When Adley turned two, we celebrated her special day with a ducky birthday party. Our neighborhood is home to about a million ducks which Adley has always adored. This little girl loves chasing after, quacking along with, and pointing out every duck she sees. The very first animal sound she learned to make was a duck sound--- and not just "quack, quack" but an actual duck imitation! So, considering Adley's love for ducks over the past year, it seemed like a fitting theme for her second birthday party.
Party Preparations
I always like getting themed birthday shirts but was having a tough time finding a ducky shirt for Adley. I ended up ordering an iron-on patch from Etsy and making her a simple shirt. Easy-peasy! She absolutely loves it! Prior to the party, Adley used dot painters to decorate some ducks that we hung up as party decor (like the "waddle on in" ducky sign below). In these pictures, Adley is saying "cheese" and trying to show that she is TWO years old.
My mom and sister helped me make the desserts for Adley's party. I was so pleased with how the cake and cupcakes turned out! These ladies are so amazing!
I found a cute idea on Pinterest to use blue punch and ice cream to make a bubbly bath for the rubber duckies. Hmm... it didn't exactly turn out quite like I had pictured... oh well! ;)
I decorated using items from Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Store. Decorating for Adley's party always has a little different flair compared to Jaden and Cody's parties! ;)
One of the final preparations was creating treat bags for Adley's guests. We filled the bags with a rubber ducky (of course!) and some of Adley's favorite candies-- Dum Dums and Kit Kats, plus a few Starburst to add some extra pink to the baggie. The ducky tag read, "Thank you for waddling over to my party! Love, Adley"
Party Activities
Adley was SO excited about her party this year. It was fun to see her eager anticipation as she waited for her guests--her cousins and a few of her playgroup friends-- to arrive.
I based some of the party activities off the book 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle. We ordered this book for Adley to keep and had her birthday guests sign the book.
Our first activity was making a rubber ducky craft in the style of Eric Carle. First, the kids used tissue paper and googly eyes to decorate a paper duck.
Then, the kids painted an ocean background using blue and green fingerpaint. What fun to get messy!! We really appreciated having so many adult helpers for this project!
The painted backgrounds didn't quite dry in time for the kids to take their projects home that day, but we finished up the pictures and delivered them to Adley's friends as soon as we could. Didn't they turn out adorable?
Adley's completed ducky
While the younger children were working on their fingerpaint projects, the older boys chose to play a different game that I had prepped for them-- a rubber ducky themed battleship-type game.
After a few rounds of this, the older boys just chose to play Four Square (a current obsession of theirs!) outside.
Once the art projects were all cleaned up, the younger kids moved to the backyard for a rubber ducky hide-and-seek game. This was probably Adley's favorite game of the whole party. Her entire face lit up when she found a duck!
Both Adley and her cousin Ben literally took off running when they found a duck. After dropping the duck off in the basket, they took off again!
Our second game was a ducky water-play game. We gave each child a straw that they could blow through to make their duck move in the water. The kids didn't play with this activity for too long but it was fun for a while.
More ducky party fun to be continued on the next post... :)
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