What I'm Doing to Celebrate Seuss' Birthday - Ideas & Quotes for a Fun Family Day

As you may have gathered from the side bar, I'm a tad bit excited - today is Dr. Suess' (107th!) birthday! If you are like me, your childhood memories are FILLED with images of being curled up next to Mom while she rhymes off Yertle the Turtle or One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Truly a wise and wonderful man, who left us all with a treasure trove of insight and inspiration!

I think we must all have a favourite quote, or two, or one-hundred-and-seven, don't you? Here are some of my favourite snippets from the Doctor:

• On being true to you:
• "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
• "Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."
• On virtues:
• "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent."
• On seeing the good in the day and the world:
• From here to there and there to here, funny things are everywhere."
• "Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one."
• Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way
• On gratitude:
• "It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it are troubled with troubles almost every minute. You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot, for the places and people you're lucky you're not."
• "When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you start to get mad... You should do what I do! Just tell yourself, Duckie, you're really quite lucky! Some people are much more...Oh, ever so much more...Oh, muchly much-much more unlucky than you!" 
• On environmental responsibility:
• "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, its not."
• On equality:
• "And the turtles, of course...all the turtles are free As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be."
• On attitude to success and perseverance:
• "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."
• "Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try."

Today, to celebrate, we'll be reading Dr Seuss (likely The Lorax, Green Eggs and Ham and Horten Hears a Who, as those are the current favourites). I want to drive home the message, and Earth Day is coming up soon, so I plan to ask them what they think the Lorax would say if he came here today - how would he think we have done since the book was written? Other conversation sparkers could be: What would you say to Horten if you were a Who? What did you "not like" and then were surprised when you tried it? How are your friends different from you? (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish); How are all people the same (Yertle the Turtle); What feature do you like best on yourself (Gertrude McFuzz); What will you dream about tonight (The Sleep Book). The possibilities are endless! And I think Seuss would be honoured to know we continue to use his words to enhance family time and teach our children :-)

For supper, well, Mario is not a big fan of eggs, so I have learned NOT to serve "Green Eggs and Ham" (but it is easy! Separate the yolk from the egg, add green food colouring to the white, put in pan, follow immediately with the yolk in the centre of the egg and fry as usual - voila Green Eggs!). Instead, we will use GEAH for inspiration - greens (broccoli, peas, green mashed potatoes) and pork, or green soup (cream of pea soup)with bacon bits, and I am running around the house looking for a fox, a goat, a mouse, etc (will you eat them with a goat? will you eat them in a boat?) and may even try to find a box big enough to sit the kids in (will you eat them in a box?). 

The boys have the afternoon off school today, so I am printing off some colouring and maze sheets from this site: http://afunk.com/seuss/ and the match up game here. I was also thinking we could make tissue paper mosaic style fish to put in the window as sun-catchers; but if it stays sunny, I think we'll take a squirt bottle (filled with water and food colouring) outside and draw one-fish-two-fish in the snow, along with a cat in the hat and maybe a thing or two (get it - LOL!). 

I hope when you head to bed tonight, you can say: "Today was good. Today was fun."

Cheers, All!

PS: Update - here's another link I just came across: http://www.childfun.com/index.php/holidays/winter-holidays/dr-suess-birthday/369-dr-seuss-birthday-crafts-and-activities.html and http://www.educationalcoloringpages.com/drseuss.html#

and this one: Cat in the Hat Marshmallow pops! http://www.megacrafty.com/2011/03/happy-birthday-dr-seuss.html