For our son’s 10th birthday, he wanted a Pokemon theme, so I scoured the internet for some good ideas that were budget-friendly and came up with some of my own! Here’s what we did:
I made this little sign and hung it on the front door with some balloons for the kids to see as they entered. (You can get a pdf copy here.)
I kept the decorations fairly simple and focused more on getting some games ready that they could enjoy, but I did manage to get a couple of signs and some streamers up! (I got the napkins here and they have an affordable set if you don’t want to piece everything together yourself.)
As the kids arrived, we told them that there would be series of training “assignments” for them to complete to win a prize at the end of the party!
The first assignment was to design your own PokeCard. (I found this free printout at Fabulous in Fifth.) This was the perfect starter activity for them to do until everyone arrived. You can find the Pokemon training camp ball printouts and some great training ideas at Inspired2Party.
The next training assignment was a memory game which you find here. Honestly, it was a lot of printed paper, so I probably wouldn’t do that again, but the kids enjoyed finding their favorite Pokemon characters behind each ball.
From there we moved onto “catching Pokemon” by knocking over these cardboard tubes with soft balls. You can find the characters covers here.
For this one, we had Nerf guns out and had to trap the bad guys by hitting them with the styrofoam bullets. I think I just did a Google search for this picture!
Next, we played the classic “balloon stomp” party game but gave it a Pokemon twist. We filled a room with about 20 balloons and let them try to pop them all.
The last game before our main event was “Pass the Pokeball” which is exactly like Hot Potato except with a Pokeball.
The main event was a Pokeball hunt in the park next to our house. This could also be done in a backyard. I ordered these mini Pokemon characters on FB Marketplace but some sellers on Amazon have them too. Then I put them in these little balls. The kids had fun running through the park to find the hidden items!
After the hunt, we came back inside for some cake (which I unfortunately did not get a good photo of!) which can be found at Walmart Bakery for a great price! My son’s hat was part of his gift and can be found here.
After cake, they got their certificates and prizes for completing the Pokemon Training Camp! I got these yellow bags at the Dollar Store, I believe, and drew little Pikachu faces on them (here’s a link if you don’t want to DIY!) Inside of the bags were some party favors: the characters and balls that I mentioned earlier, some Pokemon cards (it was cheaper to buy the cards in bulk and split them up- I got the pattern to wrap the cards in here), and of course some candy!
Once they got their cards, they spent some time trading them and hanging out until it was time to go.
This was a fun party for the kids! I hope some of these ideas help you too!
