Dr Seuss Birthday Party

V celebrated her fourth birthday this past Saturday, Dr Seuss style.

Lorax wall decor, made of poster board and a plastic tablecloth.

We had a blast at her party, and everyone loved the theme. My sister took most of the pictures, since I was busy playing hostess, and she hasn't sent them to me yet, but I thought I'd share a few I had on my phone.

Book page bunting.

I'd picked up several old copies of Dr Seuss books at Goodwill, which I massacred to make decorative items. ( It totally felt wrong to chop up good books, but the decorations turned out great, and we're keeping some of them for the play room.) The above picture shows one of several buntings made out of book pages and bias tape, inspired by this post at Real Life, One Day at a Time.

Balloons!

I blew up something like 70 balloons, and hung them up all over the dining room. I thought I might pass out afterwards, but you can't beat balloons for high impact, low cost decorating.

Balloon column at our Dr Seuss party.

I made Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes, like the ones found on this post at Kara's Party Ideas. They turned out super cute, but the humidity literally melted the cotton candy into little blue puddles within about 30 minutes.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes, before the humidity took its toll.

Oh well. Can't win e'm all, right?

I'll probably follow up with a part two once my sis gets around to sharing her pics. 

V's already trying to plan next year's party...

Lorax Themed Sensory Bin

The Lorax has become sort of a big thing around here.

It's always been my favorite Dr. Seuss book, but with all the buzz about the movie, (which we loved, by the way,) and all the crafting and planning for V's birthday party, the book is in constant rotation around here.

I decided to scavenge through my craft stash, to see if I could put together a sensory bin for the kids to reenact the story.

Truffula trees.

The grass and Truffula trees were easy, colored rice and pom poms hot glued to pipe cleaners, (with some extra pom poms as Truffula tufts, and short pipe cleaners as tree stumps.)

Swomee Swans and Bar-ba-loots.

I actually found some wooden bird and bear cut outs lying around here, which I painted to use as Swomee Swans and Bar-ba-loots.

Polymer clay "humming fish."

I was at loss for what to make the humming fish out of, until I remembered I still had some polymer clay lying around. I fabricated a couple of "humming fish," which looked rather like Goldfish crackers.

The Lorax and the Onceler.

I ended up making the Lorax and the Onceler out of little wooden peg blanks. In keeping with my utter lack of painting ability, I kept it simple. They were painted with acrylic paint. I added a mustache and eyebrows to the Lorax made out of wool roving, and covered the Onceler with a layer of "miff muffered moof" made out of wool roving as well. (Ok, I have no idea what miff muffered moof is, but since the Onceler was into the fiber arts, I'm thinking wool roving was probably appropriate.)

Lorax themed sensory bin.

Here's the whole set up. Both kids are having fun with it, repeating the story nearly verbatim.

I belatedly realized that I had forgotten the "unless" rock. I remedied that after I took the picture, with a small rock and a Sharpie.

I may try to come up with some Truffula fruit and some sort of Thneed if the kids maintain this level of interest in the story.

I am the Lorax, and I Speak for the Trees

Cat in the Hat puppets bring the story to life.

I was picked up a neat little craft kit at Target the other day in the party supply section, that included 4 blank hand puppets which looked like this:

Blank hand puppet.

The kids and I have been in  a Seussical mood lately. We've been doing Seuss-y activities for school, we saw the Lorax movie this week, and I'm in the middle of planning a massive Dr. Seuss birthday party at the end of the month.

 I decided we needed some Seuss puppets to go along with all the books I've been reading. I used Sharpies because I'm impatient, and wanted them ready for bedtime story reading the same night, but i could have, and I may yet go back and paint them with fabric paint. (I don't love that the marker didn't give a nice even coat of color, but the kids, of course, don't care.)

DIY Lorax hand puppet.

You'll note that the Cat in the Hat is missing something pretty vital, namely his hat. I'm going to make him a felt one, and glue it on.

Cat in the Hat puppet, minus his hat.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 puppets.

The kids, particularly little V loved them. The kids howled over listening to the cross old Lorax read his lines from the book, and V acted out the parts of the Things, while I did the Cat's part, and read the story.

Total cost for these was less than 3 bucks, and we're having a blast with them. For tons, (ahem, 300+ more) Seuss themed crafts, party ideas, and school stuff, check out my Seuss themed Pinterest board.

Projector Crafting, Seuss Style

Cat in the Hat decoration for our Seuss party.

I ran across an old projector at Goodwill a couple of months ago, and couldn't pass it up.

I've successfully made a couple of cool t shirts for the kids, by using it as a light table. (I printed off Pokemon and Sesame street coloring sheets, placed them on the projector, placed a t shirt over the picture, and traced it with a Sharpie or fabric marker.)

V's birthday is coming up next month, and I thought I'd try my hand at making some large decorations for the party. She's having a Dr Seuss themed party.

Green Eggs and Ham

I traced some images from our favorite Dr Seuss books, (excepting the hat above, which came from here,) and onto clear plastic, and projected them onto foam core and poster board, and traced and colored them. A little time consuming maybe, but easy and the results are fun.

Thing 1 sign. Lettering to be added later.

I think I'll get my 25 bucks worth out of the projector. It has lots of crafting potential.