Coolest First Birthday Party Ideas

Here are a tub-full of ideas to help you throw the coolest rubber ducky first birthday party. It's an awesome (and very popular) theme for both an outdoor and indoor party.

And, there's one item you'll be needing for sure... a whole bunch of rubber duckies.

Invitations

Make your rubber ducky party invitations by cutting rubber duck shapes out of yellow foam sheets or yellow construction paper. Below are two printable designs - profile and front - to help you trace.

Either glue on wiggly eyes or with a permanent marker draw an eye (or two, depending on if it's profile or up front) and color the beak orange.

You can then write on one of the sides "Splish, Splash! Rubber ducky and friends are having a bash!" And then on the other side "(baby's name) is turning one! And if you come that will make the party lots of fun! So waddle on over, (date and time), to the (your last name) Bathtub located at (your address). And don't forget to give us a quick RSVQuack (phone number)."

Make the rubber ducky first birthday party invitation even more interesting by creating a "flippable" wing made from yellow construction paper and glued or taped on. Write underneath it so that the receiver needs to flip over the wing to see the party info.

Another cute idea for a first birthday party invitation is to take a picture of your baby in a little bubble bath with LOTS of yellow rubber duckies.

And, if you're hand delivering the invitations, you can take "real-life" rubber duckies and write the birthday info on them.

Decorations

This first birthday party is an excellent theme to have outdoors, with lots of water, inflatable pools, tubs, etc. But you can also create a great bathtub atmosphere if the party is indoors.

Your color scheme should be yellow, orange, blue and white (for water). This includes balloons, streamers, etc. You can also put up, hang, and disperse clear balloons all around the party area so that it looks like it's overflowing with bubbles.

The tablecloths can be of any color from the color scheme. For example blue tablecloths with yellow plates or the opposite. With plates, you can also alternate between colors, for instance white and yellow. You can do the same with cups, napkins, cutlery, etc.

Take real rubber duckies and put them all around the party area as well as on tables, chairs, etc. For table centerpieces put rubber duckies and hang some helium balloons on them. You can also put each rubber ducky in little aluminum buckets to resemble old-fashioned bathtubs.

And, here's a really cool idea for this first birthday party theme: Use bubble wrap as placemats.

Another great rubber ducky first birthday party idea is to find a sponge shaped like a duck (or make your own by cutting it out - use the printable designs above), dip it into yellow acrylic paint, then stamp it all over your tablecloths and on papers you hang. You can also cut out lots of yellow duckies and hang them around the party area.

Put shower curtains in front of or in back of doors and around the party area. Also prepare tubs with water, pools, tubs with colored balls, tubs with balloons, etc., and make sure there are always lots of rubber duckies floating around.

You can even make a bubble-tent by putting up a camping tent and filling it with clear balloons, Styrofoam balls, colored balls and rubber duckies. It's a great place for the babies to play.

If you tend to go overboard (like me.), this bubble machine is awesome for the rubber ducky first birthday party theme. The kids'll have a fun time chasing and popping the bubbles and it'll also give your party area the feel of a real bathtub.

To get everyone feeling as if they're in a big tub, put up a large faucet protruding from the wall or front door. You can make the faucet and two handles out of rolled-up cardboard taped together - just use your own kitchen faucet for design inspiration. Cover it all with aluminium foil to give it the metallic feel and attach one big red "H" over the left handle for "Hot" and on the other "C" for "Cold. Attach blue and white streamers to the tip of the spout to look as if water is coming out.

In the background play music such as "Ernie and his rubber ducky", "Rubber ducky, you're the one", "Do the Rubber ducky", "Splish-Splash", etc.

Icebreaker "Ducktivities"

For this first birthday party you can ask everyone to bring their bathrobes and come ready for a bath with rubber ducky. Or, ask them to come dressed in rubber ducky attire and get ready for some wacky interpretations of what ducky attire is!

As the guests arrive, you can hand out plastic shower caps, slippers, rubber ducky soaps, etc. And, of course, hand them their own rubber ducky to keep them company throughout the party.

There are usually kids of many ages - especially at such a first birthday party where mostly family and close friends are invited. So here are some activities to get everyone - old and young - into the rubber ducky mood.

*Rubber Ducky Hats: To make these, you'll need yellow sun visors, regular yellow hats or even just neon party hats. Out of orange fun foam you can make duck bills and glue them onto the visors or hats. You can then glue googlie eyes and yellow feathers to top it off

*Rubber Ducky puppets: This is very similar to the above activity. You'll need yellow socks or white socks on which the kids can glue yellow feathers, googlie eyes and a fun foam bill. (Hot-glue works best so, of course, adult supervision is necessary.)

*Playdough activity: Youngsters love playdough. For your ducky first birthday party you can make a mound of your own yellow dough and a bit less red dough (here's our own home made recipe) and have the guests make their own playdough rubber duckies. Or, you can also get this excellent Play-Doh Kit that comes with 12 different colors and a variety of shaped cookie cutters.

*Bubble Fun: Prepare your very own glycerin-enriched bubble mixture (here's the recipe.), and make a few bubble-making instruments out of household items such as clothes hangers, empty bottles, etc.

Rubber Ducky Bathtub Cake: Make blue Jell-O as directed in instructions (but only use 3/4 of a cup of cold water) and pour into prepared pan. Then refrigerate (uncovered) for an hour or until it completely sets.

After this, make a cake from one cake package in a long oval pan or rectangular pan which later you can make into an oval by cutting off little parts of the edges.

Once the cake cools put it on a cake board. Then hollow out about half an inch from the top of the cake (make sure to leave at least 3/4 inch for thick walls as a border) and then freeze the cake.

Once the cake is cold, spread white icing over the sides and border of the cake with a palette knife - now you've got a tub.

Then take the blue Jell-O with a spatula and pick up long slabs to arrange in the hollowed-out center of the cake (ripple a bit to resemble water).

You can then take some small rubber duckies (possibly a mother and her 3 little duckies) and put them in the "water".

Duck Ice Cream: Take one large scoop of ice cream and put it in a cupcake liner (yellow ice cream such as banana or lemon is best). Then take a smaller scoop of ice cream and put on top. Use two chocolate chips for the eyes and two almond slivers to make the beak. Freeze until ready to serve.

This rubber ducky cookie cutter is great for creating lots of duck-shaped foods for your first birthday party. For instance, duck-shaped sandwiches, duck-shaped cheese, duck-shaped Jell-O, duck-shaped hamburgers. You can have a complete duck-shaped first birthday party buffet.

Oh, and of course it IS a "cookie" cutter, so how about making duck-shaped cookies. Just frost them yellow and put chocolate chips for the eyes.

*"Quakers": Basically any type of crackers :-), whether it be animal quackers, quackers and cheese, etc.

*Duck feed: For this you can fill little aluminum pails with any type of dry cereal, nuts, etc. The kids'll gobble this down! (don't forget to make signs on the pails saying "duck feed").

Put lots of soda cans and bottles in a baby's plastic washtub, cover with ice and sprinkle rubber duckies.

*Duck Pond Punch: For this drink you can use any kind of blue punch. Remember to have clean rubber duckies floating in it! And, you can also float clean plastic leaves and flowers to resemble lily pads. For a nice aqua color, mix blue color-changing Cherry Kool-aid with Sprite and toss a few dollops of lime sherbet just before serving.

*Yellow Ducky Drink: In other words. lemonade. You can also add the fluorescent Gatorade to intensify the yellow color.

Party Favors

Anything DUCKY is good for your rubber ducky first birthday party! Whether it be rubber duckies, stickers, party bubbles, necklaces, soaps, sippy cups for babies and toddlers (on which you can put rubber ducky stickers), bubbles, sponges, anything yellow (gum in yellow package for older kids, yellow rattles, etc.), animal crackers, duck water-filled teethers, etc.

You can make these first birthday party goody bags out of bubble wrap by cutting a large rectangle, folding in half, gluing the edges together, and putting all the goodies inside. You can also put all the goodies in yellow or clear buckets.

Games and "Ducktivities"

As with the icebreaker activities, the games are also for a variety of ages. Here are just a few ideas:

If you have a duck pond around your house (or possibly a zoo or barn), you can always take everyone out to feed the ducks.

*Rubber Ducky Piñata: Here is a really cute Ducky Piñata for the older kids.

*Duck Hunt I : This is a fun rubber ducky first birthday party outdoor activity. Use the Pinata for this game or take a large piece of cardboard and cut it into the shape of a duck. Color and decorate it and hang it from a tree. Have the kids prepare water balloons and see who can "hunt" the hanging duck from a designated distance. You can also hang individual duckies from a tree using string and have the kids try to hit them.

*Duck Hunt II: Hide rubber duckies around your party area and have a first birthday party duck hunt with all sorts of clues and hints to help each group advance from one duck to the other. The prize for the winning team - they get to keep the rubber ducks.

*Rubber, Rubber, Ducky: This is a different name for the classic kid's game of "Duck, Duck, Goose". You can play this with kids and adults together - even with babies sitting on their parents' laps. Have everyone sit in a circle and someone starts walking around the outside of the circle and taps each person's head and each time says "Rubber". After awhile that person needs to choose the "Goose" (which is changed to "Ducky"). Once he taps someone and says "Ducky", that person needs to get up and chase the tapper around the circle. The tapper's goal is to sit in the place where the "Ducky" got up from. If the "Ducky" tags the tapper, they go back to where they were sitting and the tapper continues on. If the "Ducky" doesn't catch the tapper and the tapper was able to sit down, that person then becomes the tapper. Don't forget to have everyone wearing their shower caps for added fun.

*Rubber Ducky Tub Game: This is a simple first birthday party game babies will love. The point of the game is to toss rubber duckies into the tub. You can use an inflatable baby pool or some kind of tub and fill it up with water. If you don't have any of these (or if you don't want to use water) you can decorate a cardboard box to look like a tub by putting blue saran wrap or paper from the inside (add white foam balls for bubbles ). Let each youngster (with help from adults if needed) toss their rubber ducky into the tub. It's very simple first birthday party game, yet highly enjoyable! If you want this to be harder for older children, challenge them to throw rings around the floating rubber duckies. Another cute thing you can do is put different colored dots on the bottom of each rubber duck. Then each kid can choose a rubber duck from the floating tub, turn it over, say the color and then choose a prize from the matching colored bag.

*Pin the Ducky.: With this variation of Pin the Tail. you can get very creative. Pin the Bill on the Ducky, Pin the Ducky in the Bathtub or in the pond, etc. You can even prepare a felt board, attach Velcro to real duckies and have the kids pin real duckies onto the board.

*Popping Ducky Bubbles: Take a big tub or box and fill it with lots of bubble wrap (big ones and small ones). Add all kinds of rubber duckies so that it looks like a big bathtub full of bubbles and duckies. Then when it's "bathtime", put on some energizing music (like "Splish Splash I was taking a Bath ") and just have everyone start jumping on the bubble wrap to pop all the bubbles. This can be really exciting for the kids! For older kids you can put all kinds of candies in white and clear balloons (put in the candies before blowing up). Give each kid a bag for collecting candies and let them loose to go and pop the "bubble" to get their treats.

*Duck Calling Contest: This can be hilarious - especially with the smaller kids. Get everyone together and have each guest give his interpretation of a duck call while the other guests try to mimic each call.

*Soap Catch: Pair up the guests, have them wear their shower caps and give each couple a bar of soap (duck-shaped if you can find). Have them toss the soap to each other - wetting it before each throw - and take a step back after each successful catch. The couple that can toss the farthest without dropping the soap bar wins.

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Coolest Rubber Ducky First Birthday Party Ideas

Invitations

Decorations

Icebreaker "Ducktivities"

Party Favors

Games and "Ducktivities"