You learn something new everyday, right?

Well I bet you didn’t know that January 13th is Rubber Ducky’s birthday! Yes, I’m talking about the lovable Sesame Street character!

If you have a young one at home with a birthday coming up, why not celebrate with a Rubber Ducky-themed party? I went to kids-birthday-party-guide.com to learn how to pull it off!

Invitations:

For rubber ducky birthday invitations, you have a couple of fun options.

First, you can take a picture of your child bathing in a tub with his or her rubber duck toy. Print that image on the front of white invitation cards. Write your rubber duck birthday party details inside the cards. Then decorate the invitations with theme stickers.

The wording of the invitations can say “Splish! Splash! It’s (your child’s name) __th Birthday Bash!” For a different wording of your invitations, write “(Your child’s name) is All Quacked Up over her __th Rubber Duck birthday party!”

As an alternative, you can attach rubber duck party invitation to a toy rubber ducky. Then mail out the invitations along with toys to your party guests. This will definitely get the kids excited about attending your special event!

Decorations:

Use yellow, blue, purple and white colors for your rubber duckie party decorations. Make sure that you use lots of balloons and streamers in those colors. Play fun Kids’ Party music CD in the background.

To start off, print a picture of rubber duck. Then enlarge and laminate the image, and tape it to the fence to mark your party spot. Tie a bunch of yellow balloons to one of the poles. As an alternative, you can create a balloon arch by tying balloons to a kite string (about 12″ apart), and then securing the ends of the string to the ground with dowels. Your rubber duck birthday party guests will have a great time going through the arch as they enter the yard.

Draw duck feet prints with a colorful chalk on the driveway leading to your front door. Mount a banner that says “Duck Crossing” that looks like a traffic sign. Fill several buckets, tubs or other containers with water, and place them around the yard (near the walkway). Then put several toy rubber ducks in each one to float!

Hang a sign near the front door that says “Welcome to (birthday child’s name) Rubber Duck Birthday Party! You can also rent bubble machine, and place it in the yard to make all sorts of bubbles during the event.

Hang several streamers in your doorway, so the guests have to go through the streamers when they enter the door. Hang clear balloons throughout the house to look like bubbles. Cut “duck prints” from orange construction paper, and put them all around the walls.

Fill the ceiling in your party room with blue and clear helium balloons. Scatter rubber duckies on the floor. Place several theme coloring pages on coffee tables for kids to color as they arrive. Create multi-color streamers by placing two different colored streamers back-to-back and twisting. (Try using combination of rubber duckie theme colors like yellow and blue.)

Cover the rubber duck birthday party table with a yellow theme cloth. Have a large rubber duck toy or Mylar balloon for a centerpiece. Tie colorful balloons to the back of the chairs. Hang a personalized theme banner nearby.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities:

*Guess How Many: Place yellow M&Ms (or other candies) in a jar. Have the kids and parents guess how many candies are in the jar. Give the jar with candies to a child who can guess closest to the amount, and give the leftovers to other players.

*Duckie Coloring Pages: Supply the guests with crayons and have them color pages of Rubber Ducky activity books while they are waiting for other kids to arrive.

*Play-Doh Activity: You can purchase Play-Doh cookie cutter kit from a party store. Invite the kids to develop various shapes using the tools provided. (Adults can help really young kids with the process.)

Favors:

For rubber duckie party favors, give out theme items such as sticker sheets, cookie cutters, bath toys, bean bags, and so on.

Rubber Duck Birthday Party Games:

*Duck Swim: Ask the kids to take their rubber ducks for a swim with this activity. (Have extra rubber ducks for those kids who don’t have one.)

If you have an inflatable pool, or a large movable tub, fill it up for rubber duckies to swim in. If the weather permits, let the children get wet and play too. No matter what, children will love seeing the other rubber duckies and watching all the ducks swim together.

*Duck, Duck, Goose: This classic game is perfect for your rubber duck birthday party. Kids will have tons of fun playing it!

*Rubber Ducky Placemats: Purchase a coloring book with a duck theme, crayons, thin pieces of cardboard (for stiffening the placemats), and a roll of clear Con-Tact paper. Remove pages from coloring book and cut the cardboard to match the size of two coloring pages. (Cut the Con-Tact paper a little larger.)

At the party, give each child two pages and let them have fun coloring. (This can be done as an arrival activity.) When they’re finished, lay the pictures on top of the cardboard and cover it with clear Con-Tact paper. (Enlist the help of the guests’ parents, if you have to.)

*Quack Like Ducks: Put on some party music and invite the kids to dance, act, and make sounds like ducks do. As and add on, you can have the kids follow the moves of one of the party helpers.

*Duck Pond: For this rubber duck party game, you’ll need waterproof marker, rubber or plastic ducks (1 per guest), prizes in separate paper bags, plastic tub or kiddie pool filled with water, and colander with handle.

Using a marker, draw a different number on the bottom of each duck. Then write matching numbers on each prize bag. Set out the tub filled with water. Let the kids take turns to scoop out a duck using the colander. Match the duck’s number to bag’s number for the child’s prize.

*Edible Necklaces: Have the parents or helpers assist the kids with this rubber duck birthday party activity. (Children will be thrilled to be a part of “food-making process.”)

Fill several bowls with candy and cereal: doughnut-shaped fruity cereal, doughnut-shaped hard candy, doughnut-shaped gummy candy, favorite “O’s” cereal. Provide the children with necklace strings and let them create their own edible necklaces.

*Follow the Duck Trail: Use duck feet print cutouts for this activity. Have the prints starting from your house, going around the backyard, back in the house again, and finally leading to a “surprise” item (e.g., birthday cake or other treat). Invite the kids to follow the “duck trail” all around. Watch the excitement of anticipation on their faces!

*Story Time: Gather all the rubber duck birthday party guests to listen to a story! Even though they may not understand all the words, the children will enjoy sitting together and looking at the pictures. This is a great activity to bring your party to an end.

Food and Drink:

*Rubber Ducky Cake: Bake a rectangular cake. Print a picture of rubber duck off the computer, and place it on the cake. Then carve around the paper to shape the cake. Finally, ice various portions of the cake with butter cream icing.

As a variation, you can decorate the cake with rubber ducky cake toppers (available at party stores).

*Creative Cupcakes: Bake the birthday child’s favorite kind of cupcakes or muffins, and let them cool. Frost with a thin layer of icing or top them with sprinkles. Remember to stick a candle in the birthday child’s cupcake!

*Animal Quackers: Fill a bowl with plain animal crackers. Set out for the children to snack during the rubber duck birthday party, or send a box home with each child as a party favor. Or, if you prefer, serve “quackers” and cheese instead.

*Simply Delicious Sandwiches: Make your child’s favorite kind of sandwiches, and use cookie cutters to cut them into familiar shapes, such as triangles, circles, stars, etc. For added fun, cut sandwiches into duck shapes.

*Jell-O® Jigglers: Purchase several packages of various flavors of Jell-O brand gelatin. Follow the directions to make popular Jell-O Jigglers. Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes. Lay them on a platter for the kids to choose the shapes they want.