I grew up when Pokémon was all the craze and like everything else it disappeared only to be brought back by the game that was Pokémon Go. My kids are too young to understand that game but they do love collecting the actual cards and making up their own game. Even on occasion they might swap cards – only to ask for them back a few hours later (cue arguments and tears when that doesn’t happen).

For his upcoming birthday, Mr. 5 asked for a Pikachu cake. We had been talking about a few different themes but it always came back to Pikachu. With that in mind I set about contacting Lou at Cake2theRescue and sure enough there was a DIY Pikachu cake. With that sorted I set about looking at different invitations. Of course it had to have Pikachu on it so we decided on the one from Kelly at Nine Lives Not Enough. The whole process was quick and simple and Kelly was lovely to deal with. This is the first year I’ve gone with no photo on the invite and we were both really happy with how it turned out (example invite shown).

Given the Pokémon craze over the past 12 months, it was easy to find decoration ideas. I set up my board on Pinterest and started savings ideas. The main colours I went for were white, black and red (think Pokeball) and yellow (think Pikachu). You can’t go past helium balloons for a party so I purchased the tank from The Reject Shop and made sure I had the coloured balloons I needed. Crepe strips made for the backdrop on the wall. White, black and red lanterns decorated the hallway. I attached some Pokeball print outs to the lanterns. I also cut out some images of Pikachu and other characters and added them as decorations. There are heaps of free printable images available and while it takes some time to cut them out, they are a great way to save money and to add easy decorations to your party.

Although I organised some games such as Poke Launch and Pin the Tail on Pikachu, the best activity the kids loved was… colouring in Pokémon characters! They were so busy having their own fun we didn’t even get to play Pin the Tail! The food was given Pokémon character names. We had Jigglypuff Jello, Fennekin Fruit, Charmander Chips and Piplup Punch as well as Poke Choc Balls and sushi (had to have sushi!!). The yellow party bags contained Pokémon stickers, pencils and keyrings that I got on eBay, bubbles and a colouring book and crayons.

As much as I love organising a party, I’ll admit that I wasn’t feeling the love for this one. However it all came together in the end and I had one very happy smiley boy who declared it ‘the best’.