Rubber Ducky Party -2yr- Ducky Ring Toss Game

We recently renovated my 2 year old's bathroom in a "rubber ducky" theme, so I was quite motivated to make it the theme of her birthday party. She adores rubber duckies, so it was only natural that being surrounded by them for a day would make her happy! I read the wonderful rubber ducky ideas on this site, and added my own. 

The invitations were blank light blue cards preprinted with a subtle pattern of rubber duckies in the background, found at the local paper shop. I then purchased rubber duck die-cuts from Michael's and colored and accented them with yellow and orange chalk pencils. They were attached to the invitation panels with foam dots for a raised effect, and the wording was laser-printed onto the card. "Rubber Ducky you're the one, to make our party lots of fun... rubber ducky, Julianna is turning two (BO BO BO DE O). Rubber ducky joy of joys, we can't wait for all the girls and boys, to come and celebrate with you!" Bright yellow envelopes completed the package. 

For decorations, we hung countless clear ballons from the ceilings throughout the house to look like bubbles; cut out orange "duck prints" and taped them all over the walls and on the front porch; decorated an artificial Christmas tree with dozens of tiny rubber duckies; created large poster board ducks; placed a lot of various size ducks throughout the rooms (we bought out every dollar store's lot of ducks in the area!); hung blue and yellow streamers; and topped it all off with dozens of yellow, blue, white and orange helium latex ballons.

The front door had a "rubber duck crossing" sign on it that I adapted from the yellow highway "duck crossing" sign by re-drawing it on my computer. I made a rubber duck centerpiece by placing a very large rubber duck in the center of a large tin bathtub surrounded by blue and white glittery styrofoam balls to look like bubbles (the balls were on clearance from Christmas time!). I also scattered yellow feathers around table tops. I borrowed a low long child's table and chairs from my church's Sunday School to accommodate the 8 toddlers and decorated the table with a blue tablecloth, a balloon tied to each chair, and a duckie placemat made from a color copy of a page in one of my daughter's books. Each child's place was marked with 2 craft projects I had organized into plastic baggies with their name.

But perhaps the most meaningful decorations were the 3 framed photos of the birthday girl taken at the Picture People just days before the party she is surrounded by large and small rubber ducks and her favorite bath towels. They are now hanging on the walls of her rubber ducky bathroom!  As each child entered they were greeted with sounds of the "Splish Splash" Sesame Street CD and a bubble machine. Their picture was taken with a digital camera while holding a supersize rubber duck. At craft time, the children were assisted by their parents to create rubber ducky party hats made with yellow paper hats, large wiggly eyes, yellow feathers and beaks cut from orange poster board. Next, they assembled foam frames that I had created of various colors and written "Ducky & Me" across the top in paint pen.

I cut out foam rubber duckies using a cookie cutter as a stencil, and they glued the ducky on the frame (magnet on back for the fridge!). While they created these crafts, my husband and brother printed the digital photos we had taken of each child in the beginning of the party. The pictures were placed in the new frames for each child to take home. After crafts we ate! We stuck with chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, hot dogs and french fries for the children, and meatballs subs and lunchmeat for the adults (although the adults ate the kid foods too!) I did make the blue Kool-Aid punch with the rubber duckies floating in it - - the kids stuck with juice boxes but the adults all had blue tongues later on!

For games we played "Pick the Duck" carnival game with prizes wrapped in rubber ducky paper found at the dollar store; the ducky pinata from Birthday Express (modified with the pull strings - great for toddlers!); and ring-toss ducky from Oriental Trading Company.

The cake was traditional with Wilton Rubber Ducky candles on top. My favorite part was the favors! I filled a personalized yellow beach bucket with a rubber duck, a white washcloth, and bubbles, and then made ducky candies (from yellow candy wafers and a rubber duck mold) and rubber ducky soaps that looked like a duck floating in water (clear glycerin soap poured into a round mold with a mini duckie embedded in it). For adults I placed the wrapped soap and candy in mini tin pails and placed them into Wilton rubber ducky treat bags tied with ribbons.

All favors had a label on them thanking them for joining the party. Whew! It was wonderful and I have been fielding lots of calls to compliment us on the endeavor. My daughter has not stopped dancing to the Splish Splash CD! The parents were especially appreciative of the craft time and the organized, but flexible schedule - it kept "otherwise busy" toddlers busy and there were very few terrible two or three moments!!!