Last weekend, my sister-in-law and I threw a Dr. Seuss baby shower for our sister-in-law who is due mid-July. She had picked the theme for her baby room, so we ran with it! We had SUCH a blast gathering ideas and putting them all into motion! In place of buying cards, we had some classic Dr. Seuss and Cat in the Hat readers purchased to write inside and everyone loved the idea. Talk about a quick way to build your library.
Below are the pictures and descriptions of some of what we did, if you want any of the recipes, I’ll hopefully update later with links to them. All of the signs were put together by my wonderfully talented sister-in-law, who worked wonders with the wrong size, gi-normous Sharpie we accidentally bought.
We started off the inspiration with Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes – these were red velvet cupcakes (see myrecipe here) with buttercream icing and…wait for it….blue cotton candy for the crazy hair (thanks to Chuck E Cheese for having cotton candy year round!)! It was a REALLY hot, humid day, so within about 30 minutes the cotton candy had melted into a sticky blob, so we re-applied it with better luck the 2nd time. My wonderful husband modified and printed the pictures so we could make cupcake toppers (we just used the candy sticks from the bulk barn to attach them, the pictures are reversible so one side was Thing 1, and the other Thing 2).
My other sister-in-law and a co-worker came up with this fantastic idea for a fish bowl.
She made blue jello, then once it was set inserted swedish fish into it. On the base she put nerds (for the gravel, so clever!) and on top, a red fish and a blue fish from the dollar store :0)
Next, we had “There’s A Wocket In My Pocket” pita pockets. We took mini pitas, sliced them in half, then had cheese and ham ready to stuff.
Yes, I know that’s not really a wocket, but we were working with limited resources from a GIANT wall-chart and sticker book I had purchased from Costco, so we decided to fake it :D Who really knows what a wocket is ANYWAY?!
What Seuss themed party would be complete without Green Eggs and Ham? Or in this case, just green eggs.
The plan was to do deviled eggs and dye the yolks green, but we ran out of time, so we resorted to salt and pepper with chopped cilantro on top. It seemed to go over pretty well!
The other batch of cupcakes we had were Horton Hears A Who cupcakes. They were raspberry lemonade cupcakes from Kara’s Cupcakes (also where I got the idea for the Thing 1 and 2 cupcakes) with the same buttercream icing, just dyed pink (for the clover which houses the “speck” – if you’ve never seen the movie, you must, it’s a pretty hilarious combination of Jim Carey and Steve Carell).
I found the cupcakes to be a bit on the sweet side, but they were good nonetheless. My husband did the cupcake toppers for these also.
Our Pink Yink Ink Drink (from Green Eggs and Ham) was a combination of pink lemonade, cranberry juice, gingerale and ice. Lots and LOTS of ice.
Let me just stop and say something about these glass jugs. They are FANTASTIC! Every single person at every party I’ve used them at (well, 2 parties so far) has asked about them. They look great, hold 6 quarts (almost 6 liters) of liquid, and are CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP! So go, get yourself one. Or two. Or four. They’re only $20 at Kitchen Stuff Plus or $24.99 (including a stand) at Bed, Bath and Beyond. GO NOW!
Now, where was I? Oh yeah, food. This popcorn is highly addictive. And very easy to make. Although, I suggest you pick a pair of oven mitts to use specifically for making caramel corn, as it does get a bit messy. Comment if you want the recipe, I have to ask the original owner if I can share it!
For whatever reason I didn’t really get any good pictures of the other decorations that were there, so I will just have to paint a mental picture. Along with the table cards, from the ceiling hung streamers and big punching balloons.
Hanging from the curtain rod over the sliding door were 3 paper lanterns – 2 white and a blue. Also on the table was a large, stand-up Cat in the Hat.
There were HEAPS of gifts! As I mentioned, pretty much everyone had a Dr. Seuss / Cat in the Hat reader as their “card”, so my sister-in-law (who is a special education teacher) will have a good-size library to start off with!
The gifts were opened on their beautiful lawn. We were definitely thankful for the huge shady trees back there as it was a scorcher of a day!
First, melt your chocolate (I used coloured, white and dark chocolate wafers from Bulk Barn). PAINT the colour you want to show on the bottom of the mold. Let set in the fridge for about 5-10 minutes. Then paint the next colour (if they are close together or will run into each other) and let set again. (You can actually buy candy paintbrushes, also from Bulk Barn).
Finally, pour your main chocolate into the remainder of the mold and let set. I used mostly dark chocolate to fill the molds as the coloured stuff was SUPER sweet.
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