Ducky Theme -1yr- Pin the Bill on the Ducky

I wanted to plan a very special First Birthday party for my daughter.  I decided to do a Rubber Ducky theme.  I wanted a pretty eloborate theme on a relatively limited budget.  I got GREAT reviews from all the guests, and most importantly, my daughter had a wonderful time! 

Invitations: To start, I made the invitiations.  I designed  them on the computer and had them printed at a local graphics shop.  They had her picture on the front with a large (like 2 feet tall) rubber duck. Around her were little blue clipart bubbles.  On  the front it read "Splish Splash We're Having a Bash"  On the inside it read "A year has past, how time has flown; We can't believe how (child's name)'s grown.  She's really cute and so much fun; Our baby girl is turning One!  Please join us in Celebrating __'s First Birthday.  Then we wrote the time, location, etc.  There were little blue bubbles and a rubber ducky on the inside.  We also put a RSVP to our home phone as well as our daughter's web site.    Birthday party guests could go onto our daughter's web site and view photos of her from her first year. We had "A Year in Review" with pictures of our daugther at all of her milestones. 

Guests could then click whether or not they would be able to attend the party.  The responses were then emailed to me.  Decorations: We had the party at local social hall near our home.  We had to have it somewhere large enough to accommodate 50 people. I decorated with blue, white and yellow balloons as well as white and blue streamers.  As center pieces on the tables I used galvanized buckets with yellow floating candles and rubber ducks.  I used blue table clothes with yellow cups, plates, plastic utensils, etc.  I made placemats using white and yellow paper.  I stenciled guests names on the placemats and added ducky stickers.   

Food:   I had a great time tying the theme into our food selection.  I used a big glass punch bowl with blue punch in.  I then put rubber ducks in the punch bowl.  Everyone loved it!  We had a grill-out and made hotdogs and hamburgers. I used a cookie cutter in a  duck shape to make "duck burgers."  I also made duck shaped sugar cookies and found some really cute plastic bowls with ducks on them to place chips, pretzels, etc in.  I placed rubber duckies on the food table as well. 

The Cake: Our daughter's cake was a big hit!  I was a three tiered cake.  The bottom layer had blue waves around the outer edge.  The second layer was also blue with bubbles on it and around the outer edge it read, Happy Birthday ---!  The top layer was blue with a big yellow rubber ducky on top.  I found a rubber ducky that would hold a candle.  When it came time for her to eat her cake, she got the entire top layer.  It worked out perfectly! I even used the duck cookie cutter to make duck shaped icecream (by using the square single serve ice cream bars). 

Activities: We had a lot of adults and a few children.  It was difficult planning activities for such a wide range of guests.  I had games for the children ages 2 and over.  They placed "Pin the Bill on the Duck"  They loved it!  As prizes they received bubbles in the shape of rubber ducks.  Children under the age of 2 played in the "Duck Pond"  They had to select a duck rom the large bucket of ducks.  Everyone was a winner and got a minature rubber duck.  For the adults, we made a slide presentation.  We showed pictures of our daughter through her first year.  The pictures flashed on the scren to the music of Rubber Ducky You're the One, and Splish Splash.  It was a great way to entertain both the adults and the children. 

Favors and Extras: I had made a collage of pictures highlighting our daughter's first year.  I pleaced in on an the table next to the gifts.  Guest really enjoyed looking at the  photos.  I created a photo mat for the frame that had bubbles and rubber duck stickers on it.  I also had a "Time Capsule" on the table.  I created small pieces of stationary with a rubber duck on them.  On the top of each piece of paper it read… A Special Meassage for __ on her First Birthday…  Each guest was then asked to write a message or advice for our daughter.  We will let her read the messages in her time capsule on her 18th birthday.  It was a fun way for everyone to be involved in her special day! 

For favors, I took baby food jars and painted the lids blue.  I then made new labels for the jars that read "The party's over, I'm offically one; Thank's for coming, hope you had fun.  Here are hugs and kisses from me to you - See younext year when I turn two!  I then put Hershey's Hugs and Kissed in the jars.  For the babies at the party I made different labels on the jars that replaced the words hugs and kisses with "little treat" and filled the jars with cheerios and animal crackers.  Older children received a goodie bag with ducky stickers, crayons and a coloring book.  I also found some duck lolly pops that were a big hit! 

Thank yous: I did not have our daughter open gifts at the party sinc eI had requested that guests not bring anything - but of course they did anyway.  Instead of opening gifts, I waited until everyon left and then took a picture of my daughter with each guest's gift.  I then put the pictures of her inside the thank you note.  I also made the thank you notes.  They had a picture of a duck on the front with bubble that read… Rubber Ducky, You're the One.  And on the inside it said - that made my 1st Birthday so much Fun!  I then wrote a special thank you to each guest.