Pokemon Birthday Party for a 5yr old?

Question

I am having a pokemon themed party for my 5yr old son in a couple of months and I want to know if people have any ideas on decorations,

games (that are right for their ages),

and food - I'd prefer not to have too much junk food

Oh yeah, and it would be great to not have to spend a fortune!

Answer 1

Pokemon is very adaptable to traditional party games, depending, of course, on the ages of the guests.

For example, they could do a version of hot potato where the children pass around a Pokeball to the tune of some Pokemon t.v. music.

Or how about the Hokey Pokemon? Gotta love it!

Another thing that younger kids would like is Pin the Pikachu on Ash or even Pin the tail on Pikachu.

For the most part, the characters are pretty easy to draw. You could also use the little Pokemon character toys or beanie-dudes to do a bean bag toss, either into buckets for points or through a cardboard character with holes cut out. Even ring toss could be adapted if the ring became a character and the post was another.

Duck, duck goose will be easily adaptable using:

"Charmander, Charmander, Charmander, JIGGLYPUFF!"

For a memorable event, prepare a scavenger hunt, slanting the clues to be compatible with the show/game. This could be a team activity where there are Pokemon Packs hidden in different places, possibly each with one child's name on it. Or various little balls and inexpensive trinkets can be hidden in a sand box and all the kids can go at it at once.

If all the guests are really familiar with the concept, have a Pokemon trivia contest. To make the game easier for littler ones, it could be a form of 20 Questions where the kids are allowed to ask for clues to the answers.

Here's an exciting activity

Each guest will choose, without looking, a piece of paper indicating a well-known Pokemon character. The paper will be stuck onto their birthday hat (or their back).

The idea is they won't know who they are but everyone else will. Because we have some pre-readers in the group we may have to include pictures or drawings.

The rest is a take-off on 20 questions. As the guests circulate they can ask someone one yes or no question about their character and the other guest will respond and then ask a question about their character. Then they have to move on to another person. The idea is to guess which character they are.

I'm hoping this will be a good ice-breaker as it often is at adult parties.

A tie-in activity might be to have them draw a picture of their character. Another tie-in would be to have a talented artist paint the image on the child's face once the identity has been guessed.

The truly creative could adapt BINGO to Pokemon. The bingo boards and game pieces could be altered to spell a Pokemon character's name.

At Jamie's birthday party he and his guests enjoyed solving a crossword puzzle filled with Pokemon clues.

For activities, I always suggest decorating cookies. If you get some good decorating paste (food color) the kids could go wild creating Pokemon cookies.

Another activity for them is to distribute blank index cards, cut to Pokemon card size, and have the kids draw their OWN Pokemon. They can invent the names, their looks and what special powers they have, and create an entire habitat. Then they could trade with each other.

Similarly, they could create key chains using stickers, drawings or cut-outs glued on frozen juice-can lids (with a hole 'poked' through for the chain, no pun intended!) or refrigerator magnets. Office supply stores sell business-card sized magnets that have adhesive on one side for the child's own design.

You might also be able to find some blank jigsaw puzzles...educational supply stores sell them in packs of about 20, and they are fun to draw and a great memento.

Most kids enjoy face painting. If you have illustrations of various Pokemon, you could let the guests pick a character to be. Put your painting skill to a true test! Or, have the kids paint each other's faces, if you're really brave!

I can't think of an easier cake than a Pokeball, decorated with red, black and white icing.

Another simple cake is Pikachu, which can be made using 2 round cake pans...one for the face and the other for the ears. Use a high-quality food coloring paste or gel in a bold yellow for the frosting.