Make a splash! and have some good clean fun by throwing a Yellow Ducky Theme Party. This is perfect for a 1st year birthday party!

Invitations

Try taking a picture of your baby in the bathtub holding his favorite yellow ducky! Create a post card, or regular card, with this picture with your party info. No one will be able to resist

A little more expensive to ship, but definitely an attention getter- Soap Invitations! But a few bars of ivory soap (you can purchase these at your local Dollar Store). Measure the wrapper on your soap and print out your invitation to fit! Wrap around the soap bar and secure using two sided tape or a glue stick. Mail in a bubble envelope.

Games

Pick a Duck. Buy plastic yellow duck toys and put a number on each one. Create the same amount of treat bags with corresponding numbers. Have each guest pick a duck from the pond. They “win” the treat bag with the matching number.

Play duck duck goose if your guests are old enough

Pop the bubbles. Fill a small child’s swimming pool with balloons. Let your guests stomp on the “bubbles” Our purchase an inexpensive bubble machine and let your guest have fun running around popping the real bubbles.

Hot Duck. Play the classic Hot Potato game using a rubber duckie. Play to the tune of Splish Splash.

Decorations

Place “duck prints” leading from the street to your front door for your guests to follow.

Decorate with yellow and blue balloons.

Place a yellow table cloth on the table with a yellow duck centerpiece, or large duck shaped balloon.

Roll up white wash cloths and tie with yellow and blue ribbons.

Food

Buy a duck shaped cookie cutter to make duck shaped sandwiches.

A bowl of “quackers” or goldfish crackers or animal crackers

Oreo cookies dipped in blue tinted chocolate or melted candy can resemble bubbles

Here’s a video for creating a rubber duck birthday cake

With your yellow duck cake centerpiece and many many small yellow ducks spread around, you will have the perfect atmosphere for some good clean fun!

No one can resist the plain ol’ Rice Krispies treats, but imagine how much your guests will love these alternatives to this already favorite treat!

Candy Corn Crispy Treats

 Mix the fall favorite candy corn with Rice Krispies treats and you end up with this colorful Candy Corn Crispy Treats.

Recipe and Photo found at Kraft Foods.

Ingredients:

Halloween Cat Treats

 

Ingredients

Instructions

Rice Krispies Spider Treats

Rice Krispies Jack-o-Lantern

Ingredients

• 1 Stick Butter
• 2 (10 oz). Packages Marshmallows
• 12 C. Rice Crispy Cereal
• 1 tsp. Yellow Food Color
• 1/4 tsp. Red Food Color
• Green Decorating Icing in Tube
• Black Decorating Icing in Tube
• Decorating Tips
• 12 C. Bowl (not plastic)

Instructions

• In a pot on low heat melt the butter then stir the marshmallows in until they have dissolved.
• Next, add the food coloring into the mixture and stir until the mixture is a uniform orange color.
• Add Rice Crispy cereal to the mix and stir them until they are completely coated in our marshmallow, food coloring mix.
• Spray your circular bowl with non stick spray to make sure we will be able to remove the pumpkin shape later.
• Pour the mixture into the bowl and press down on the cereal with either your hands or a spoon.
• Place the bowl in the refrigerator and leave there until is has become completely chilled and is form.
• Once firm, remove the bowl from fridge place then place the bowl face down on to a plate
• Using the black and green icing, decorate your Jack O Lantern with a face, leaves and a stem.

Halloween Ghosts

These Halloween Ghosts found at About.com are easy enough for kids to make.  They are just as fun to make as they are to eat.

Ingredients

I was recently asked to design a wrapper for a New York theme Sweet 16 birthday party. Always being the kind to take things a little further than I have to, I started to plan out an entire New York theme party in my head.  Bright lights, lots of glitz, a very formal affair.

Invitations

Since New York is famous for its theater, I imagine invitations created to look like a Playbill, only with the person of honor pictured on the front and their name in big letters.

Decorations

Your decorations need to reflect the glamour and glitz of New York.  A large disco ball hanging from the ceiling.  Bright colorful lights.  Depending on the size of your guest list, small round tables with white table cloths for intimate dining would be beautifully decorated with the colors silver and black.

Announce to your guests ahead of time to dress formally.  When your guests arrive, they would be greeted by a photographer that would immediately take their picture.  They then would be chaperoned down a red carpet to the main party area where they would be announced to the rest of the party guests.

The Food

Since New York is famous for its variety of restaurants, you should treat your guests to a sampling of the best food New York has to offer.  Nathan’s hot dogs (miniature), egg rolls from Chinatown, pizza (no one does it better than New York), hot pretzels and even cheesecake.

And while your guests are eating, make sure to play the tunes of New York’s finest…Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin are a good start.

After dinner, the real part begins, as the dance floor, lit with bright strobe lights is the center of dancing and much laughter.

Your guests will leave feeling like they have spent the night with royalty and it will be a party that no one will soon forget!

Today’s Wednesday Wow is just one more reason why I’ve given up pumpkin carving.  This Carousel carved pumpkin is gorgeous!

It is the creation of The Pumpkin People of Saginaw, TX.  They are a family that spends many hours carving pumpkins with the most awesome designs to display in their yard.  Take a look at their Facebook Page to see all the pumpkins they have carved and I’m sure you will be as WoW’d as I was.

There’s no better way to announce Fall, then with a few pumpkins sitting on your front step.  I’ve always tried to master the art of pumpkin carving, but year after year, end up with no more than a simple lopsided face.  I use the excuse that I don’t have the right tools, and a steak knife taken from my kitchen probably is far from the right tool, but the truth is, I just don’t have the patience to express my creativity in this way.

When I logged onto Facebook this morning, one of my friends had shared this picture,
a cute pumpkin decorated with ribbon and a hot glue gun.  This was originally posted at Baker’s Village, with instructions that even my lack of patience personality could handle.  Someone had even suggested that the same effect could be achieved by using push pins instead of hot glue (even better!).

After viewing the picture, a light bulb came on!  Maybe I could spare myself the embarrassment of the child like carved pumpkin on my step this year.  Here are some other great, no-carve, pumpkin decorating ideas that will make your neighbors jealous

Found at Better Home and Gardens, these pumpkins were decorated using an apple corer to create the word “Boo”, but I’m sure your imagination could come up with other cute designs using the same method.

Painted Designs

Put away your steak knife and take out your paint brush!  Pumpkins can be decorated with acrylic paint or even permanent marker to achieve the same creative results as carving.

These happy pumpkins, found at Good Housekeeping, look like they’ve been carved, but in reality, the faces were painted on.  The creator first started with a washable marker, so that they could “erase” and correct mistakes and when the desired effect was achieved, they colored it with permanent marker.

Starting with a white basecoat of white flat acrylic paint and using black flat acrylic paint for the designs, you can achieve the same effect as these painted pumpkins found at Country Living.

Is it candy corn or pumpkins?  Found at Better Home and Gardens, these pumpkins were sprayed painted with 3 different colors to achieve this yummy effect.

If painting designs isn’t your talent, have no fear, you can still achieve a nice painted effect with the use of hand made stencils and some black paint.  These are great for kids!  Parenting.com used stick on dots and shapes cut from masking tape, taped them to the pumpkin, painted it black, then after the paint dried, peeled off the tape.

Decorative Pumpkins

By adding some additional details, look at the fun, unusual and creative pumpkins you can create!

These Bat-o-Lanterns, found at Family Fun are just too cute.  These are mini pumpkins, painted black.  The wings,ears and eyes are cut from craft foam and adhered with glue dots.

Wrap it Up, with cheesecloth and mod podge, to create this spooky mummy pumpkin.  Complete instructions are found at Plaid.

Do you prefer cute to spooky?  With a white pumpkin, some sunflower seeds and some patience, you can create these adorable Owl designed pumpkins found at Better Homes and Gardens.

I’m not sure about you, but these no-carve pumpkin designs have inspired me!  I’m going out this weekend to pick up some pumpkins and hopefully redeem myself in the pumpkin decorating department.  Do you decorate pumpkins?  I would love to see what you create!

Halloween can be a fun holiday, with the dressing up, pretending to be someone or something else for one night and all that free candy!  But it’s not exactly the best holiday for toddlers, who can be easily scared by the scary costumes and noises.

There are ways to plan a great Halloween party for your toddler!  Trenna Sue Hiler shares her favorite Halloween Party Ideas for Toddlers which includes some very fun and entertaining party games that won’t spook your toddler.

To learn how to plan the party, from start to finish, read Toddler Halloween Party found at Punchbowl.com and also How to Plan A Toddler’s Halloween Party at ehow.com

Your toddler may be too young to enjoy the trick or treating activities this year, but you can still enjoy this holiday with him/her!