Geez, and now we have a 5 year old!

We waffled back and forth between a Lego-themed party, and a Pokemon party, and I’m so happy we ended up with Pokemon!

The heat was brutal the week before the party and we ended up switching our 11am start to a 4pm start so that most of one side of our yard would be in the shade. Water attractions galore to keep the kids entertained (which had zero connection to Pokemon, but ya gotta entertain them somehow). Our yard somehow survived the Woodstock ’99 reenactment that took place at the end of the party.

You all know I love a good theme party. I don’t think this one disappointed!

My brother was in town again and it didn’t take much pressuring from me for him to whip out the streamers and to get to fruit-carving. He went a different route this time and drew on the rind of a watermelon, pain-staking-ly carved it out (it took him maybe an hour?), and then added red sugar sprinkles to illuminate the design. I think I’ve created a monster. We clearly fell from the same tree.

My son love rainbows (what young kid doesn’t?) so a rainbow fruit platter was an obvious choice. I’m going to say it was a Pokemon rainbow badge, but that was actually pointed out to me by another parent at the party, so I can’t take all the credit. We attempted a Pokemon ball platter of mozzarella and tomatoes.  Forgot the black olives, but I think a few well-placed blackberries did the trick. Can’t beat easy cheese, meats, and crackers. Pizza and wings FTW for dinner. Not everything has to be over the top in my opinion. Also – I’ve used that inflatable ice bed (similar here)more times than I can count.

I struggled a little bit with coming up with Pokemon-related activities. I actually know virtually NOTHING about Pokemon, as this is a new obsession in our house.

We ended up ordering a water-balloon sling shot and some Pokemon ball plushies online. We had plans to stake up photos of Pokemon characters in the yard, but then realized we actually used all of our stakes on the garden fence the week before. On to plan B.

A stake and a stick covered in yellow and black streamers to look like Pikachu ears that you can see in the background of this family picture on the left side (thanks again, Brother)! We ordered this wall decor from Amazon last minute (you can see how big the posters were in the background behind William below). And we quickly realized this was safest on a stone wall with no windows (so no one would get pelted/windows would break!)

The kids had a blast trying to hit the characters. It was a party of 4-5 year olds, so we didn’t bother keeping score or even really making a game of it. They would just trot over, pull a few back, and then run back to the pool/bounce house/waterslide area. Of course I have no photos of the actual set up (BLOGGER FAIL) but I think you guys can envision it with the supplies we used! Also, the slingshot is going to be fun in few years as the kids get older, I’m sure of it.

As luck would have it, I forgot to bake cupcakes, then forgot to buy them at the grocery store, and ended up picking up a tray at Walmart when we were filling balloons. Did you know they will add the sprinkle colors of your choice and they have various themed rings to add as toppers (if you don’t have a Walmart nearby, I found them online too) for $2? It was SO MUCH cheaper to have them add everything for me than to do it myself. This is not sponsored by Walmart. Just letting the people know this exists! We skipped a big craft station for this party – but you can see the Pikachu hats we found at Walmart  (can’t find a link!) in the picture above and we put out a bucket of markers for the kids to decorate when they needed a break from the water play and slingshot game.

I ordered cookies from the fabulous Cookies by Courtney again (Albany locals – check her out!). My mom made her now-requested-by-friends chocolate dipped pretzels. Instead of doing big favor bags, I always have a basket by the door so the kids can pick a cookie, take a pretzel bag, and this time we gave out Pokemon-filled easter eggs (apparently the egg thing is a thing from Pokemon Go!?). I went against my “no plastic favors” rule. That’s ok, rules were meant to be broken every now and then.

I think this young man had a good time. Happy 5th Birthday kiddo!

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