Duck Themed Baby Shower

Local party supply stores and online baby shower shops are a great resource for ducky themed baby shower invitations and thank you note cards. When it comes to invitations, you have several options and your choice will most likely be dictated by your budget. Fully customized invitations like the one shown to the right normally cost a couple of dollars each so for large showers, they can get quite expensive. However, they are a gorgeous way to invite guests.

The second option is to buy duck themed invitations where you 'fill-in' the shower details by hand prior to mailing them. Of course, this means that you have to take the time to hand write the invites which can be a bit overwhelming for really large showers. However, this is obviously a much cheaper alternative to pre-printed personalized invitations.

If you are creative, you can make your own invitations either using scrapbook type supplies or your computer. The great thing about making your own is that it is often inexpensive and you can tailor the invites and duck thank you notes specifically to your shower. You can even include a photo of the pregnant mommy.

Finally if all of the guests are part of the technology age, you could go with the cheapest invites of all.....E-vites. Guests reply directly online and all of the guests can see who else is planning to attend.

Having some Rubber Duck themed tableware is almost a must to carry your theme throughout the shower. If you are on a tight budget, I recommend getting just a few of the ducky themed items such as plates and napkins and then getting tablecloths, cups, and silverware that are just plain yellow or blue. The themed tableware can get expensive if you try to buy every single item in a yellow ducky theme.

That said, I have seen many companies selling duck themed party packs which seem to be more reasonably priced than buying each item individually. The bottom line is that you need to add all of the tableware items up to determine whether it is more cost effective to buy the party pack or just the individual items.

Making food for a duck themed baby shower can be fun and fairly easy. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

Punch - One of the best ideas I've seen is to make a blue colored punch for the party. Place the punch either in a traditional glass punch bowl or in a baby wash tub and float rubber duckies in it. It looks adorable on the buffet table!

Snacks - For snacks, put out fish bowls full of goldfish crackers. Yellow M&M's or other yellow candies are a great touch when placed in duck-shaped containers.

Food - For the food, pick things that tie in with the yellow, white and blue color scheme. Deviled eggs, yellow fruit salad with pineapple and bananas, any kind of finger sandwiches cut out into duck shapes with cookie cutters, and 'quack'ers with yellow cheese are fun ideas. Just be creative!

Dessert - For dessert, a duck-shaped cake, cupcakes or cookies are a must. Be sure to watch the great youtube video that I found on creating a REALLY easy ducky cake that would look great as the centerpiece. For another easy dessert that incorporates a yellow color scheme, consider doing a trifle made with vanilla or banana pudding along with store bought pound cake and cool whip to create a beautiful white and yellow layer dessert. Then just finish it off with a couple rubber ducks on top.

Photo Credit: MrsCupcake at Flickr

Word Find -Rubber duckies are an integral part of bath time for babies so why not tie this into the rubber ducky theme using this FREE printable word find that is full of bath time phrases. The first person to find all 30 phrases wins the game. Paperpow sells ducky themed paper that would work great to print the game on.

Printable Games - Printable games such as the one described above are a great option for creating themed ideas for your baby shower. You can buy the 5 games shown in the photo under Baby Shower Games.

Lucky Duck Game - Fill a large washbasin tub or baby bath tub or other plastic tub with water and buy a little rubber ducky for each of the shower guests. With a Sharpie write 'Lucky Duck' on the bottom of one of the ducks and then place all of them in the pool of water. Have each guest choose a duck (which can double as their shower favor) during the shower. The 'lucky duck' wins a prize.

Rubber Ducky Race - You need two plastic baby bath time tubs filled with water placing a ribbon across near the end of each tub (the same distance). Then you have the guests race their ducks setting it up like a tournament. In the first round, each pair of guests race each other. When the hostess says go, the contestants place their ducks at the start of the bath tub and then blow on the duck (no hands!!) trying to get to the finish line first. The winner of each race moves on to the next round and the next until the champion duck racer is crowned. This game is hilarious!

Duck, Duck, Gray Duck (or Goose) - If your guests are part of a young crowd, this game can be quite fun. You play it just like you did when you were a kid. Sit in a large circle facing inward with one person (the picker) going round the group. The picker taps the people in the group lightly on the head calling out duck, duck, duck, and then goose or gray duck. If you get tapped when the picker says gray duck, you must get up and try to chase down the picker. If the Picker gets to the spot and sits down before the gray duck (or goose) can catch them, then the gray duck becomes the new Picker and the game continues. If the Gray Duck manages to tag the Picker before the Picker can sit down, then the Gray Duck may sit down again and the Picker resumes walking around the circle declaring Ducks and a Gray Duck.

Give your guests a little something to take home with them after the baby shower. There are so many great duck themed baby shower favors available on the market today. Consider duck shaped soaps and candles that usually feature little thank you hang tags. Other great options are small photo frames, bookmarks and chocolate bars.

Photo Credit: Baby Shower Favors

A ducky themed baby shower gift can do double duty as both the centerpiece at the shower and the gift for Mom and baby. The four gifts shown above are just a small sample of the wide range of duck themed gifts from Baby Gifts & Gift Baskets. In addition to those items, they have several duck-themed diaper cakes that are also an excellent gift choice....what new mom doesn't need diapers? Diaper cakes look adorable as the shower centerpiece on the gift or buffet table and they are one gift that mom will surely appreciate. Below is just one example of a fun duck-themed baby shower diaper cake.

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