For my son's fifth birthday, we originally both wanted a pirate party held at a local swim park that had a pirate ship in the middle surrounded by animal slides and sprinklers.  However, six months prior he became enthralled with Pokemon and changed his mind.  At first I was not too happy about this idea since pirate parties are so cute and Pokemon was too generic, but of course I agreed especially since I thought it would be easier to put together.  I was wrong.  It is sooo hard to find Pokemon items unless you go on line and even then party favors are rather limited and expensive. Plus, the area I live in thinks poorly of Pokemon. I know of only 3 children, including my own that likes it.  Yet, another reason, I tried to sway him from this party. Luckily, I had six months to look around for items. Our local party store had decorations, table clothes, candles, stickers, and napkins on sale for fifty cents each so I bought them out of all these items. My sister lives in Houston and her son was also having a Pokmeon party the month prior, so she found plates and invitations for me at one of her stores.  Thus for INVITATIONS I was simple this year and sent out store bought one. I usually like sending keepsakes to get the children in the mood, but since no one really likes Pokemon here I kept it simple this year.  We held the party had the YMCA's family fun center for a nomial fee for 20 kids. The place is wonderful and has a 9 course putt-putt range, tumbling matts, basketball nets, scooters, ping-pong, bowling, balls, etc. Perfect place for kids of all ages (adults to babies too). DECORATIONS were simple store bought items.  I planned on using 6 plastic table cloths with butcher paper Pokemon critters on it for added splash of drama and color that could dual as another game such as ball toss or pin the tail, but the Y is so action packed that games were not needed.  THe party was from 7 to 9 at night, thus I saved on food and went with the traditional CAKE and ice cream.  I made one cake for the adults and decorated with my son's Pokemon toys and I purchased another from a local bakery for the kids and decorated with more of his Pokemon. ACTIVITIES were again limited since they had so much to do at the Y. I started with two crafts: a coloring station of internet Pokemon coloring pages and a build your own Pokemon using pom-poms.  This did not go over well.  Not one child did this - again because of location. I did re-use the coloring sheets as thank you though.  I wrote the thank you on top and left the page blank for them to color. After we had cake and opened presents. I went to hand out their party favors and found a note from Team Rocket saying that they stole our prizes.  Thus for our first GAME we had to go on a hunt for clues to find our prizes.  While the kids were out looking for the prizes, I had miniture plastic golf balls that I had the parents hide in the room.  Once we found the prizes, I held up one of the balls and told them it was a Pokemon ball and that they had to find 4 and throw it at the 2 Pokemon pinatas. The kids loved all those games.  After they retrieved their balls a second time, we were ready for the pinatas. Ever since my son's 3rd birthday, I have 2.  This cuts down on the wait time and hopefully, gives everyone a chance to hit it.  I could not find any actual Pokemon pinatas so I used a left over tiger one from my youngest son's birthday (his first birthday was rescheduled since his brother came down with pnemonia and by then it was nearly Christmas so we had only one guest show up & no need for a pinata.) The second one I made into some critter.  Looked cute enough that my son wants me to make another.  Inside I took ziplock snack bags and filled with a simple toy & candy so that each child could receive a prize.  Then I also filled the pinatas with additional candy, jelly bracelets, toy dollars, and pokemnon cards found 10 for a dollar at a garage sale - I bought 30.  The kids had a blast and several opportunities to hit the pinatas, plus each child was able to get candy without any hurt feelings. Party favors included pinata treats, a glow in the dark star badge for being good Pokemon trainers, play doh, balloons, Pokemon stickers, and bubbles. Since not very many of the kids are into Pokemon, I tried to steer away from such prizes (plus there aren't any) with the exception of the good deal on got on the stickers and cards.  THANK YOUs are the left over coloring sheet and a Pokemon Master certificate.  I hope this helps. This party was very stress free since I had little to do, very fun for the children, and somewhat inexpensive. Good Luck since it is a tough one to find things for in party stores or in my favorite catalogues (Oriental Trading and Birthday Express).