The Rubber Ducky Regatta

In true party animal form, Chloe, Mitchie and I spent months planning for this party. We did our usual paper cut-outs with our Cricut and jumped on the sewing machine and sewed up some banners.

Chloe even made a corn hole game, all by herself with a saw and hammers and nails and stuff!

The three of us have a happy obsession over our parties. I think working together with my best gals might be my favorite thing about parties!

This party was intended to be another Summer bash for my momma. She was so excited about the party and helped with ideas and brainstorming, as always. She watched us make all the things which was her favorite thing to do!

On July 4th, my momma passed away. It was just a few weeks before the party. So, this party became a celebration of life for her, as well. We had a few non-rubber-ducky things we did in honor of this magnificent lady, but I’ll talk more about her celebration of life, later…in a future post.

We kept this party festive and fun, just as my sweet little momma would have wanted it.

The party invitations described the festivities

For our annual summer party we’re having a Rubber Ducky Regatta and boat race on the Baltzer pond! 🚤We will provide the remote control boats…you provide your mad boat racing skills! Or, if you want to bring your own boat…do it! 😃

What to bring: Lawn chair, Picnic lunch and Money🤑…we will be betting on the boat races. We will provide snacks and desserts🍰🍡🍭…you guys bring a picnic lunch and 🍺🍸🍹

Attire: Think Gilligan’s island or yacht-wear! Or, you could wear a giant, sexy, rubber duck costume. 🐥Granny will probably be dressed as Ginger from Gilligan’s Island. 😉 Dress up or we’ll be mad!

We will have a slip and slide so bring a swim suit and towel if you want to play! 👙

PS…Granny isn’t getting any younger. 😋 Hope to see you all! XOXO♥️

There was a new element to the party prep this year.

If we were going to race boats on the pond, we had to clear the pond of floating moss and pond weed. Our creek is a natural creek called Little Beaver Creek. We call our portion of the creek Kidlum Tooks, after my mom…(those were her nick names growing up). Since our pond and creeks are fed from that natural creek, it is full of critters and plants. This year, there was an abundance of moss and pond weed and cute little salamanders that we call Sallys!

We all took turns trying to clear the surface of our boat racing pond of stuff. It’s a dirty job but somebody has to do it! We always have fun!

We also had to prep the racing brackets and charge up the boats and play with them so we were sure they worked ok! We created a raffle and voting system and the gals made little flags to wave for the final race that we all bet a few bucks on!

Chloe, Gavin and Sophia’s team of friends are always helpful. We raced around the day before the party, chalking sidewalks, hanging banners, and clearing out last minute pond weeds that decided to sprout!

There’s always too much to buy at Costco. This is me with buyer’s remorse!

Each year the guests get a bit more spirited about their costumes.

I beg people to dress up in a theme, every year. This is kind of funny since my husband hates costumes. This is about all I get get him to do. Nate is always a good sport! Thanks to Aunt Mitchie for buying these cool shirts!

The upcoming party this Summer is a pirate theme and I am making him go full out!

The girls usually get into the costume thing. They will, at least, wear a hat. Or a cute collar, if Aunt Mitchie makes one for them. I like to find any possible reason to dress up. It adds to the fun and decoration!

Gav wore a hat which he may have stolen from someone else!

Sometimes there is more than one outfit needed for a single party. This year that was the case because there was slip and sliding involved.

Sometimes the men barely adhere to the costume dress code and sometimes they surprise me. My big brother Steve never disappoints.

Mitchie always makes us something fun to wear and we try to be twins.

We usually make all the food but this can be a little crazy so we had everyone bring a picnic lunch and we provided lots of snack and desserts.

They are the most fun to make, anyway!

Amongst other things, there were ducky cupcakes, cupcakes with little team flags and deviled eggs with Dorito sails! There was a fish bowl full of “fish and chips” which were goldfish crackers and potato chips! Clever, right?

My favorite was the rubber duckies floating in the punchbowl that was sitting on webbed feet!!

Chloe and I had a great time creating the theme for the bar. We named it the Wet Beak Bar, we painted a sign and we chalked web feet all over the sidewalks and drive way so people could find their way to DRINK! We also chalked this on the sidewalk:

Waddle On Over to the Wet Beak Bar and Quack Open a Cold One!

We think we are hysterical!

Almost all of Chloe’s friends are dancers. Thus, the creative poses in their Rubber Ducky attire.

We like to make a cute photo booth place in the house for theme party picture taking.

Everyone loves photo booths and nowadays, everyone has a camera!

The day of the party everything looked Rubber Ducky Ridiculous, just as we planned. Let the festivities begin!

The family started out the day with a some loving words about my momma. We shared stories and pictures and some other lovely things I will talk about in a later post.

We took lots of pictures of the family. We always have to take the traditional picture of grandkids on the stairs! Cutest humans ever!

Lots of other friends arrived and we jumped into the fun.

The boat races were a hoot!

Most everyone drove their boats too fast and crashed them. We all thought that the younger men in the group would kick some fanny since… video games! We all figured their well practiced video fingers would be the skills needed to conquer!

However, it turned out they were over-zealous and, in the end, slow and steady Teddy won the race with stealth and patience!

One of my favorite scenes from the party was seeing everyone gathered around together and the little kids and the big kids all having fun together.

Another favorite scene was the slip and slide.

My family and friends are just a bunch of over-grown kids! All ages participated in the slip and slide bonanza and these festivities even continued into the next day when they morphed into a slip and slide flip cup relay.

The babies were the cutest but the adults were reckless and hysterical.

Watch this video of the slip & Slide Craziness!

As you may know, my friends, party planning is my favorite!

I often say that planning the party and watching people have fun is much more fun for me than doing the partying myself…what’s up with that?

I hope you had fun being at the Rubber Ducky Regatta, virtually!

Come back soon for this Summer’s Pirate Party called Swashbuckler Soiree!

Check out the Party Central section of the blog for more fun party ideas!

Plan a party for your family and friends. Life is short and ALL the work is worth it.

Lots of love to you all xoxo Jill