The Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2 danced and played with local children Saturday at the 4th annual Blaze Through Reading, celebrating Dr. Seuss' 110^th birthday.

UT Arlington Leadership Center, UTA Volunteers and Freshman Leaders on Campus sponsored the celebration, which took place at the Bluebonnet Ballroom at UT Arlington.

Puppet shows, put on by the Arlington Public Library, entertained crowds of children and parents.

The Hop on POPcorn and Truffula Tree (Cotton Candy) stations provided children with treats as they made whiskers, hats and faces at different booths.

Veronica Robledo, program specialist at the Arlington Public Library-Northeast Branch, ran one of the booths and encouraged parents to bring their children to some of the library's events.

Robledo, whose favorite Dr. Seuss book is "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish," said the rhyming words in Dr. Suess' books have helped children read better and have fun doing it.

Great, great nephew of Dr. Seuss, Paul Geisel, read his favorite book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" to a crowd of attentive children during story time.

Geisel, also professor emeritus at UT Arlington, said Dr. Seuss' books have given children and adults the ability to enjoy reading by putting art and language together.

As orange and blue balloons filled the ballroom parents and children lined up to take pictures with the Cat in the Hat, also known as Varun Mallipaddi, UT Arlington student congress president.

Meanwhile, a table covered in children's book offered attendees free books to take home.

Arlington resident and UT Arlington Administrative Assistant Blanca Gonzalez attended the event with her two sons, who each took home books, one about dinosaurs and the other about math.

Gonzalez said she would like her boys to grow up reading Dr. Seuss' books and took her boys to the event so they could gain a better understanding of who Dr. Seuss was.

Crowd members shouted "Hooray!" in response to the song "If You're Happy and You Know It," which echoed throughout the room.

Kerri Ressl, director of the Leadership Center at UT Arlington, said this was the second year Blaze Though Reading and Freshman Leaders on Campus collaborated to sponsor the event.

Ressl said local schools received notification about the event and that she was pleased by the amount of people who came.

Dr. Seuss's books are timeless and have a significant impact on children's literacy, Ressl said.