Pokemon Birthday Party

When planning my son’s eighth birthday party this year, a Pokemon theme was a no-brainer. My kids have been Pokemon obsessed lately!

Not really knowing much about the game myself, I had to rely on what I’ve overheard from them watching the show, and Pinterest. Seriously, what did we all do before Pinterest?

As far as parties goes, I like to focus on making a few details special and then keeping the rest pretty simple.

Case in point… the party favors. I spent the most time on the hats and the plastic pokeballs, which doubled as a game and a favor, but the rest was pretty much a low-key outdoor kid dinner.

Party Favors:

Ash Ketchum Hats

I grabbed some blank, white and red trucker hats from Walmart.com for about $2.50 per hat. Amazon sells some as well, but you have to buy them by the dozen and they didn’t come with good ratings. I chose to get my hats from Walmart because if they were terrible I could just return them to my nearest store. Thankfully they ended up being good quality and a great buy. They are unfortunately $3.00 at last check and you have to pay shipping because it’s a third party seller going through Walmart, but it is still a better price than most places and you can buy the exact quantity you need.

I cut some pokeball vinyl stencils and just painted the symbols on with craft paint. Here are some free cut files if you need some too:

ash-ketchum-hat-logo PDF

Ash Ketchum Logo – .svg

Ash Ketchum Logo – Silhouette Design Studio

Note: The PDF file is hosted on my site and can be accessed by clicking the link. The .svg and Silhouette Design files are hosted through Google Drive. If you cannot access those files, you many consider trying on another computer as some servers can often block access to google drive. If you would like them emailed to you, please email me at [email protected] and expect up to two weeks response time.

Pokeballs

These served as both favors and a game. I got this cute idea from Frog Prince Paperie but changed a few of the DIY details.

I bought a bunch of large clear plastic ornaments that split open down the middle like an Easter egg, from Michaels. I’ve never been so happy to see Christmas decorations in the stores in September. Let me tell you. 🙂

I spray painted the outside of one of the halves white and the other side red. It was super easy and quick.

Then I hand-painted a black band and the center circle of the Pokeball, around the middle. That way the Pokeball could be open and closed multiple times. It felt time consuming but probably only took me about 30 minutes to make 10 balls, not including drying time. I free-handed it, so it’s not perfect, but it saved a ton of time and the boys still loved them.

 

I put Pokemon cards inside and hid them around the yard for the Pokeball hunt.

Games:

Pokemon Prizes

We bought a pack of Pokemon cards to use as prizes for the games. It came with a lot of energy cards as well, which we stuck in the hats as a part of the party favors.

Pokeball Hunt

See the party favor section for details on how to make them.  We slightly curved Pokemon cards so they would fit in the balls and then hid them around our yard. We told the boys they each get one, so when they found their Pokeball, they had to help another boy find his.

Don’t Eat Pokemon

Also known as, Don’t Eat Pete, is the BEST party game for ages 5-8. We play variations of it at every party. Everyone gets a turn, it takes a good amount of time without having lag time, there are no real “winners,” and it’s usually a big hit with this age group. They always get so excited over it and it’s so easy to play and prepare. If you don’t know how to play, you basically have a grid of pictures that you put a little treat on (we use mini marshmallows). One person is chosen to be IT and leaves the room. The rest of the group decides on one picture to be “Pete” or in this case “Pokemon.” The person who is IT comes back and eats mini marshmallows on each picture. The goal is to eat as many as possible before getting to the “Pokemon” the group chose beforehand. When the person who is IT is about to eat the marshmallow on top of the chosen “Pokemon” they yell “Don’t eat Pokemon!” The round is over and another child is chosen to be IT.

I usually make a printable grid to coordinate with my parties, but this time I just used real Pokemon cards. I used cards from the prize pack of Pokemon cards we bought and laid them out in a grid. Once the game was over, the boys got to pick a card from the grid to keep.

Pikachu Stomp

I blew up yellow balloons, dropped in some Pokemon temporary tattoos and then let the boys stomp on them kind of like this pumpkin patch stomp game. Whoever stomped on the balloon with the Pokeball tattoo won another Pokemon card of their choice. The rest of the boys got some cool temporary tattoos to take home.

I used these temporary tattoos from Amazon. They come with 8 segments but 16 actual tattoos. I just cut them out by hand so there were enough for all 10 boys.

That is all we did for games. After dinner, cake and gifts, there was some time for playing in the yard and playing Pokemon battles.

Decorations and Food

I kept decor simple with some red, white, and black balloons, and this big mylar Pikachu balloon from Amazon.

I used red paper plates, black disposable forks, and black and white striped napkins.

We served chicken nuggets, chips, carrots, and this pokeball veggie tray. My daughter is allergic to dairy, otherwise I think a pokeball pizza would be great for a Pokemon party too!

I almost forgot to make a cake. I know…right? I had a lot going on that week. Heh.

So, I quickly whipped up some vanilla cupcakes and cut some Pokeball cupcake toppers right before the party. My Silhouette totally saved my tush. But, to be honest, if I had time, I would probably use these anyway. It was just one detail I wasn’t very concerned with this time…or in my case a detail I almost completely forgot. ha!

 

Here are some free cut files if you want to use them for your own Pokemon party!

pokeball-cupcake-topper – PDF

Pokeball Cupcake Topper – .svg

Pokeball Cupcake Topper – Silhouette Design Studio

Note: The PDF file is hosted on my site and can be accessed by clicking the link. The .svg and Silhouette Design files are hosted through Google Drive. If you cannot access those files, you many consider trying on another computer as some servers can often block access to google drive. If you would like them emailed to you, please email me at [email protected] and expect up to two weeks response time.