Today Is Dr Suess' Birthday
Dr. Suess was born March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. His 44 children's books have thrilled many children throughout the years with imaginative characters and tongue twisting rhymes. His books have been translated into more than 15 languages and sold more than 200 million copies.

To celebrate the birthday of such a famous author, here are some fun activities:
Cat in the Hat dot to dot (printable- includes numbers 1 to 78)

Can you match the Dr. Suess character with the name (on screen, takes a bit to load the graphics.)

Cat in the Hat Coloring Page (Make sure you change your printer setting so it prints on one page.)

Dr. Suess Word Search Puzzle (Includes names of characters. Best suited to a child who is reading well.)

And here are some fun party food ideas that I did at a Cat in the Hat Party I threw last year.

You could not, would not Miss
The fun to be had with food like this!
I meant what I said
I said what I meant
It's Dr Suess' birthday
One- hundred percent
March is the month, the 2nd is the day
There is lots of fun coming your way!

Green Eggs and Ham


Prepare Deviled eggs as your favorite recipe calls for but add a few drops of green food coloring to the filling. Then fill your eggs with the green filling.

Ham Sandwiches:
Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
Brown Sugar Ham from the deli
Dijon Mustard
Swiss Cheese

Cut the rolls in half and spread mustard on one side, stack ham and cheese and put sandwich together then broil in the oven for just a few minutes until cheese melts and tops crisp up. Serve and along side the green eggs and enjoy.

Colored Popcorn

Pop your favorite popcorn and fill up a brown paper bag.
Melt butter, corn syrup and food coloring of choice together
Pour mixture over popcorn and shake around in the brown paper bag
Pour popcorn out onto wax paper and let it set

Serve in your favorite see through server and listen to your guests oohh and ahh

The Cat in the Hat Marshmallow Pops


White Candy Melts
Red Candy Melts
Sucker Sticks
Marshmallows

Melt your candy melts adding a little oil if needed to smooth it out. Dip one end into the red and place on wax paper undipped side down to set. Once hardened do the other side of the marshmallow leaving a white stripe of marshmallow showing. Let dry.

Optional:

Using a piping bag, fill with the white candy melts and pipe a hat brim around the marshmallows and let dry.

Using the tip of a very sharp object (ice pick, knife, etc) make a small hole on one end of the marshamallow (the side with the white brim if you went with this option). Dip your stick in the melted chocolate and stick into the marshmallow where you just made the hole. Stick into foam or glass jar and serve.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes


Make cupcakes as you like and use blue icing to frost. About 15 minutes before your party or before you serve the cupcakes take blue cotton candy and place on top of the cupcakes to look like Thing 1 and 2 hair. This is so fun and so easy!

And don't forget to read their favorite Dr Suess book with them or to them tonight before bed!  We will be reading all of Monkey's as they are all her favorites! 

Happy Hump Day Ya'll

This year for Monkey's birthday party the theme is Ladybug.  We don't call her ladybug or anything I just thought it was a cute idea and knew I could do a lot with it.  I began last year after her 1st birthday party was over which you can see HERE.  I learned a lot from that party and wanted to get a jump on things. 

One thing I learned was to spend the money and hire a professional to take the photos.  (If you're using them for reasons like building a following for a party blog, or entering the party in contests, etc) So this year we have hired someone and I'm so excited about that.

I also learned that it's ok to let others help and do stuff for the party.  I'm the type of person that wants a professional type of party without paying a professional to do it.  But I'm not a professional so I got a little help this year that I'll share in later posts. 

In gathering ideas I just googled ladybug birthday party and so many sites and blogs and pictures came up and I started a file and saved ideas I came across that I liked in it.  Then when I really started planning it out a few months ago I already had this massive file to pull from!  Saved me a lot of time. 

One of the ideas I came across was invitations cut out to look like ladybugs and the wings opening to reveal the details.

I should have started these last year with how long they took me.  I did them before I got my cricut so hand cutting each circle took forever and then assembly was even longer but I love how the turned out and think they were worth it! 


I played around with the wording until I got what I wanted. 
It reads:
Our Little Lady is Turning 2
And She wants to get buggy with you
So fly on over to eat and play
Because it's Casey Marilyn's Special Day

Address
The Infestation Begins at 11:30AM
A feast, games and cake will be waiting on all Buggy Friends.
We Hope To Spot You There.
Head gardeners: Casey and Shayna
Regrets only : email and phone number.

I also have the bad habit of remembering people to invite after the fact or invitations coming back due to wrong address and not having enough time to mail it again so I always make a jpeg invitation that I can email them if that happens which it already did so I've emailed this one to a few people that I had the wrong address for.

Well those are the ladybug invitaions, over the next few days I'm sure you are going to grow tired of looking at all things ladybug but it's so much easier to do in different posts rather than one big one.  Got any parties you're planning?  I'd love to hear about them.

Happy Monday Ya'll. 

 We have a few parties each year we go to, company parties, family parties, and a friend or 2 that does annual parties.  It's my "dream" and goal to start hosting my own annual party but at the moment we live an hour from everyone we know so it's just not feasible.  Hopefully next year I'll be able to start this tradition when we move closer to town and when I do start I want to do an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.   Have you ever been to one?  I haven't but they look so fun.  I found this one at a fun blog so you can check it out for all the details. Ugly Sweater Christmas Party I would search high and low to find the most gaudy, loud, awful ugly sweater ever and wear it with pride.  Thankfully I probably wouldn't have to search too hard, I am in TX and women here seem to love those ugly Christmas Sweaters. :)  I found a few for your enjoyment.





What do you do for Holiday parties?

Showers are such a memorable and joyous time, whether it's for a mom to be for the first time or 10th time, or it's for that blushing bride.  It's a time to celebrate and congradulate, a time to make memories and share laughter. 
I've had the wonderful opportunity to host and throw many showers and parties over the years.  I love the details and planning and putting it all together.  I'm small town so the end result isn't what you'd call professional or Extravagant but it's sweet and special for that special lady.

As much as I love to do the planning and putting it all together, I must admit, having one done for me takes the cake.  I just got to show up and receive and enjoy, no work at all.  I am so blessed to have wonderful ladies in my life that planned a sweet and special shower of my very own.
















One of my favorite gifts, my aunt Lynda made this bear for me for Casey Marilyn but what's so special is it's made out of my baby blanket. Now when I say baby blanket I mean the blanket that I finally stopped sleeping with when I went off to college so you can imagine the shape it was in. Now it sits in the monkey's crib and it's precious.


Next is my shower in Dallas which was at my house and more intimate with my church friends and co workers and some family.







Hope you enjoyed looking at pics of my shower and maybe you'll pull some sweet and easy ideas to do for someone you know.