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DIY Dr. Seuss Party

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A fun DIY Dr. Seuss themed birthday party loaded with fun themed food for Little Dude’s birthday.

Collage of pictures from diy dr seuss party.

It was finally time for Little Dude’s birthday party! I am not even slightly exaggerating when I say the planning for this party started the day after his party last year.  He has been looking forward to this for soooooo long and the day finally arrived.

For the longest time it was going to be a train party.  He started drawing plans for his next cake. First it was a just some random drawings.

Collage of images from Dr. Seuss birthday party.

Then he started coming home from daycare with multiple pages of train cake plans, taped together. Each page was a car on the train cake.

Often times there were candles involved, color schemes picked out and sometimes even specific candies for the train cars to be hauling.

It was so. darn. cute.

The problem is that last year’s birthday party was train themed! While it was super cute with the handmade signs from his daddy and a train full of Oreos and Pez was a big hit, I really didn’t want to do the same theme again. 

What could we possibly do to make it better? I suppose following the conductor’s expertly drawn train plans would have been a start.

So for the last year I have been going down two paths.  The first was trying to come up with other themes that Little Dude would like just as much for his party.  The other was trying to talk myself into being ok with another train party.

I was pretty much resigned to the fact that we were going to board the train again this year, when Little Dude found a new love, memory match. 

We started with a small game with just a handful of trucks and tractors to match up.  He quickly needed something more challenging, so we graduated to Dr. Seuss Memory.

In the beginning we would take it easy on him and make sure the game was close.  Within a week or two we were all fighting for our lives. 

We played a couple of games almost every night and it would be a toss-up as to who might win between Little Dude, my husband and I.  We got pretty competitive too and we all had a blast!

My husband looked up all of the characters, so we would know all of their names and we got excited when we spotted one in the book we were reading at bedtime.  That’s when it hit me, a Dr. Suess party!

Luckily Little Dude easily climbed on board and the train quickly left the station before we could look back!

Small child dressed up in Grinch Halloween costume.

So I sent out the invitations with a picture of him dressed as the Grinch last Halloween and this little poem:

You could not, would not want to miss
A birthday celebration quite like this!
Haven’t you heard, didn’t you hear
Little Dude is celebrating turning 5 this year!
There will be food and cake, a deliciously good sight
We hope to see you can make it, it would be a delight!
This is one thing for certain, you’re in for a treat.
There will be green eggs and ham, all you can eat!
That or roast beast is for you to decide,
Get here by boat, or bus or take a train ride.
You can come on skates, you can come on skis,
You can come in a hat, but please come please.

Then I went to planning.  I will try to add recipes and links in the coming days, but here is a peek at what we had:

Cookie jar filled with goldfish crackers on stand next to one fish two fish book.

We had not one fish nor two fish, no red fish nor blue fish on the table with silverware and plates. But we did have plenty of fish! 

Green eggs and ham slider sandwiches ready for the party.

Of course there had to be green eggs and ham sliders!  These were fun to make and could be made the night ahead and just baked off for the party. I made a triple batch and they were a hit!

Hot turkey ham and cheese sliders served on plate with corny mac and cheese.

In case anyone had qualms with green eggs, I also made some hot turkey, ham and cheese sliders. Another triple batch was almost demolished! 

Roast beast rollups on platter next to Grinch sign.

We needed some roast beast at our feast. After the popularity of the zesty beef rollups, I decided to go for a horseradish cheddar pinwheel variation this time. 

Slow cooker filled with macaroni and cheese with corn mixture with a poodles with noodles sign.

Poodles eating noodles played out as some slow cooker macaroni and cheese with corn.  We hadn’t made that in quite some time, but I knew that would be a hit with the kiddos and it’s so easy to make.

String cheese sticks with cat in the hat drawn on the packages with sharpie.

What would a Dr. Seuss party be without the cat in the hat?

platter of cat in the hat cheese sticks.

Oh the places you’ll go, the cheeses you’ll eat.  At first I was just going to slice some cheese and have crackers, but then I saw some cute Cat in the Hats drawn on string cheese on Pinterest and I just knew we’d have to mimic that!

Chip and dip set filled with fruit, pretzels and peanut butter yogurt dip.

We needed some fruit in the mix, so for our Truffula fruit spread we had strawberries, apples and pretzels with our favorite peanut butter and yogurt fruit dip

Big bowl filled with strawberries and cream popcorn with hop on popcorn.

For our hop on popcorn, we made some strawberries and cream popcorn

Big drink dispenser filled with pink sherbet punch.

We had plenty of pink ink for all of the yinks to drink.  I think I even noticed a few of them wink! 

Sour cream cookies with green icing and candy hearts on top for Grinch cookies.

The dessert table was all Mr. Grinch.  We had sour cream cookies with big hearts on them for after his heart grew three sizes. 

Grinch cupcake pull-apart cake with Santa hat for Dr. Seuss party.

And of course a Mr. Grinch cupcake cake.  I’ve been experimenting with a buttercream that isn’t quite so sweet, but still forms a light crust.  I’ll have to share the results with you. 

I had a lot going on, so I doctored some cake mixes for the cupcakes.  I got the chocolate where I want it, but the vanilla are still a work in progress. 

We had a blast with plenty of yard games, water balloons, food and fun.  The fun menu cards I ordered from Etsy really took the buffet table to the next level! This might have been our favorite party yet. 

Cupcakes decorated like frogs with marshmallow eyes.

Today we are bringing cupcakes to his friends at daycare. We always do a different theme for the daycare treats.

Last year it was minions and the year before it was monkeys. This year Little Dude has taken a shining to a frog toy my grandma gave him at Easter, so froggy cupcakes it is!  

I hope you enjoyed your little look at the party.  Have you ever thrown themed parties? What are your favorite themes?

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Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies

Sunday 27th of May 2018

How fun! You are so creative!

Unknown

Monday 21st of May 2018

This is such a fun birthday idea, my 3 year old is obsessed with Mr. Grinch (as she calls him) so I'll store this idea away for her birthday. Thanks for sharing with Funtastic Friday.

Debbie

Sunday 20th of May 2018

Hi Carlee, your little man looks tickled pink with his party! I do miss doing birthday parties for the children. Yes they are hard work to prepare, but seeing the children having fun makes it totally worth while. I love your poem! It made me want to get on a plane! If I remember rightly I did do an Ivor The Engine theme twice, but surprisingly never a Winnie the Pooh (my son was Pooh Bears number one fan). My favorite theme was a Disney one, from the princess castle cake to twinkly sandwiches.

xx

Carlee

Sunday 20th of May 2018

A princess party would be so much fun to throw! Hopefully I get a neice I can throw a party for :-) I am definitely going to miss it when he outgrows fun parties!

nic@nipitinthebud

Friday 18th of May 2018

I was so excited to read your post when I saw the title. We had a Dr Seuss party this year too and it was so much fun planning the food and drinks. Glad your little man had such a fun time x https://nipitinthebud.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/a-dr-seuss-birthday-party/

Carlee

Sunday 20th of May 2018

How fun! I am headed over to check yours out!

Val

Thursday 17th of May 2018

This turned out great! Definitely a birthday party to remember!

Carlee

Sunday 20th of May 2018

Thank you!