Our city holds their annual Independence Day celebrations the day before the official holiday. The fireworks from this celebration can be seen from my back yard. Instead of dealing with the crowds at the official party we hold our own and invite our friends to join us. Originally we decked the yard out in the red, white, and blue decor typical of patriotic events. A few years back we decided to try some different themes. This year’s theme was Pokemon.
Before we get to the “fun” stuff I’d like to point out some helpful products we used to minimize the amount of trash we made at the party. We used regular cutlery like we outlined in this post. We also had compostable wooden cutlery (also mentioned in the linked post) as backup. One of the highlights of our party is the ice cream my husband makes. We portion it out before the event to streamline serving the 30-50 people who drift in and out that night. This year we found and used these compostable cups with lids and they worked very well. All of our compost goes to Roots Compost and we prepare them for the overflow we have on special occasions. We used paper straws and reusable cups that I washed and stored away for next year. Everything that could be recycled was and everything that could be composted also was.
I try to make some fun decorative foods for people to try. This year I ordered small edible images for cupcakes and I found a picture on Pinterest from this blog of yellow peep bunnies made to look like Pikachu. I also ordered Pokemon gum.
I really should have used a bit more icing on my cupcakes but it was so hot that I didn’t want a huge mess. The peeps were decorated using melting wafers and I did not bother making them into pops as the original link did but they were extremely popular and very easy. The hardest part was finding peep bunnies off season.
Photo props are always fun for parties. I ordered a bunch of masks for the guests to play with and we made a prop card with the picture part cut out.
The one decoration I worked the hardest on was the collection of paper lanterns. I had seen a pin of Pokemon lanterns and decided I needed to give them a try. I found a pack of paper lanterns in assorted sizes and colors and picked Pokemon that were naturally those colors. My daughter let me borrow her Pokemon book for inspiration.
The night was beautiful and the guests enjoyed finding the various Pokemon out “in the wild.” We’re also fortunate that there are a number of stops within walking distance from our home so everyone could manage their daily spin and catch during the festivities. If only trading and friends had been implemented then!
