Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

I love Dr. Seuss books. They are fun, engaging and super catchy. I LOVE how every year around Dr. Suess' birthday Target has all of his books for a ridiculously good price. I stocked up on most of his board books last year for my daughter, Molly. Those books are what got her to enjoy reading. Prior to those books, I would try consistently to read to Molly and she would just take the book and toss it. It broke my teacher heart that my own child refused to read with me. Within a week of having the Dr. Seuss books out she was wanting to read them ALL the time. If I'm honest there were times where I thought that I couldn't handle reading Fox in Socks for the 20th time in a row (no joke), but I would just remind myself how previously she wouldn't read with me at all so the fact she wanted to keep reading was HUGE -everything else could wait!

Fox in Socks holds a fond not so fond place in my heart. My first week of teaching EVER {bear in mind I did not go to school for teaching so everything was foreign to me}, the head of our district's literacy department decided to come into my room for observation five minutes before lunch. Of course she walks in right when I was about to dismiss the kids back to their desks to get ready for lunch and recess. When she came in I went into panic mode and asked them to sit back down so we could read one more book before lunch time. I thought that would be better than her just watching the kids clean up their desks and get ready for lunch. Boy was I wrong. I picked Fox in Socks to read to the kids -BIG mistake! I sounded like a complete blubbering idiot. Between the difficult text and my absolute embarrassment, it continued to spiral out of control. Luckily lunchtime came and I could escape. My principal called me in the next week and told me this lady was unsure about my abilities (haha). Oh goodness. Thankfully, my daughter's love for this book is helping to create more fond memories of this book. :)

My daughter loves Dr Seuss' books so much that we decided to make her second birthday Dr. Seuss themed. A little background information on me and birthday parties...Now I love birthday parties and my philosophy is go big or go home. My mom always went over the top for my birthday and I guess I am just continuing that tradition. I find it to be such a fun and rewarding process. You start with pinning ideas, then making things and putting it all together one step at a time. Before you know it, the party day has arrived and you get to see all your hard work in action and how much your kiddo and her friends love it! You can't beat that, really.

So back to my daughter's Dr Seuss party. It seemed fitting to share these pictures since today is Dr. Seuss' birthday. Check out my Dr. Seuss Pinterest Board to see my inspiration for her party. Here are my favorite pictures from the party.

I found these amazing shirts on Etsy. They were perfect and I recommend working with Jessica. My husband even participated in wearing them with his girls, which was HUGE!

I LOVE this cake. Collins Cakes did a beyond amazing job. It was everything that I had dreamed of and more. Not only does the cake look amazing, it tastes just as good. 

In addition to the cake, we had Thing 2 Cupcakes and Thing 2 Popcorn. J.Rae's is one of my favorite cupcake and cookie places in town. If I am within 100 yards of it, I HAVE to go get either a cupcake or a cookie. All bets are off. 

We had all kinds of food for the kids and adults and, of course, it was all themed. 

Kids got to take home a party favor box from Birthday Express. These were fantastic! All I had to do was put the boxes together and put the provided toys inside. You cannot beat the price either. It was much cheaper to go through them than buy a couple of toys individually. The adults got a number two cookie from J.Rae's. 

That was Molly's party in a nutshell. I cannot wait to start planning what we will do next year. 

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! May you continue to inspire and create a love for reading and learning among kids for many years to come, 

Jennifer