I came across some amazing deals for Dr. Seuss and Grinch items on Zulily today and had to share it with my readers.
There are some unique items I haven’t seen before. I counted 300+ items!! I can’t make up my mind.
I’m sharing this with you because I think if you like Dr. Seuss like I do, you’ll probably find a great gift for yourself or others on Zulily. Here is a screen shot: I love that Grinch bag and Bingo set! Dr. Seuss FABRIC
I’m in love with all the Dr. Seuss fabric styles they have too! Find them on page 2 of the Seuss Deals!
This is not a sponsored post. I’ve shopped Zuily before and love all their deals throughout the year (clothes, toys and more!). They give anyone a credit if you refer a new person that signs up and makes a purchase. So if you buy using this link I’ll earn some credit with them. If you refer a friend you’ll earn credit too. FREE Dr. Seuss stuff? That can’t be bad.
I’ve noticed Zulily offers Dr. Seuss merchandise about 2-3 times a year. And it is only for a few days when they do it. This sale ends Saturday morning (Nov. 8, 2014) so Grab It Now!
This past weekend we hosted a Lego Duplo party. I’m sharing a few party ideas for those planning to host a Lego party.
Most people know who the Lego company is. Half of our entire play room is devoted to Legos. We were lucky to be chosen to try out the new Lego Duplo sets with Disney Planes and Jake and the Neverland Pirates themes.
We received a generous free party pack from House Party including: Lego Duplos (six sets), sticker sheets, crown hats and a Planes movie poster for each guest and a Jake movie DVD and napkins and plates. This was an amazing party pack.
*As an Amazon Affiliate I do receive a small portion of sales made through clicking the links on this post. Thank you!
WHAT IS HOUSE PARTY?
Anyone can sign up on the House Party website as a potential host. They will send you emails of upcoming party opportunities. If you are interested in hosting a party (make sure you read all their requirements – like the party date, required number of guests, requirement to post a group photo from the party and share your party pack with your guests).
If you apply for a party you will be notified if you are selected, then you have 30 minutes from the time you click on their website to send out 10+ invitations by email to your guests. This was the trickiest part – tracking down 10 emails for my son’s preschool friends, then managing the guest list and filling any empty spots. You also need to provide your own food for your guests.
This party pack was so great, it was definitely worth all the effort of hosting a House Party. (I also hosted an American Girl Crafts party through House Party this past summer and it was worth it too.) LEGO DECORATING
Setting up for the party we wanted some fun visuals so I pulled out the large Lego Head storage jars I made last year. I painted Red Vine containers to make them. See how here. DRAWSTRING LEGO BAGS
I love how the kids can keep the bags and reuse them for other Legos or toys at home.
I found bright yellow fabric at Wal-mart for less than $3 per yard. I bought one and a half yards and it made 12 bags. I cut them to be about 12 inches tall by 10 inches wide.
I turned them inside out and sewed straight lines down the side, bottom and other side. I curved the bottom corners while sewing.
Then I turned it inside out and sewed the top edge under leaving 1/2 inch casing to pull ribbon through.
I cut one small slit in the casing on the folded edged. Then I ran 2 strips of ribbon all the way through the casing (clipping a saftey pin to the end of the ribbon), one started and ended on the left slit, the other ribbon started and ended at the right slit. I tied the string ends together.
See these drawstring bag instructions for a better idea. I should have taken step by step photos but I knew there would already be a tutorial online. I don’t iron, do clean hems or measure as I go. These were simple bags for a beginner sewer.
Then I free-hand drew the shapes for the face.
TIP: Put a piece of card stock inside the bag so the marker & paint don’t bleed through.
I found a round pencil sharpener that was the perfect size for the eyes so I started with those circles. Then I drew in the smaller eye circle, the eyebrows and lips. I filled it all in with a black Sharpie permanent marker. Then I used white craft paint and filled in the smaller eye circle. I only painted white on one bag. It took a while to do and I didn’t have the time. I think the rest of the bags look fine just leaving the eyes empty. The kids loved their bags.
I bought 2 boxes of the Lego Duplo Animals and split up the pieces into the favor bags. (It seemed too difficult to split up the big Duplo sets so I thought it was worth $20 to get two boxes to split up as favors.) I also found Jake and the Neverland Pirate fruit snacks at our local grocery store so I put a snack in each bag to take home. LEGO CHOCOLATE CANDY
How to make Lego Candy:
Use white Almond Bark (found on the baking isle at your grocery store)
Melt one and a half blocks in the microwave in a glass measuring cup for about 1 and a half minutes. Watch and stir with a plastic spoon. You don’t want this to burn, it will get hard.
Stir in 6 drops food coloring. Liquid will make the mix harden. Use coloring paste if you have it. If not, I added about 1 tsp. of Crisco and melt it all in the microwave another 15 seconds to soften it again.
Now, spoon into mold. Scrape off extra to leave it level. If your chocolate is too thick it will leave more bubbles.
I stick mine in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden then take them out and pop out the mini figures.
I found the fun Lego mini figure candy mold at the Lego Store that opened in Salt Lake City a few months ago. I found out you can get the Lego molds online at Amazon.
This is a mini red wagon but I filled it with Lego candies.
I bought yellow cups at my local grocer and used a sharpie to draw their faces. We ended up using juice boxes for the kids but I spread these out as decorations. You can get 24 cups for $5.15 on Amazon (+free shipping).
I also ordered yellow construction hats for the party. Only $6.00 for a dozen on Amazon.
About half the kids wanted to wear them and half didn’t. They looked pretty cute building Legos.
Here are previous ideas I’ve posted. Click on the photo or links for more details: Lego Builder FREE printable hat label. Lego Baby Food Jar Party Favor or Toy Display Lego Storage Head out of a Red Vine or Cheese Ball container LEGO GAMES
The kids loved playing with the new sets of Legos. It was hard pulling them away to have some snacks. I pulled out our large bin of Duplos we’ve collected over the past eight years and dumped them on the floor. I asked the kids to sort them into colors then, as teams of 2 or 3 they worked together to build the tallest tower. I was going to have them play Button Button with a Lego, but we ran out of time. So Many Ways to Play
The kids used their creativity and built some amazing lego structures. One kid got frustrated with the Planes set because he thought he needed to make it look like the picture on the box. Once I realized that, we reminded all the kids they can build whatever they want and then everyone was happy.
Disclosure: Thanks again to Lego Duplo and House Party for providing the free party pack to host this party.
Happy Read Across America Day! Dr. Seuss’ characters are often symbols used to represent reading on this day.
I’m obSEUSSed with Dr. Seuss but I’m not an expert by any means. I’m inspired by Dr. Seuss’ whimsical world and his desire to help children love reading. I get a little carried away collecting Dr. Seuss ideas, so much so that I don’t have time to do all the Dr. Seuss activities I've seen on Pinterest or other blogs. I’m busy planning a Dr. Seuss carnival for our elementary school happening mid March so I haven’t had time to plan anything to do at home to celebrate his birthday this weekend. Yes, me, obSEUSSed. I have no elaborate Dr. Seuss crafts or projects planned this weekend. This is real life, with three kids.
So, here’s my plan: I’m just going to READ to my kids. Nice and simple. That is what the NEA’s Read Across America Day is really all about. Just pick up a book and read with your kids. Just ask the experts. THE EXPERTS
Although it is fun to see other bloggers’ and teachers’ ideas across the web, my most favorite and trusted official resources for Dr. Seuss are the following. SEUSSVILLE
Seussville is the Official Dr. Seuss site. They have online games, videos, a store filled with Dr. Seuss products and more.
They also have excellent teacher and parent sections including this book guide.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I love that PBS has joined with Dr. Seuss to present The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! The children’s TV/DVD series. You can also watch episodes online, play games and they have a store too.
I’ve featured several of Oceanhouse Media’s Dr. Seuss book apps on obSEUSSed before. They have done an excellent job of keeping the books simple and true to their original feeling while making them interactive for kids to touch and hear the words and sounds that go along with the story. They now have the ‘Read and record’ feature so you can record your voice reading and play it back with the book.
I hope you enjoy visiting these Dr. Seuss experts when you’re ready for some Seusstastic fun. Even though I haven’t planned anything other than reading, I know I can pull up The Cat in the Hat on PBS.com, or have my kids play a Dr. Seuss book app or pull out a board game without any planning – or craft supply gathering- necessary.
Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Dr. Seuss Enterprises or any of these companies in any way. I have not been compensated by them for this post. I enjoy their resources and hope you will too.
My 16th Great-Grandfather, William Brewster, was one of the 102 Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower ship in 1620. My mom is a big family history buff and through her research she traced her mother’s family line all the way back to the Mayflower. This makes Thanksgiving even more meaningful for our family. It has been wonderful teaching my kids about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower voyage.
We brought out all our Thanksgiving books and decided to make a Mayflower book basket to hold our books during the month.
Find an oval shaped basket or anything resembling a boat. You’ll need a dowel stick (about 2 feet tall), some muslin fabric for the sails, yarn, glue, scissors, some pencils or popsicle sticks to support the top and bottom of the sails.
Cut 2 sails out of muslin to the size that will look good with your basket. I poked small holes in the top and bottom of each sail. Then I ran the dowel stick through the holes to become the mast. I glued sticks to the top and bottom of each sail (you may want longer support sticks for this but popsicle sticks worked fine for our task). Then I tied the mast to the basket at each side.
The pictures below are of my relative, William Brewster, one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. He was a religious leader. These are depictions of him I’ve found online and a tribute marker on the land near Plymouth. The book ‘Pilgrim’ is a biography of William Brewster. My mom bought a copy at the gift shop at the Plymouth Plantation. We’ve watched several videos on YouTube about the Mayflower and learned that 10% of the American population can trace their heritage back to the Mayflower.
You could also make these fun Thanksgiving puppets and put magnets on the back so they serve double duty. My sister made these and my kids love playing with them. Use big tongue depressors and paint them, then add felt, feathers, ribbon, googley eyes, yarn or other crafts supplies to create your own set.
Mayflower on Pinterest:
I've found so many great ideas from other blogs that I've pinned to my Giving Thanks board on Pinterest. If you have a Pinterest account you can click here for more ideas.
Here are the Thanksgiving books about the Pilgrims and Mayflower I recommend:
From National Geographic, Mayflower 1620, A new look at a Pilgrim Voyage, is an excellent visual with live photo re-enactment of Pilgrims on a ship similar to the Mayflower.
Three Young Pilgrims is a retelling of the Mayflower story from a child’s perspective.
There are many more available. Check some out from your library or find several like these on Amazon. (I am an Amazon affiliate and receive a small percentage if you buy from clicking the links. Thank you!)
I hope you share the story of the Mayflower with the children in your life. I’m eternally grateful for the Pilgrims' courage and faithfulness to create a new life and realize I would not be the person I am today without them. What are you thankful for? Do you have any favorite Pilgrim or Mayflower books? I’d love to try some new ones.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sharing this at Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap Up Party -
See other great autumn ideas here:
