Elliot's Dr. Seuss Birthday Party

I sort of flippantly decided Dr. Seuss would be a good theme for Elliot's first birthday.  Lots of people do it these days, and it's so cute and boy-ish.  I did not really consider how much creativity and themed food go into a Dr. Seuss party.  Let me tell you--it is a lot!  Or, I guess, it wouldn't have to be.  but it was a lot, for me. It was really fun, though.
 

This is possibly the longest blog post I've ever written. Prepare yourself.  If you just want to see photos from the actual party, scroll to the bottom :).



I began prepping for the party by making these banners (hanging from the table and also several other places).



They are 6 inch triangles of paper...



... sewn together with yarn.



A big thank you to Daniel for figuring out what was wrong with my sewing machine!!  Wish I had an engineer's brain.  But glad Daniel has one!



One of the Seuss-themed party snacks we made were these green egg pretzel sweets.  Yum!



Lucy helped by separating all the green m&ms into a bowl...



 ...And spreading out the pretzels...






(These are what Costco had, so these are what we used!  4 bags of them)


Then come the sweets!  We used these little vanilla candy wafers.


You put one on each pretzel...





...And pop them in the oven until they get a little soft.



Then smush an m&m into each one.



And, voila!  There you have it -- green egg pretzel sweets.



The next sweets we made were oreo truffle balls--shaped as little Dr. Seuss hats! Loved this idea.
 

Take a package of oreos and grind 'em up in the food processor.



Add 8 oz softened cream cheese and process it all together.



Then scoop it out into little balls and shape into little cylinders.
 

 Freeze them!  Or really chill them.  Because then you dip them in melted vanilla candy wafers. 



And then dip the top 1/3 in red candy wafers.



Then chill them again (or freeze them), and dip the bottom 1/3rd in the same red candy wafers.



Then set them on a chilled cookie sheet and pipe white melted candy wafer along the bottoms to make the little hat brims.



I tried to use a medicine syringe for the piping, and it failed miserably -- don't try that.
 

The good thing with these is that even though mine looked REALLY imperfect, they still were super cute and cartoony and TASTEY.



If you enjoy doing this sort of thing, I'd recommend them.  If you don't enjoy doing this sort of thing, for the love--don't make these.



This idea is all over Pinterest, but I think it's so cute and so easy and simple.



I also ordered red and blue popcorn from my favorite popcorn shop--in Beaumont, TX.  Pop's Family Popcorn.  Yum!



And red velvet mini cupcakes...



...with cream cheese icing! 



And more green eggs, which were WAY more popular than I'd thought they'd be.  Note: if you make these, you add blue food coloring to make them green (b/c the mustard and yolk are already yellow). 



These were yummy.



I never buy this stuff, but I did for this party.  Nesquik makes powdered strawberry flavoring to add to milk, and it makes perfect pink ink!  Pink ink is from a couple of the Dr. Seuss books.  It's a little on the sweet side, but it was fun to have a little bit for those who wanted to try it.



We also had split pea soup, and what goes best with that? 



Ham sandwiches :).



Cheese Trees are from another Dr. Seuss book--though I couldn't tell you which one, right off hand.
 

By the grace of God and with lots of help from family/friends, everything came together for a really fun and cute birthday party for Elliot!  We were so excited to celebrate him with friends and family.
 

And we missed the friends and family who weren't able to be there.  



Lucy loved helping Elliot open presents!  She wasn't really jealous at all... probably because there were plenty to go around, and I don't think she really understood that they were for him and not for her. 



We really emphasize sharing in our house, so even her things are really "sharing toys," for the most part.









Happy birthday, Elliot!!!  We are so, so grateful God has gifted us the privilege of raising you and caring for you.