It's all gotta go somewhere

Pokemon Party

About 3 weeks before D’s 6th birthday, Jeff got the idea for a theme for D’s birthday party: Pokemon Go!

Since he and D were already playing the all-the-rage game,  and we suspected some parents were also glued to their phones,  it seemed like a good idea…but somehow having a bunch of kids looking at phones didn’t seem like birthday material to me. So the idea of real-life, in person poke hunt was born.

First, we picked the location:  a favorite outdoor spot of ours with a nice easy trail. We ordered giant bags of small pokemon action figures, and started to cast a net for pokemon themed decorating ideas. We wanted the kids to have to look for certain characters on a “pokedex,” so we printed out line drawings of the each of the cast, and attached them to small, easy to handle clipboards, along with a drawstring muslin bag, in which players could capture their found pokemons. It was super cute, and sadly I don’t have a photo of all the clipboards, or the kids using them (many attached balloons to them, which made it easier to see them in the forest!).

In fact we were so over ambitious we took zero pictures–we were too busy setting up and hosting to think to photograph anything. Thank goodness we had Shelli’s help decorating the picnic shelter, which was decked out with balloons, a pokemon themed centerpiece, and we decorated the long picnic tables to look like pokeballs.

Note to self: do not host another birthday party with 45 attendees, food, drinks, and elaborate decorations in the woods at 10:30 am.

Although we were stressed since we over complicated the party and the logistics, it was a beautiful day and the kids had fun. Besides the activities of the party (which also included Pin the Tail on Charizard and a Draw Your Own Pokemon art station, and a Pokemon puzzle), we also enjoyed watching the local trout, and a lucky part attendee also saw a hawk pluck a trout out of the lake there, right in front of her eyes. We were also joined by one giant blue heron, who kept a close watch on us, from his perch in a nearby tree.

Here are the small handful of pictures I have from what was truly a grand event!

 

p1050604

Mom getting birthday cupcakes ready

p1050605 p1050606 p1050607 p1050608 p1050609

And here is a shot I just took of the remaining party favors the kids took home. Inside are Pokemon action figures, a glitter glue stick, yoyo, Pokemon tattoo and some fruit strips:

img_2134

 

You may have noticed D’s outfit. He designed it especially to look like a Poke trainer. To give the unitiated some context, here is his trainer avatar in the game:

 

img_2030

 

And in a related moment, here he is a REI trying on backpacks for Trackers camp (more on that later)–being a Pokemon Trainer and being a forest Ranger overlapped in our summer adventures:img_4322

 

This was our first-ever party with birthday gifts. I have to highlight the elaborately-wrapped gift from Jett, who worked very hard with astounding effect on his gift:

 

p1050611

 

Thanks to everyone for all the great presents!

2 Comments

  1. Sherry

    I’m exhausted just reading about it, but worth the wonderful memories.

  2. Grandma Beverly

    What a party!!! I can’t wait to see what you do next year!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© 2024 MaidaData

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑