Pokemon Birthday Party

I wanted to make a big deal about my kid sister's 13th Birthday. So even though we were hosting a Halloween party the next day, I planned her a Pokemon Birthday Party. 

At the edge of the driveway I hung a sign for guests to know they were at the right place. 

I traced a large mixing bowl onto leftover red poster board, cut the circle out, traced it onto 2 poster boards, cut the red circle in half, drew a black line and added a white circle cut from card stock. The name was printed in a free Pokemon font I downloaded

I bought a Pokemon party kit for 8 and spread the decorations out for a party for 30 people. 

The middle food table was half red half white with a Poke Ball button thingy in the middle. The black line is crepe paper. 

Ritz cracker + cream cheese + cut in half pepperoni and an olive slice.

(I dont recommend making too far in advance, ours got kinda soft.)

Similarly to how I did the Super Mario birthday, I tied the theme in by finding foods that I could label with characters. Some of the ideas I got/adapted from this FUN Pokemon Party The labels were printed with the same Pokemon Font. 

Flaming Hot Cheetos

Recipe HERE

Apples and store bought caramel dip.

We also served some $5 hot and ready pizzas and salad and my mom brought some bean dip and chips. 

I apparently didn't get a good picture of the drinks. We had Squirtle Spit punch (blue Hawaiian punch) we had leftover Sprite from a party before and since they are blue and green, I added a case of orange crush since most of the decor was Orange Blue and Green. 

I loved how Pikachu turned out. I wished I would have done more than one, but it was just an afterthought to do the one. I used store bought frosting and gel food coloring. the ears are Mike N Ikes with some gel icing on the tip, they each had half of a toothpick poked into them and into the cake to make them stay up. The eyes are gel icing and a pearly sprinkle in each. The mouth is Wilton's Sugar sheets. The cheeks are Red Hots.

 The Poke Ball cupcakes were a box cake mix and frosted with can frosting. The red is Wilton Sugar Sheets cut with a circle cutter from my scrapbook supplies, then cut in half. The black is gel icing and the dot is half of a mini marshmallow. I gotta say, I was wondering how the sugar sheets would work. I had thought I could cut with a cookie cutter, but it was a real pain so I recommend the the scissors or paper punch. The sheets are really stiff but after sitting on the frosting awhile, they softened nicely. They didn't taste particularly good but didn't taste bad. I will use them again.  

I bought white fudge Flips and dunked them in red melting candy disks. The fudge coating on the pretzels came off a little and seized up the candy. I ended up spreading the melted candy on most of the pretzels. The middle line is dark chocolate melted in a Wilton candy melting squeeze bottle. The white dot is a white chocolate chip. 

There was no issue dunking the marshmallows. 

THE CAKE. I got the idea for the dome cake from this AMAZING Harry Potter party 

The white is canned frosting and the red is canned frosting with a ton of coloring added. The black line is black licorice. The white dot is about a third of a regular marshmallow. The black around the marshmallow is gel icing. 

My idea was to put some Pokemon toys inside with the skittles but when they came in the mail they appeared to have been painted with very chippy lead paint from China, so they toys went in goody bags instead. 

The decorating kit came with one very busy tablecloth. I cut it into quarters lengthwise for table runners and used solid colored plastic tablecloths under. 

My sister, the birthday girl helped paint the balls in the vase. The decorating kit came with confetti and we added a bunch of cheap Pokemon cards bought at a local game store. 

Opening gifts. 

Pikachu Charm bracelet. 

Simple Ice Cream choices. 

I love how happy Lenna looks here holding Ellie! 

Lenna and some of her awesome friends. The tablecloth was covering a book case still from previous parties, we added balloons and some Pokemon cards to make a place for photos. 

Me and my TEENAGE sister! 

Poke Balls

I found the ornaments at a yard sale, bought 12 for $1. I had all of the paint leftover from previous projects. 

We had some styrofoam balls from Dollar Tree in the craft room too so we painted them as well.

Butterfly Picnic Aunt's Day

Four years ago, I decided that there needed to be an Aunt's day. We have Mother's and Father's Day, but we really wanted to celebrate and thank the aunts in our lives and our children's lives on a special day. since August was usually pretty mild without any holidays, we decided it would be a good month for Aunt's Day. This was our 4th annual Aunt's day. 

We tend to do a play on words with ANT and AUNT to some extent each year. I had lovely butterflies leftover from this bridal shower that I definitely wanted to use. I decided the theme would be a butterfly picnic. A picnic wouldnt be a picnic without the classic ant invasion. The gingham was sort of a last minute idea (apparently I had mentioned it to Tresha but I forgot it until she called to ask pink or red for the cupcakes) but I ended up LOVING it. 

Tresha of Pink Princess Cakes (my BFF so also my daughter's aunt) made these darling cupcakes. 

I brought back the super popular yogurt pretzel butterflies again, and also made flowers too. 

We had sandwiches, fruit and veggies. The table runner on the green table were napkins unfolded and placed in a diamond pattern along the table. 

The table runner was actually a paper table cloth cut in quarters lengthwise (easy to cut as it was folded in quarters that direction). I didnt want it to look too busy with the gingham all over the table, and the gingham tablecloth was pretty spendy, so this worked well. 

At the party store, I found the plates and napkins, perfect with flowers and butterflies on them! I loved the idea of doing more than just the classic red gingham. I had gotten 4 of the little green baskets for the Strawberry Shortcake Party so I just got the yellow and orange to round out the colors. 

The centerpieces were silk flowers from the butterfly Bridal Shower and some fresh flowers from our yard. 

At the party, my aunts, cousins, friends, sisters, mom, mother in law and some of the kids had a great time chatting, eating, and playing games. My mom's cousin came with some games to play and we had some prizes. We played the butterfly clip game from the shower and Scattegories. 

Honeycomb Strawberries

This weekend we are having a Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party for my niece Sophia.

When I found these I knew immediately I could turn them into strawberries.


I de-strung them from the white ribbon and cut the lacy edges off (leaving the hole-punched top section).

I dotted the folded up edges with black Sharpie for seeds

opened up, the seeds are faint but I think it takes the heart look away. 

We had extra stems from another Strawberry project and they seemed to work well at the top. I cut a little slit in the middle and slid the hole punched section through.

I had to fold the curling ribbon to fit it through the hole.

All done. 

we opted to string them individually so we had more flexibility on where to hang them rather than a garland as they came. Planning this party we are realizing how easily a heart turns into a strawberry!

cost: 3.75 for a string of 7 hearts
we got 2 strings

These will look great hanging all over the back yard at the Strawberry Shortcake Party.