Halloween Costume and Party Ideas - Dr. Seuss

We thought that since this was going to be a children's party, it only made sense to choose something that they would (hopefully) be familiar with.  For this particular year, we wanted to do a group costume with the entire Turner clan.   After much discussion, we decided that we would be a variety of Dr. Seuss characters.

My nephew was the Cat, while my SIL and I were Thing 1 and Thing2 from "Cat in the Hat".   

My niece was Mayzie from "Daisy-Head Mayzie".   

My BIL was Sam, from "Green Eggs and Ham". 

 And DH, who is so hard to find a costume for, was the boy from "Wocket in my Pocket".

We spent a little more on these costumes than the year before.  We invested in the striped hat (Amazon) and the long johns (Sportsmans Guide) and the wigs (Century Novelty) for the Cat in the Hat.  Some pipe cleaners and an artificial daisy was all that was needed for Mayzie.   With a couple pieces of red felt stitched up and a yellow tshirt, Sam was dressed.   I purchased Play-Doh in the right shade of green and white to form the ham and eggs on one of my silver platters and stuck a fork in it.   For the wocket, I perused some thrift stores and toy stores until I found a beanie baby sized creature that sort of resembled the wocket. 

We opted for "regular" Halloween goodies for our menu and did not add any special Seuss-ish items.    Decorations were also "regular" Halloween.  We had a pretty good sized group this particular year, so simple was our motto.    For our activities, we had several rounds of Just Dance Kids and several Dr. Seuss books for the kiddos to choose from for reading/looking.  These are two of my FAVORITE pics from the whole night.

 Big brother reading Fox in Socks to little bro.  It doesn't get any better than that.

DH and one of his many buddies reading Cat in the Hat. Not really sure who is doing the storytelling here, though.    Everybody say "Awww..."

So, at this point we have not totally committed to putting theme to costume, decorations, food, and activities yet.  But we are getting there.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

On March 2^nd, classrooms across the country will be celebrating the birthday of the late Theodore Seuss Geisel.  We know him as Dr. Seuss, the author of many beloved children’s books, including “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, “Hop on Pop”, and “Oh The Places You Will Go!”  For a short time during my time in first grade, I rode to school with my Aunt Jean instead of the school bus.  My Aunt Jean taught fourth grade at our elementary school.  During this time, I spied books in her possession, but not just any books, Dr. Seuss books!  I LOVED to get those at the library and read them!    She let me borrow a few, and I thought that I had surely attained all that a six-year-old could.

We chose to honor this memory last fall at our annual Halloween party.  My brother-in-law and his family were willing participants, but it was quite the challenge to come up with enough characters from the books that we could do reasonable costumes for.   Below is a picture of our group.

The costumes are not entirely homemade, but we were able to save some money by doing a few things ourselves and shopping around for the best prices online.

Cat in the Hat:

Ordered the hat from Amazon.com

Borrowed the bow tie from a friend

Nose and whiskers drawn on the face with cheap black eyeliner pencil

Black shirt and sweatpants from own closet

White gloves from band uniform

Thing 1 and Thing 2:

Ordered wigs from ustoy.com

Ordered union suits from sportsmansguide.com (they make great PJs!)

Signs printed from computer and adhered with tape

Sam I Am:

Two pieces of red felt cut in shape of a hat and sewn around the edges for the hat

Yellow t-shirt

Silver platter and serving fork - already had, but could use any plate and fork

One white and two green playdohs  make great green eggs and ham

Sign is made from paper and a paint stirring stick or ruler with "Sam I Am" on one side and "I Am Sam" on the other side

Daisy-Head Mayzie:

One large daisy with a long stem from a floral department wrapped around a headband

Coordinating top and skirt

Pocket Wocket:

Just wander the toy store aisles until you find the craziest looking little stuffed animal. This one is supposed to be a primate of some kind, with rubber hair.