Pokemon Party Time!!

Roan just turned 7. Yes, 7! What does that mean? It means we had a Party!

When it comes to parties, we're a "Keep It Simple" family. Pretty much all our birthday parties have been at home with just a few friends, and usually revolve around a theme, whatever the current favourite obsession might be. Oh, and it needs to be easy enough for me to come up with ideas, I heart Pinterest!

This year Roan asked for a theme revolving around an indie computer game he loves. While I know a few of his friends also play it, I wanted something a little more mainstream (to make it easier on me to come up with ideas). So another obsession in our house is Pokemon. And I know his friends all love Pokemon too (we even hosted a big Pokemon Play Date over the Christmas break for his buddies), so it was a no brainer. He was thrilled!

So other then picking the date, one of my first steps is the invitations. I have done this a few ways in the past. Etsy is a great source, I have purchased custom digital files and printed them off at home. I have also created my own, and when our printer has been on the fritz, have had them printed at Staples (although I prefer to do it myself).

This year, with Pokemon ruling everything, after some Etsy browsing and lots of Pinterest stalking, I decided to make Roan his very own custom Pokemon card as an invitation. I used this site, uploaded his picture and wrote our own text. Then it was a simple matter of downloading the saved file, and printing them off. You can make them the same size as a Pokemon card, cut them out and glue them to a real card, but I chose to make them a little bigger for the invitation. Roan LOVED them!

We kept decorations simple this year. Crepe paper streamers are usually involved and often we print off theme related pictures and tape them around the house, but honestly unless we involve them in a game, kids don't really notice. So I just did a Poke-themed table cloth. Easy peasy, use one red tablecloth, one white, tape together and tape down a strip of black crepe paper. I'm not a fan of disposable products normally, but for two birthday parties a year I make an exception. There are always crumbs and smeared icing and spilt juice at the end, it's nice to just wrap it up and be done.

The next thing was to plan a few games. Our birthday parties usually follow the same format. I have a quiet craft while the kids are arriving, when everyone is here we then do a few games, then cake/presents, then free play until the party is over.

For the quiet activity, I printed off a bunch of blank Pokemon cards, put out a bunch of pencil crayons and markers, and the kids had a blast making their own Pokemon cards. I actually had to call a few of them away from the craft when it was time to start the games!

My boys having fun cutting out blank Pokemon cards

For the games, I decided  to revolve them around Pokeballs. These were so simple to make! I got the idea from This Site. I bought styrofoam balls from the dollar store, used some red acrylic paint and a sponge brush, a black sharpie and little white circle stickers/labels. It took no time at all to paint the balls, they were dry quickly. The little white circle stickers I wasn't sure would work, but they actually stayed on really well!

So simple, I didn't even need the egg carton, they stood up fine on their own to dry!

There is a straight line right around the middle of the ball from where the styrofoam is molded. So easy to trace it with a sharpie (and the kids never look that close if it's not perfectly straight!)

The first game we did involved a tall plastic bin. The kids lined up and took turns trying to throw Pokeballs into the bin (I was going for "Catch The Pokemon"). Ciaran got involved and changed things up a bit by sitting behind the bin and the kids had more fun aiming at him. I think we've had a "Throw Something in a Bin" game at every party we've had! Kids seem to love throwing things, hah!

The next game we split the kids into two groups. One group went down into our basement playroom and hid all the Pokeballs then the second group found them. Then we switched. Simple and the kids liked it (and we only lost two balls!).

After games we stopped for Cake! I prefer to do cupcakes, I just find them easier. Easier to serve, easier to eat, easier to clean up. Roan has decided he wants to be a chef some day, and wanted to help make all his treats. Awesome!

Making his cupcakes! And yes, we got all the shells out!

So we did vanilla cupcakes (sorry, I don't bake cake from scratch, Betty does it a lot better then I do!),  I decorated them as Pokeballs, and finger jello. My boys always want finger jello at their parties and I've learned to make a boat load as kids inhale it! Roan really enjoyed making his treats and was so proud to tell his friends he made it. I love seeing the pride in themselves when they do something new.

Decorating the cupcakes was really simple. I used vanilla icing, then held an index card over half of it, sprinkled the other half with red sprinkles, put half a marshmallow in the middle, and used some icing gel to draw a line down the middle and around the marshmallow (I could only find blue icing gel, but again, no one seemed to notice!).

After cake and presents we let the kids have free play. It's a great way to burn off the sugar they've just inhaled! We always have lots of balloons, and between the balloons and the Pokeballs the kids kept themselves amused.

The last thing we planned is the goody bags. I do try to put some thought into these. I like to give a few consumables and something that can actually be used. This year I bought Pokemon deck boxes for each kid. My husband (who plays Pokemon with our boys and knows "good cards" vs "bad cards") found someone who was selling off their collection and purchased enough cards to give each child 20 cards. He made sure to get quality cards, and him and our boys took time to sort through them all and try to make packs where the cards worked together. I also stuck in a set of dice, a mini chocolate bar, a mini bag of liquorice and a mini finger flashlight. And of course each kid could take home a balloon and some Pokeballs. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the goody bags! (Or goody boxes I should say!). But here are my boys putting them together.

Good thing I'm not writing a blog on how to take good pictures!

The last 15min or so of the party, we gave the kids their deck boxes. They got to open their packs of cards and spend some time showing them to their friends and trading.

Our parties aren't fancy, especially by Pinterest standards, but all the kids seem to have fun and our boys have a great time with their friends. That's what matters to us!

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!!