Last weekend we celebrated Ava's 10th birthday with a Pokémon themed party in a local park. After all the rainy weather we've had (and still have at the moment) we were lucky to have a dry and sunny day for the party. The park may have still been a little muddy in places, but the sun was out and the day was warm. Perfect for a party in the park with friends.
The Pokémon theme carried through every part of the party from the invitations, to the food and the birthday cake, and to the party games and the piñata. The food was a big hit with all of the kids, especially the birthday cake with it's Pokémon toppers (which I'll talk more about later). We had pokéball sugar cookies, Pikachu marshmallows and pokéball pizza, along with other party favorites such as sausage rolls.
After the kids filled their bellies we moved onto our first party game of the day: a Pokémon hunt! I wasn't really quite sure how this game would be played at first but it turns out Ava had given it a lot of thought and had it planned out. Each kids was given a pokéball that I had made, and then set out to find cardboard Pokémon cutouts that I had hidden around the park. Once a pokemon was spotted the pokéball could be thrown at it to "catch" it. Or the kids could just pick it up, as was most often the case! Each kid was only allowed to catch one Pokémon, but they were allowed to trade them at the end. The game lasted for about 15 minutes, with the last few Pokémons being a little tricky to find. I'll be sharing another post showing how to make the pokéballs and Pokémon cut outs soon.
Our next game was Pass the Parcel. For those not familiar with this classic party game, here's how it was played. The kids sat in a circle and passed around a parcel as music (the Pokemon theme music, of course!) played. When the music stopped the kid holding the parcel got to unwrap a layer of paper. This continued until we got the very middle of the parcel where there was a prize. Along the way there were Pokémon cards hidden among the layers of wrapping paper.
Up next was the pokéball shaped piñata. I was a little worried that the kids would smash the piñata open pretty quickly now that they're all getting pretty big, so I made sure to make it with a lot of layers of paper mache. Sure enough, it was smashed open before all of the kids got to have a turn. Next time I'll have to add even more layers. These kids are too strong! The piñata was filled with chocolates and Pokémon cards. Once the piñata was smashed open and all of the goodies were scooped up the kids traded cards. Everyone seemed pretty happy with what they ended up with.
Our last game of the party was Pin the Tail on Pikachu. I'll have a DIY coming for this one too. I forgot to bring a bandanna to cover the kids' eyes but one of Ava's friends happened to be wearing a Pikachu hat that made the perfect blindfold when worn backwards - and totally kept to the theme!
After all of the party games it was finally time for cake. This year, instead of a regular cake Ava asked for a chocolate chip cookie cake. Inspired by a kit from Foodstirs I made three "cakes" consisting of super thick chocolate chip cookies stacked on top of each other with layers of frosting holding it all together. I decorated the top of the "cakes" with Pokémon cut outs on tooth picks. As we were outside and there was a slight breeze we were unable to keep all of the candles lit while the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Ava. That's nothing new - I don't think we've ever successfully lit all the candles at an outdoor party! We did manage to keep a few lit though, so Ava was able to blow those out.
The chocolate chip cookie cake was a big hit with the kids. We'll definitely be having one of these at a party again. I'll be sharing the recipe, and cake toppers soon.
For this particular party I didn't provide goody bags like we would normally do. Instead, the kids went home with a small stash of Pokémon cards from the piñata and pass the parcel, their pokéballs, and the Pokémons that they "caught" during the Pokémon hunt.
Ava had such a wonderful time at her party. Big thanks to everyone who celebrated with us. I still can't believe my oldest baby is 10!
Stay tuned all this week as I'll be sharing DIYs and recipes for everything you'll need for a Pokémon themed party, including the party invitation, homemade pokéballs, pokéball piñata, Pikachu marshmallows, pokéball cookies, Ava's chocolate chip cookie cake, and Pin the Tail on Pikachu.
No comments:
Post a Comment