Rubber Ducky Birthday Party - Invites & Decorations

My youngest daughter is a creative little girl that moves to her own drummer.  Months before her birthday she came up with idea after idea for a party theme.  Then she had the idea to do a Rubber Ducky party and that was it, she didn't change her mind again.

I decided to go with it and when my best friend suggested a joint birthday party with her son (who happens to be my daughter's bestie) he thought Rubber Ducky was cool too.  They are such a sweet pair of friends, born only 8 days apart to best friends; they've been close since before birth!

Once we agreed on the theme and that it should be a pool party we got to planning.  I have to say that it was MUCH more fun this year planning with my bestie.  Also less work/stress!





Invitations

Finding birthday themed Ducky invites for older kids was a challenge, they were mostly designed for 1st birthdays.  I did find this one from Etsy that would have worked, but we thought outside the box and made our own.


We had cookies made by a fantastic local cookie artist, Kim's Cookie Cottage.  She can make anything!  Originally we planned on ordering cookies to use for the goodie bags, but she was unavailable in July.  So we changed plans and had her make invitation cookies instead.  

I took photos of the cookies and made copies (on shutterfly).  My BFF added paper and voila, cute invites!

Bonus is we got to eat the cookies! :)  I froze the ones we didn't eat and used them as decorations later at the party.




Keep Calm and Rubber Ducky Tanks

We know a local talented woman who makes graphic shirts. She has a shop called Cuts & Creations on Etsy and is able to make custom designs.  I told her my idea and these adorable tank tops arrived.   

Ducky Skirt 

My daughter requested a ducky fabric dress or skirt.  I had intended on making a dress but I waited until the last minute (night before) and a skirt is all I could pull off.  I didn't have a pattern so I chose a Pinterest skirt called "20 minute easy skirt" described as so easy her 5 year old had made one.  

Well....I'm not very good at sewing.  I had some lessons a few years back but since then I only occasionally wing it on making things.  So that "20 minute" skirt took around 2 hours and looks best far away. Ha!  But my daughter was thrilled and it worked for the party.

Ducky Necklace

Last but not least I found my daughter a cute little Rubber Ducky Necklace.  A sweet gift and souvenir from the party theme!  She was thrilled.  

Moving on to the....

Party Decorations

This was probably my favorite part, there are so many ducky items out there!  I was on a budget so I focused on these 4 ducky items.

1. Teeny Tiny Rubber Duckies (1.5 inches)  I ordered 100 of these cuties and scattered them around the party.  I put them on tables, in with the water bottles and of course in the pool!  The kids loved playing with the duckies: throwing, sorting, gathering.  I saved out enough to put them on the cupcakes as well.

2. Yellow Ducky Beach Balls  A pool party has to have balls and these cuties looked great in the pool and were fun to play with too.

3. Really Big Rubber Ducks  (8.5 inches).  We had two of these ducks, used for table decorations/balloon holders.  The birthday boy and girl each got to keep one.  They are super fun in the pool too!

4. Duck Pool Float Naturally this pool party needed a huge duck float.  This beauty had handles and easily fit 3-5 kids!  It doubled as a photo prop. 

5. Balloons: I bought a bunch of green/blue/white stars to decorate but our big winners were these huge ducky mylar beauties.  I bought 3 of them (they were on sale!) and had two weighted for the ground and one in the air. They were fun for photos although one of them (a weighted one!) took to flight like a kite and was never seen again.   

6. Plates/table Cloths/Etc: We had yellow and blue tablecloths, plates and cups.

Many of our decorations were used as party favors, there were plenty to go around!

I'll be back soon with details on the food and games.  For more details on the ducky decorations check out the links below.