As I return to the web to plan my son's SECOND pokemon party, I thought I'd share a few ideas from last year (when he turned 5). I made 12" flat paper pokeballs on cardstock and mounted them on wooden spikes lining the driveway, welcoming the guests to the party. When they arrived they were given a coloring book (copies of downloadable coloring pages, word searches, mazes in a black three ring folder). Using pre-cut pokeball pieces they glued together a pokeball on the cover, added their name and decorated with a variety of pokemon stickers.  We had a great treasure hunt using 2'-3' high pokemon characters I'd made and painted on foam core.  THey were all around the yard and each had a clue, which, if answered correctly, would lead to the next pokemon.  The final clue led to a homemade pokeball pinata which the boys then attacked as if on the soccer field!  The characters (pokemon and guests) were lined up later for photos which became the thank you notes. We lucked out on the goodie bags as our local KMart was going out of business. I found pokemon gum, crayons, pencils and more. Supplemented with the Dollar Store, the kids went home with quite a haul. I've also made bingo a birthday staple by customizing it to the theme. I took a set of pokemon stickers that were in squares, scanned and enlarged them on the computer. I cut them up and made 8 different bingo cards, which I had laminated. Additional images were laminated, in a bigger size, for the caller to use and show to the group (in case kids didn't know who they were).  I also put the names on these larger cards in case an un-knowing adult was doing the calling! Our cake was an ice cream cake from Friendly's with edible pokemon image. I did the poke-ball cupcakes for school. So, here I go again! Fortunately the characters and the bingo game are still intact.