Let me get one thing straight: I wish I’d never heard of Pokemon. My kids have been obsessed with the little creatures for months and I still don’t really get the appeal. But Justin wanted a Pokemon birthday party, so I did some research and came up with some pretty cool (yet cheap) games and decor.

My first rule of party planning: thou shall steal all good ideas available online. I copied the basic invitation from somewhere and just added my own text to it:

My second rule of party planning: thou shall frequent dollar stores. I bought red and white plastic tablecloths and a black streamer to make the table look like a Pokeball. And since I have no talent at all for cake decorating, I made simple cupcake toppers (one side was a Pokeball, the other had different characters) that some of the kids actually chose to take home. One boy asked me to wipe the chocolate off his cupcake topper so he could keep it. Wow.

We got lucky in that it was a beautiful day and the kids could go crazy on the trampoline. I shudder to think of what would have happened if all that energy had been trapped inside my house. In between trampoline sessions, we played a few games:

• Capture the Pokemon, which involved the kids throwing Pokeballs (Styrofoam balls painted to look like the real thing) into their opponent’s bin.
• Pass the Pokemon, which was basically Hot Potato but with a Pokemon stuffy
• Pokemon bingo (I found the cards online, printed them out and had a friend laminate them for me)

After games it was time for snacks and cake, and then I set them loose just trading their Pokemon cards. I gave each kid a goody bag filled with a Pokeball bouncy ball, a Pokemon notebook and a Pokemon sticker sheet (all of which I ordered online), plus a few trading cards. I also gave each kid a personalized Pokemon card — there’s a website that lets you upload photos and customize the whole card, so I had the parents send me photos of the kids beforehand so I could make the cards.

A highly successful party!