Well, it's over! And I can't help but think Fern's first 'Rubber Ducky' birthday went splashingly well, despite the weather being ahem, fitting for ducks.
It is always a slight spanner in the works to have to hold a semi-large group of people in a small interior space... especially when there are a number of small children involved! A quick rearrange of the living room, a few cushions on the floor, and a whole lot of humour ensured the rain didn't put too much of a dampener on the day.
The birthday girl had an absolute ball; I scarcely saw her for the entire party (which explains why I neglected to get a good picture of her in her dress - oops - must redress her tomorrow and take some pics!). She ate ducky cookies, took a swing at the pinata, dug into her birthday cake, opened pressies and generally ran amock!
To simplify things, I held the party between 2-4pm (read - have lunch before you come!) but it didn't matter, the food disappeared off the table before I even knew it was out and my husband's homemade sausage rolls, pizza and chicken nuggets were a huge hit with the crowd! We also served popcorn in boxes, chocolate cupcakes, fruit skewers, honey joys, duck-shaped cookies and lollies.
I couldn't resist making these little cupcake toppers:
And I wrapped the children's pop-tops in a red ribbon:
The table after the seagulls descended:
My elaborate exterior decorating plan had to be hastily amended as it became apparent the weather report was wrong and that it would not be clearing up, as promised, in time for Fern's party.
I'd like to say I kept the decorations simple, but as usual I started planning those well over a month ago! Yesterday, I sent Dan out to buy a helium rubber-ducky balloon and he rode to the shops with Fern on the back. Here they are, coming home with the balloon in tow!
As mentioned, the rain forced me to rethink the decorations a bit; here's what the outside ended up like:
Yellow balloons strung from the umbrella
Rubber duckies along the back ledge and a vase holding a rubber ducky and wrapped in a red ribbon
And on the inside, I decorated the table with a yellow tablecloth with a red polka-dotted runner (wrapping paper stuck with little white dots!). The centrepiece was Fern's helium balloon which I placed in a tall vase along with a rubber ducky. Along the back of the room, we strung the birthday bunting.
For the party favours, I bought little clear noodle boxes and filled each of the them with lollies and a little rubber ducky. I printed off little stickers with a picture of Fern and "thankyou" and tied the package in red ribbon:
The cake:
I bought a Wilton's Rubber Ducky cake-mould from Ebay and, following a test-run earlier in the week made my Nigella Lawson buttermilk cake with confidence yesterday. But I was a little disappointed with the way it came out as it hadn't risen properly. I called an SOS with my mother-in-law, and together we resurrected the cake. Here's what it ended up like (there is one large round cake underneath the ducky cake gluing the two with icing):
After we blew out the candle, we let Fern at it; she tore the beak off the cake and had a lovely time licking the orange and blue icing off her fingers! I got lot's of ooh's and aah's about the design which (almost) makes the effort well worthwhile!
There were just two party games: a homemade pinata (a lotttt messier to make than I anticipated!) and 'pin-the-beak-on-the-ducky'. So much fun:
Here's a few final party snaps:
soooooo much fun! Hope you enjoyed your first birthday party as much as I loved throwing it for you, dear girl...
xo