I absolutely love a kid’s party with a narrative. Our Harry Potter party had one and Maxi’s awesome Pokemon party had one too. From the very beginning of the party, the kids were all Pokemon trainers, charged with catching, training and battling a Pokemon.
Zia Lucia (the best aunty in the whole world and my party buddy – dressed as a Pokemon below – or maybe she just always looks like that??) and I had such fun putting this Pokemon party together and it wasn’t any trouble at all. It really wasn’t. Like all good kid’s parties, the games and fun took centre stage.
When the boys and girls arrived they were led to the Pokemon Construction Area. Here they were encouraged to recycle bits and pieces into their very own Pokemon creation. Don’t they look great?
This was a big hit with some of the kids, who spent a long time working on their Pokemon and others just put something together quickly and got on with the business of racing around.
Catch your Pokemon
When the boys and girls arrived they were led to the Pokemon Construction Area. Here they were encouraged to recycle bits and pieces into their very own Pokemon creation. Don’t they look great?
This was a big hit with some of the kids, who spent a long time working on their Pokemon and others just put something together quickly and got on with the business of racing around.Unique Pokemon cards
After they’d made their Pokemon, we created a Pokemon card featuring their very own Pokemon for them to add to their card collection. They were so proud! Click here to go to the site we used to make the cards.
Train your Pokemon
Here we introduced the Pokemon League Badges Case and badges. I made the cases out of Daiso makeup containers ($2.80 for four). To get badges for your case, you first had to train your Pokemon and then win badges in battle.
We set up a training session for their Pokemon. There were three boxes – a larger box marked 1 was about 3 metres from a line, a smaller box marked 2 was half a metre further away and the smallest box, marked 3, was about 3 meters from the line. They had to throw the Pokeball into the first box, then the second, then the third. Each box meant they could win one badge, two badges or three badges. Most boys won a badge, with others winning up to six badges.
Let the battle begin!
Next the boys had to battle their Pokemon (or themselves, as it happened).
First battle was a variation on musical chairs – that well-known game of Musical ‘Who can grab the Pokeball first’. Three boys per round, one Pokeball. When the music stopped, you had to make a grab! Winner went on to play in the next battle and so on until everyone had had a go and only one boy was left standing. Each time someone won, they received a badge for their case. The boy left standing got to keep the Pokeball.
The next battle was a simple ‘slam dunk the Pokeball into the trampoline basketball net’ kind of battle. We used a Pokemon soccer ball for this one. Badges awarded to the winner of each round with the overall winner getting to keep the Pokemon soccer ball.
In the last battle was a relay sort-of battle. Two teams with each team racing to bring the Pokemons from one end of the nature strip to the other. The catch was that teams weren’t allowed to put ANY of the Pokemon down. So the first person brought one Pokemon back, but the next had to carry that Pokemon back, collect another and bring both down and so on until the last person was juggling ten Pokemon one way and eleven back the other. If anyone dropped a Pokemon, it went back into the box. The winning team each received three badges each.
The kids had a ball with all of these games (a Pokeball, even) and we’ll be playing a variation each of them at all future parties.
Pit stop for hungry trainers
After the battles, it was food time. For all the amazing themed food we’ve done over the years (and hello Pokemon biscuits and Pokeball cake pops up there), we’ve learned that the kids are really only interested in the lollies and the chips. So I bought lots and lots of those (we even had a separate party table just for bowls of crisps, burger rings and cheezels) and we didn’t go to too much trouble with the rest of it. I did make mini-cupcakes, but only so we could put a ‘bonus badge’ cupcake topper on top. The kids loved finding an extra badge in their cupcake.
I made the Pokemon figures that I put on the dessert table by blowing up an image across two A4 pages and printing them out on cardboard before sticking them together. They stand upright because there is a chopstick sticky-taped to their backs and then they are blu-tacked to a tin can. I also printed a long ‘gotta catch ’em all’ poster and framed a print-out of a whole load of Pokemon figures to hang above the dessert table.
Gotta catch ’em all
After a lot of munching, it was time of the treasure hunt. We have a treasure / scavenger hunt at every party we have and this one was a blast. They were sent off to hunt Pokemon in the wild and each clue was attached to an actual Pokemon figurine, so if you found the clue, you got to keep the Pokemon figure. I bought a bag of 60 Pokemon figures for $30 from eBay.
Tallying and caking
After the treasure hunt it was time to tally the badges. We made a big deal of this, writing down each person’s counted badges and ‘crunching the numbers’ to arrive at the ‘best trainers of the day’. The person with the highest number of badges got to pick a soft Pokemon toy from the shelf (you can see them up there), then the next highest and the next until all seven Pokemon had been given out. The boys thought these prizes were the highlight of the party (even the boys that didn’t get one, I was so proud to see – they are all really growing up).
Then we cut the gorgeous Zia Lucia Pokemon cake (look at those figurines she made out of fondant icing! And inside is checkerboard! OMG! Hello talented aunty!) and it was home time.
A big thank you to all for coming…
The kids love putting together a lolly bag. The girls get all the lollies lined up and around they go, putting one in every bag. This time we also had two Pokemon figures in each bag and Max carefully chose who got what. He then wanted a picture of the Pokemon that were in the bag on the outside of the bag, so here we go!
And now my first baby is… what, nine!?!?
Nine! That’s way too big! Every time I think about my baby being nine I have to go and have a stiff drink. Which is pretty much what we did after the last boy went home that night.
Click here to download free printables to make your own Pokemon party:
I am curious what you used to get the caterpie and froakie to stand up. I love the printable but I am not crafty enough to figure out how to make them stand. Any tips?
It’s sooooo not technical. I simply printed them onto stiff cardboard and then leaned them against a stack of cups! You can sort of see the cups behind Froakie in the photo underneath “pit stop for hungry trainers’…
I hope your party goes well!
Hi! I was hoping you could explain the scavenger hunt a bit more? How did the clues work?
Thanks!
Can you please send me the list of recycled materials used for the Create your own Pokemon activity?
Yes please! How do they get the next clue? And what if they can’t find the clue?
Thank you so much for sharing all you ideas! My grandson loves Pokemon and I can’t wait to put some of these great plans to good use at his party!
What did you use for the badges? Can I see a pic of them?
HI, awesome party! I’m curious what font you use to write names on bags. Love it. Thank you.
For some reason I cannot figure out how to put a picture I want and cut it into two also how you did the labels for the bags I cannot figure out how to put different pictures or even to put the name please help me
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