking over saying, "I love all of the decorations, mommy!" in the sweetest little voice.

Now get ready for oodles of food and decoration pictures...if you're even still reading...which it's likely you're not because of how insane this is.

Front door...

I had these signs with quotes from Dr Seuss's books hanging in the entry way hall...

The mantle...
I took all of Hunter's Dr Seuss books and used them to decorate throughout the house, and I got all of the printable decorations from Sweet Art Boutique on etsy.  It was such a great deal!  There were like 15 documents in the package that I ordered.

Desserts...

I picked the food based on food in various Dr Seuss books...

I made 3 sets of cupcakes.  Key lime to go with Green Eggs and Ham...

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes...
I had read several warnings that the cotton candy would melt when it came in contact with the icing, so I decided to stop icing them and just put it straight on the cupcake, but all of the cotton candy still disintegrated.  I guess the cupcakes were too moist:(

Cat in the Hat cupcakes...

More quotes on the kitchen windows and backdoors (and you can see the trufulla trees in the backyard)...

 I also had quotes hanging in the kitchen...

 The food table...
Our green eggs and ham...

 Trufulla trees...

Thing 1, Thing 2 and the birthday boy...

And one with Char...
I also got H's shirt on etsy (from Cutie Bootie Boutique) and Char's dress, too (from Baby Harrill).  I loved Char's dress.  Someone else have a Dr Suess party so she can wear it again!

We had a craft table outside to make bookmarks and Cat in the Hat hats, but again I forgot to take a picture until we brought them in after the party...

 Hunter picked Green Eggs and Ham for me to read to everyone...
He normally loves that book, but he was so excited during the party that he just wanted to throw grass everywhere.  Hey, it's his party, so whatever he wants to do, right?

After the book, we played "pass the hat" with the Dr Seuss hat - same rules as hot potato...

When a kid was "out", they could choose a Thing 1/Thing 2 or Cat in the Hat finger puppet, Dr Seuss stickers or Dr Seuss magnets...
I thought those finger puppets were so cute and figured the kids would pick one of those as a prize.  How could I have forgotten kids love for stickers, though?  And apparently magnets, too...who knew?  One kid picked a finger puppet, so we had 19 left over.  If you're guessing I pushed them off on the guests as they left, you're right.

Finally it was time to sing!  Look at Hunter's face..
 He was smiling so sweetly as we were singing.  He loved every second of it!

We were going to wait to open presents, but Hunter walked in from playing out back and went straight for them toward the end of the party.  So we had an impromtu gift opening session as most of the guests were leaving...

 I love uptown popcorn, so we used the confetti flavor for the favors...

I think everything turned out great, and most importantly, Hunter had a great time!  I still can't believe I have a 4 (FOUR!) year old!