Miller's Impish Mischiefs

Kitchen all Seuss'ed out!  The fringed streamers are made from crepe paper folds found at Zurchers, then cut into strips and then snipped along the edges. Super easy to make, my husband says, not so easy to hang because they end up being 7.5 feet long and there were bunches of sections.

Favor bags!  Got the poem online somewhere.  Rhyming is not my thing.

Luckily Dr. Seuss' illustrations are kind of sketchy looking which makes my cake look more  authentic.  It leaned on it's own too which made it look more like a floppy hat.  I was just praying it wouldn't lean too far and topple.

Signs welcoming guests to the party!  I forgot a line. The first sign was supposed to say.  Welcome to our Party, come this way!  The Cat in the Hat has come to play!  But oh well.

Cat in the Hat cookies and Fish bingo markers

Living Room all decked out!  Never try and blow up 24 balloons when you're pregnant.  It's just asking for trouble.

Cat in the Hat (Jacob) with Annabelle

Our Bingo Moderator.  I just made up bingo cards using pictures of things in the Cat in the Hat book.  Goldfish crackers were used for markers

Annabelle is tickled pink that everyone is singing to her! She was giggling all the way through the song.

Big sisters were a big help with the little ones.  I think they had fun too, though!

I know you're going to think that all I do is plan and throw parties, but that's not true.  It just looks true when you look at my blog.  I am posting this as a request.  Annabelle and Dr. Seuss share birthdays.  So I had to throw them both a party, right?  I began trying to throw a Dr. Seuss everything party but got completely overwhelmed with all the fantastic things that could be done.  So I narrowed it down to the Cat in the Hat.  It was really hard to find favors which I thought strange since the PBS show is so popular with the kiddos.  I finally had to buy some teacher supplies from Michaels', but they worked.  And just in case any of you are thinking of throwing a birthday party for 3 year-olds sans parents, I'd wait to do that until they are 5 or so.  It was a bit crazy and I only had it scheduled for an hour.  We did have fun though!  Jacob is the best big brother ever for agreeing to be the Cat in the Hat.  The kids loved him after they stopped being scared of him.

Princess Maddie - The Birthday Girl with her castle cake Please don't judge my cake too harshly.  I know the towers are leaning and the top tier is crooked, it was a hard cake to work with.

The Invitation

Party Favors

Decorations!  My favorite part! Streamers, balloons, pink tulle, and tissue paper balls; cheap but effective!

Plant the Kiss on the Frog game - By the way my husband freehanded that Prince Navine (Sp?)

Present Time!

Cake Time!

 So Madalyn had been planning her birthday party for 365 days and went back and forth between princesses and ponies and puppies.  I finally a few weeks before her birthday made her commit to something.  I was so glad she chose princesses.  We had such a good time.  We had 9 little princesses in all and they were all dressed up in their fancy dresses.  We decorated crowns, which was a bit messy for this young age but they loved their crowns.  They were just gold and silver poster board cut out to look like crowns with jewel stickers and gems that I had them glue on.  We played plant the kiss on the frog which all the girls thought was hilarious.  They played "Find Cindrella's Slipper" with a slipper ornament I found at Walmart (bonus for Christmas stuff coming out so early).  Instead of hot and cold I had them say Prince Charming when they were getting closer and Wicked Stepmother when they got farther away.  They would have played this all day!   One of the princesses asked me, "Wait, so Prince Charming is hot?"  I about died laughing.  Then we opened presents, ate cake and played with the presents until moms and dads came to collect the very tired Princesses.  From the review I heard from the guests I'd say this party was a hit! 

My husband is a genius.  I told him I wanted him to hang a hula hoop from the tree branch and he made it happen.  He also got those stumps from our neighbor who was cutting down his tree.  So convienent.  I wrapped the tulle and flowers around the hula hoop and then hung yarn globes (much trickier to make than you think) from it as well.
 Never mind the fallen cup...I won't complain about the breeze it was 105 degrees outside.  We needed the breeze.  Inside the moss are more clay ladybugs and toadstools and butterflies. 

 Lorelei and Maddie had their first ballet recital last week.
They both did so great!  I was so proud of them, mostly because my own stage fright would have paralyzed me.  Lorelei was a little scared but handled it like a champ.  Madalyn loves to have people watch her and to perform, so she was right at home.  Don't they look adorable?  I took the picture of Annabelle a couple of months ago and had forgotten about it until just now.  Greg put curlers in her hair one night while I was gone and the result was this wavy frizzy hair.  It looked so cute pulled up in ponytails.  She is such a ham!

It is so amazing to me that Jacob is old enough to be in scouts. And with that comes the most exciting event of an 8 year old's life--The Pinewood Derby. Dad got more excited about it than Jacob did I think. I can't believe the lengthy discussions between fathers about the tricks of the trade. I wish everyone would just stick the wheels in and take their chances and level out the playing field for the boys. Anyway Jacob's car didn't come in last, which was Greg's goal. Jacob was glad when he won a couple of races, I don't think he really understood that he could win overall. So he was perfectly content. Jacob even wrote a Valentine for Greg, it said: "You are clean, you aren't dirty. I like your cars from the Pinewood Derby." I love this kid! Here are a couple of pictures.

Wow, it has been forever, but I just haven't had a whole lot of things to blog about. But I got my Christmas cards done today and I thought I would send them virally as well as through snail mail. We hope that all is well with you and yours and that you have a very Merry Christmas!