Ducky Duck -1yr- Yellow Chocolate Duck Candies

My son just turned one.  We decided to plan a Rubber Duck themed party.  The process was so fun! 

For the invitations, I wanted something out of the ordinary.  I bought little white boxes, stuffed them with blue raffia, and tied the home-made invitation around a little rubber duck with blue ribbon.  That way, everyone received their very own rubber duck in the mail.  The invitation read, "Rubber Ducky Stephen's One!  Come and join us for so much fun!"  Then I wrote when and where and so on.  At the bottom, I wrote "Please give us a quick quack to let us know if you'll be coming!"  I sealed the boxes and printed return address labels off the computer with a picture of a duck.  These invites were definitely a hit!  I made signs directing people to the party that said "This way to Stephen's Pond" and I tied bouquets of yellow and blue balloons to them. 

Once at the party (which was at a local park that had a pond and real ducks) all of our guests had many activities to choose from.  My husband purchased a bubble machine.  The kids LOVED this!  Since a lot of the children were under the age of 2 I set out a blanket with a bunch of duck stuffed toys for them to play with. I bought a baby pool that had ducks on it and filled it with bubble fluid.  Then, the children got to blow oversized bubbles!  My husband picked up an oversized bubble blower from Toys R Us. I filled a cooler with sodas and water and surrounded the drinks with duck ice cubes that I had been making all month long.  I bought the ice cube mold on Ebay.  The cubes turned out so darn cute! 

Then, for the children I purchased a Munchkin Inflatable duck bathtub (from Target) and filled it with little boxed drinks and the ice cubes.  I used blue tablecloths and as centerpieces I bought old metal tubs, filled them with water, and placed rubber ducks to float!  From the handles on the tubs, I tied bouquets of balloons.  I blew up a bunch of clear balloons and set them all around the tables to look like bubbles too.  I bought a candy mold at Michaels and made yellow white chocolate ducks.  I wrapped them in clear bags with bows and placed them randomly around the tables.  To eat, I served "Cheese and quackers, goldfish, Potato salad, and I made duck shaped sandwiches. 

I found some duck picks so I put them in the top of the sandwiches.  All the cutlery was blue and yellow.  For dessert, I bought a big cake with ducks, bubbles, and duck candles on it.  It even had a bar of soap made out of frosting.  Then, I baked cupcakes with blue sprinkles and duck candy on top.  I placed the cupcakes around the cake.  Of course, my son had his very own duck shaped cake to dig into!  I hung a high chair banner from his chair and he wore a specially designed bib that read his name and date, with a picture of a duck. 

For the goodie bags I bought duck goodie bags at Michaels, filled them with some yellow and blue jelly beans, bubble duck necklaces, a slinky, and yellow duck PEZ machines!  Those were favorites! Here is my favorite part of the whole party.This is what made everyone feel special. I bought a giant bag of after dinner mints from Smart and Final.  I filled little clear bags and made a label that read "The party is over I'm officially one!  Thanks for coming, I hope you had fun!  Here's some treats from me to you.  See you next year, when I turn two!  Love Stephen (my son).  People just Ooood and Ahhhdd over these!  This party turned out sooo much better than I could have ever expected. 

After, we made handmade Thank you notes.  We printed pictures of ducks off the internet and bought those little googlie eyes from the local craft store.  We glued them on the ducks and made comment boxes saying Thank you!  This party was definitely a hit!