Pokemon Party -9yr- Pin The Tail on Pokemon

For my son's 9th birthday, he wanted a Pokemon birthday party.  After an exhausting effort through several party stores, I realized that the merchandise is not that easy to come by.  Unfortunately, there was not enough time to order online, so we put our creative talent to work!  As a single parent, I was worried it would be difficult to put all of this together but honestly it was the easiest, most stress free party yet! And the greatest thing... the party was cheap!  We held the party in my house and the only money I spent was on the children's goody bags, prizes for the games, and snacks.   

Invitations: To begin, we created Pokemon invitations with a picture of his favorite Pokemon character on the front and the inside contained party details accomponied with: A few chosen Pokemon trainers are invited to a special gathering on Kain's Pokemon Island.  Come with us and train to be a Pokemon Master!"   

Decorations:   My son loves to draw and creates amazing anime' works of art.  I laminated several of his favorites and hung them throughout the dining room.  I also used a lot of yellow to go with the Pikachu (tablecloth cups plates). Viola...decorations - simple and easy! 

The Cake: I decided to do cupcakes this year and decorated the cupcakes like Poke'Balls.  This was super easy.  I bought a small tube of black icing and red icing along with a tub of vanilla icing.  After covering the cupcake in the vanilla icing I divided with the black line and squiggled on the red on one side.  With the left over batter I ended up making a cake anyway which I drew a Pikachu on... same thing again - black icing red icing and then I used glitter like yellow sprinkles to cover the body. 

Games: In addition we had to come up with games for the party to keep a dozen children of all ages occupied (including those that cared nothing about Pokemon).   

1) Nintendo DS Pokemon games   The first 30 minutes or so while we waited for all the guests to arrive the children all played their Nintendo DS Pokemon games (the games link up where they can play together and share Pokemon).  If I would have let them they would have continued for the duration of the party. 

2) Pin the Tail on Pikachu After some light snacks the children enjoyed a game of Pin the Tail on Pikachu.  I drew Pikachu on a full size yellow poster board and cut out tails for all the children (really easy character to draw).  All ages enjoyed this since the tail is shaped like a lightening bolt. 

3) "Hot Ash" Then we enjoyed a round of "Hot Ash" which is basically Hot Potato but we lucked up that my son had a small ball with the main character Ash on it the pun worked out.  Surprisingly all the children loved this game and it ended up keeping the younger children occupied as they wanted to play again and again. 

4) Create your own Pokemon Card station We set up a "Create your own Pokemon Card" station where I laminated pictures of several Pokemon and the characteristics of each type of Pokemon.  I layed out blank index cards (size of a Pokemon card) colors markers glue glitter and other art supplies.  The kids put their imaginations to work and created new species of Pokemon.  This was a great activity even for those that are not such a fan of Pokemon as I encouraged them to create whatever they wanted.   

5)  Pokemon Trivia The true Pokemon fanatics played a game of Pokemon Trivia and tested their skills against their peers.  This was a good activity for the older children while the younger one's created masterpieces at the art station.   

The party lasted a little over 2 hours with no rushing to finish everything.  The children were attentive and well occupied.  It was extremely helpful to have multiple stations so that the younger kids could do different activities than the older kids.  The party was super easy to throw and the kids (and Mom) had a blast.  We topped it off with a trip to Pizza Hut and movie with a few close friends.  He is still talking about his party weeks later! "