The Baby Bump - Dr. Seuss Baby Shower

As I mentioned in my quilt post, I became an aunt this year! So I decided to host a baby shower with my mother-in-law in Houston for the expecting parents. I wanted a fun, colorful theme and toyed around with lots of ideas...until one day at work I clicked on the Google homepage and there it was! Google celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss, and I thought, what a great idea for a baby shower theme! So, the brainstorming began. I scoured the internet and blogging world for others who have had the same idea...and borrowed a lot of great ideas from their creativity...with my own flair. So, in case someone out there would also like to use this great theme, I give you a couple of ideas: Overall I went for a red, white and light blue theme, like Cat in the Hat. I used these colors in the primary decorations, invitations and cake. However, I wanted to include all Dr. Seuss material and so any bright colors fit in very nicely. And as a minor theme, I incorporated polka dots.

Invitations

These will probably be my paper pride and joy for many years to come. I created an invitation to resemble a Dr. Seuss book with a red cover and then four pages (2 front and back) on the inside with the actual invitation information on the back cover. I titled it "The Baby Bump By Drs. Ruths" (who knew that Ruths would actually rhyme with something useful!). I espeically enjoyed this b/c both parents are doctors. The four pages of the book each used the rhyming scheme, keywords and overall rhythm of a different book. My husband and I camped out in the children's area of a Barnes and Nobles to write the following:

Page 1 (Cat in the Hat):
"We would like you to know,
Baby 1 is on the way,
And Oh! What a bump!
Mitali has today."

Page 2 (Green Eggs and Ham):
"Would you, could you, come to play?
Would you, could you, on the 9th of May?
Will you, won't you come to talk,
Will you, won't you at 4 o'clock?"

Page 3 (Sneetches):
"When you come to this Happity Hop,
Go stop at a local thneed shop.
Instead of a card, pick out a story to read,
For a growing book nook is needed indeed!"

Page 4 (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish):
"It started out slow,
But the glow is starting to show,
So go get in tow,
For this slow grow glow show."

As you can hopefully tell from the invitation, we asked guests to bring a book instead of a card. Granted, it took a small lifetime to make 80 of these...but they turned out so cute, it was worth it. I mailed them in red envelopes with stickers labeled "Baby 1" (mimicing Thing 1). And I bought some Dr. Seuss stamps on eBay for a 15 cent premium (for the whole sheet...not per stamp) so 25 special people got an even bigger Dr. Seuss experience.

Decorations
I bought a collection of Dr. Seuss stuffed animals on eBay for pretty cheap. These were great decorations and also served as a special present for the baby.

I acquired/borrowed/found Dr. Seuss books (my mother-in-law had a bunch and used book stores were good too!) and put them all around the house as decorations, pairing them with the appropriate stuffed animal if possible.

To give some height, I bought red and white paper laterns at Hobby Lobby and then online for about $1.50/each. We hung 16 of them around the house. They were great b/c they spread the color and polka dot theme.

Flowers

For the flower arrangements, we took red and white gerber daises and put them in fish bowls (think Cat in the Hat) and glued blue boa from Hobby Lobby around the tops (like Thing 1 and Thing 2's hair). Very inexpensive and super cute.

Cake
Ivy (the other Ruths aunt to baby Sonya!) has a cousin in Houston who makes GORGEOUS cakes. So, we snatched up the amazing Edet to make our "Cat in the Hat" cake creation. He did a fabulous job, but I don't need to explain - you can see for yourself.

Food
Since the party was at 4 o'clock, we just served light foods and tried to make them as Dr. Seuss themed as possible. So a couple of things we served:

-Oreo "mud pudding" - we served it in individual terracotta flower pots with "Truffala Trees" (The Lorax) made out of green pipe cleaners and tissue paper

-Deviled green eggs with ham

-Sneetch Starfruit salad

-Sandwiches with "Who Roast Beast"

-"Pink Ink" pink lemonade punch

-Chocolate fountain (I couldn't think of anything Dr. Seuss to go with that - sorry!)

Other fun ideas to incorporate

-I made a small red and white felt hat for the family black and white cat....get it? :)

-Baby Bingo with red and white M&Ms as markers

-Red and white tableclothes with red, white and blue dots made from felt

-The pink fish from "Cat and the Hat" was placed in a white teapot

-"One Fish Two Fish How Many Fish Are in This Dish?" - have guests guess how many Swedish fish candies are in a container. Winner gets the fish.

Below is a small collage I showing other parts of the shower - it was tons of fun and I loved experimenting with this great theme!