Pokemon Birthday Party

Last weekend we celebrated my son's Birthday and this year he chose the theme "Pokemon".  He used to just pick the theme and I would plan a party around it.   However, somewhere along the way he decided he should start giving me creative direction *shakes head*.  He researched Pokemon birthday invitations and decided he wanted his to look like a Pokemon card after seeing a couple others online.  Pictured above is what we came up with.  I made the back of it look like a Pokemon card and laminated it.

My son also had a few suggestions for how the cake should look.  He requested it look like a Pokemon arena.  As always, Auntie Susan made an amazing cake for the occasion.

For the decorations I decided to have Pokemon characters peeking out of windows.  I just drew the images on construction paper and cut them out.  Some were outside and some were inside the house.  Before I had the rest of the decorations up, I saw a few people taking double takes at my house.  They probably thought we were extreme Anime fans or something.

For the birthday favor bags, I found this clever Pikachu idea on Pinterest via Amy Montes.  I filled the bags with school supplies.  I'm not sure how excited the kids felt about that but I wanted to get something they could actually use.

I made some special labels for the drinks but that's not why I'm sharing this.  These drinks are made by the Japanese brand Ramune. These drinks are unique because there's a marble in each bottle.  I thought they would go well with the whole Pokeball concept.  The kids really liked them and some even brought their bottles home with them.  I'm attaching a video below to show how these drinks work in case you're curious.

 

Out of all the party planning, the most challenging thing for me was finding fun age appropriate games.  There comes a time when "pin the tail on the donkey" just doesn't cut it anymore.  Pictured above was a game I found on the Minute to Win It site.  The object of the game is to get the cookie sitting on your forehead to your mouth without using your hands.  As you can imagine, it's pretty entertaining to play and watch.  If you decide to try this out, the key is to use a heavy cookie (exp. Oreo).

The most popular game at the party was a game I named "Candy Pokeball".  I wrapped up two bags of candy with an entire roll of plastic wrap and the kids had to unravel the ball to get the candy.  I found this game on Seminary At Six AM and you'll find the full instructions there.  This game took about 20 minutes to play and I think it tired the kids out.  The one thing I would recommend is to make it clear that they can't eat the candy until they get home.  One child asked if they could have a piece of candy. Before I could blink, there were empty candy wrappers everywhere.   My apologies to the parents if you're reading this.  

Special thanks to Akemi & Danny (SIL & BIL) who took all the photos that you are seeing on this post.