The Lorax Party (Part 2): Decorations, Games & Activities

This is Part 2 of the post about the Lorax-inspired party. This post covers some of the decorations I made for the party, the games and activities. 

For Part 1 (Dessert Table) click here. 

For Part 3 (Lorax "show" and party favors), click here.

DECORATIONS:

I made the "Street of the Lifted Lorax" sign out of some scrap pieces of wood that I picked up at the local hardware store in the salvage bin! I topped it with an inexpensive lantern from HomeGoods (which I'm planning on reusing in my yard). After the party, we decided to keep the street sign and put it in my son's playground for a whimsical touch. 

To make the wreath, I wrapped orange feather boas around a styrofoam wreath (the same wreath from the Spiderman party, minus the cupcake wrappers!) Then I added a felt mustache and eyebrows, a pom pom nose and large googly eyes. 

The truffula tree centerpieces are made from colorful wool pom poms attached to sticks that I spray-painted yellow. The sticks were recycled from my Bollywood Karaoke party and Lilac Babyshower. I displayed the truffula trees in tall vases filled with mini marshmallows--a Barbaloot favorite!

The focal point of the decorations were definitely the truffula trees! The tops are made from styrofoam discs covered with feather boas. The trunks are recycled PVC piping.

I also made a Oncler house and Thneed Factory, which doubled as decorations and backdrops for the Lorax "show". They were also made of recycled materials. I reused the buildings from last year's Spiderman party! Really, I did!

What?! You don't believe me? Well, here's the proof--check out the back of the Oncler's house and Thneed Factory and you'll see for yourself.

 I also made a kid-size standee of the Lorax, which doubled as a decoration and a prop for the photo booth. The kids had fun posing with him for photos!

The banner welcoming folks to the party read "Dr. Sohan-euss".

Decorations are great, but we had LOTS of fun (and somewhat educational) activities for the children. They truly had a blast.

ACTIVITIES AND GAMES:

To Gain Entry...

The invitation requested that the children bring 15 cents, a nail and the shell of a great grandfather snail to "gain entry" to the party. I put out tin pails for them to put those items in, upon arriving at the party.

Recycling Station...

The invitation also asked them to bring paper, plastic and glass items to recycle. I put out bins for each of those items, so the children could sort their items into the right bins. It made for a cute little lesson about recycling for the kids--and a gentle reminder for their parents to continue to encourage recycling at home!

Upcycled Craft Station...

In the weeks leading up to the party, I started collecting up lots of empty cans. bottles, boxes and containers. I set up a craft station with these items and various craft supplies for the children to make their own upcycled creations. 

Feed the Barbaloots...

Those Barbaloots LOVE truffula fruit(!), so one of the game centered around feeding truffula fruits to the Barbaloots. I used a corn-hole game and covered it with paper barbaloot cut-outs that I made.

Save the Humming Fish...

Another game was to save the Humming Fish from the gluppity glupp and schluppity schlupp! I used an inflatable pool filled with inflatable fish, with binder clips clipped to their mouths. I made fishing poles with bamboo sticks, ribbon, ribbon spools, wooden pegs. corks and magnets. 

Truffula Tree Planting Station...

Singing and Dancing Like Swomee Swans...

We also played our own version of musical freeze. I made Swomee Swan wings for kids to wear and they each danced and sang as we played the soundtrack from the Lorax movie. The last swan left was the winner.

Cotton Candy Truffula Trees...

As an extra sweet treat (since we hadn't had enough sugar already!), we enjoyed cotton candy Truffula Trees while playing the games. 

Photo Booth...

Since the photo booth was such a hit at the Spiderman party last year, we had a photo booth again. The backdrop from the Lorax "show" doubled as the photo booth and I made a Lorax standee for the kids to pose with. 

So many more details about the Lorax "show", party favors etc. to come, so stay tuned! :-)

The Lorax Party (Part 1): The Dessert Table, Food & Drinks

Here are the long-awaited photos from my son's Lorax-inspired 5th birthday party! Since there are just too many details to share, this first post only highlights the dessert table, and food and drinks, so stay tuned for additional posts about the party decorations, games, favors etc., and see below for a link to the post about the invitation. 

Invitations: I made 12-page Lorax "book" invitations, which included my own verses about the party written in Dr. Seuss' classic poetic meter. To build anticipation for the party, the children were asked to bring 15 cents, a nail, and the shell of a great, great, great grandfather snail (which I provided!) to gain entry to the party. :-) Click here for more details about the invitation and the full text of my verses.

Dessert Table: The backdrop for the dessert table was inspired by one of the pages from the book, with blue sky, green hills and bright, fluffy, truffula trees. The dessert table featured a two-tier birthday cake and lemon-coconut cupcakes adorned with custom toppers from MJ Taboush, custom sugar-cookies from Hummingbird Baker, orange and lemon French macarons, homemade marshmallows, homemade cake-pops inspired by Bakerella, and homemade chocolate mustache lollipops. The cookies included "thneed cookies" which I displayed in a "Oncler Wagon" that I made out of recycled materials. We also had lots of “truffula fruit” (dipped strawberries) and truffula fruit kebabs. For drinks, we had "butterfly milk" with magical flavored straws. We also had a "Seuss Juice" cocktail for the parents! 

My dear friend, Bird, of Bird's Party supplied the custom party printables. 

The tops of the truffula trees for the backdrop where made from feather boas pinned onto styrofoam disc. The trunks were made from foam pipe-insulation, which I spray painted yellow. I used green corrugated cardboard for the hills and bulletin board paper for the sky. 

(I tried to recycle as many materials as I could for this party and I'll note which items were "earth-friendly" in keeping with the theme. :-) For the backdrop, I used old pipe insulation and the sky backdrop was reused from our Toy Story Party.) 

I made double-chocolate "Lorax" and "Truffula Tree" cake pops, using Bakerella's awesome online tutorial. Granted, they took me 3 evenings to make, but they were totally worth it...and they were gobbled up in a matter of minutes once I let the children loose on them! 

I was especially proud of how the cake turned out. I had no trouble in thinking up the cake design, but I had a hard time finding a bakery willing to make it for me (without charging a small fortune for it), so I decided to get creative! I had a local bakery make the basic blue and green tiered cake, then I decorated it with 3D Lorax, Barbaloot, and Humming Fish cake toppers from MJ Taboush. 

I made the truffula trees and clouds myself!

Although I made a lot of the desserts myself, I ordered the truffula tree cookies and Lorax cookies from Hummingbird Baker. 

Hummingbird Baker also supplied the "Thneed" cookies, which I displayed in a "Oncler Wagon" that I made from lollipop sticks and ribbon spools, with a sign saying "Thneed Cookies for Sale! Only $3.98".

I topped the homemade lemon-coconut cupcakes with fondant toppers from MJ Taboush. The detail on the toppers was fantastic, and I especially loved that they matched the cake toppers EXACTLY!

I also made the lemon marshmallows (a Barbaloot favorite!) Click here for a tutorial on how to make marshmallows. Homemade marshmallows taste a hundred times better than the store-bought variety and they are fairly easy to make.

I supplied treat bags, so the children could take home treats from the dessert table as well. I used printables from Bird's Party, googly eyes and orange pom-poms to decorate the bags. 

In addition to all the sweet treats, we served up a dinner of "miff-muffered-moof" pasta, "grickle grass" salad and "truffula tree trunk" sausages.

The magical "butterfly milk" was also a hit. I served plain-old 2% milk--the magical element was brought by the Got Milk? Magical Milk Straws. I also embellished the bottle labels with butterflies cut with a Martha Stewart craft punch. 

The "Seuss Juice" (for adults only) was also a hit.

During the Lorax "show (more on that later), we served popcorn in Lorax popcorn boxes.

Decadent dipped strawberries and fruit kebabs were served up as "truffula fruit". 

For details about decorations, games and activities, click here.

 For details about the Lorax "show" and party favors, click here.