Pokemon Party!!

And then, after all the Halloween and the Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hannukah and New Year's, it was time to throw a birthday party.  My darling twins had turned 11.  ELEVEN! Happily, I was still able to get them to agree on a party theme. (I know my days are numbered for this.)

Happily, there were lots of ideas on Pinterest for me to use (my board is here).  I started with these cute DIY Pokeballs.  They turned out well and were a big hit, but they did NOT take 10 minutes, as promised.

For prizes, I got this huge lot of 144 Pokemon figures, these Pokemon bracelets, and some packs of cards that kids could draw from a bag.

Next up were Pokeball cupcakes,Pikachu pops (the kids helped with those), and other snacks.

Then it was time to decorate. I found the printable birthday banner here.  The kids added some homemade artwork, which was a cute touch.

Once our guests arrived (18 of them! in our tiny house on a rainy day! ack!), we started playing some games.  First up, a Pokemon Race to see whose floating Pokemon could cross the finish line first.

Then, it was time for a neat STEM activity to Hatch Your Own Pokemon Egg.

We also played Pass the Pokemon (this year's Hot Potato, thanks to a stuffed Drillbur).

Time for cupcakes and birthday singing!

Sadly, we never got to use these very cute Pokemon Bingo cards.  I also had Pokemon Billiards at the ready, but we honestly didn't have the space, and by this time the kids were all hopped up on cupcakes and were having Nerf battles and a snowball fight, not to mention all the Pokemon trading. And Beanboozled -- what a game that was.  (I regret trying to be one of the cool kids.)

 

Happy birthday, my sweeties.  May this be the year that you catch them all.

Love, Mommy

4/04 - Happy smiles through hunger and rain

Happy thinks fighting childhood hunger is a good thing.

We had a very dramatic drive home, with pouring rain and sun so bright the road gleamed like diamonds.

Lil' Guy did his best bouncing Scraggy imitation with my pants.

3/24 - Rainbow Dash joins a gang

I found 2 Pokemon cards in my coat pocket – Pansage and Drifloon! Rainbow Dash was really happy to have some friends to play with while I’m having a busy busy week.

3/19 - Buzz Lightyear asks Woody, "Which card do I have?"

But then Phanpy squirted some water in Woody’s eyes so he couldn’t give Buzz the answer.  Sillies!

3/18 - Phanpy goes for a swim

(Phanpy was very annoyed that I called him Flail yesterday! That is his special power, not his name!)

A coworker gave me a nice skull cup and some pretend cold coins for my desk’s pirate collection.  Phanpy thought he’d take a little dip.  Lucky for him, the cup was empty.  Pokemon cards should not get wet!

3/17 - Flail joins a pirate crew

Pirates have taken over my new desk!  (They are happy to be out of their box.)
They recruited Flail, who offered to use his trunk for backup cannon duty.
Yarrrrr!!!

2/28 - Oshawott and Pidove meet a mouse and twin baby pandas

All from the excitement of our home...  First, baby panda twins arrived in the mail from Grandmother (thank you!).

 Then, they tried to make friends with the mouse by my laptop, but he was working and could not play.

2/27 - Keeping Pidove off the statue

We went for a work lunch at an upscale Chinese place, and the first thing Pidove wanted to do was sit on this giant statue.  (No!)

We did like the looks of our fortune.  And given the rain we've had lately, it should happen soon!

The renovation project finally reached my team.  We will be sitting in temporary spots until the rest of the floor is remodeled, and then we'll move to our final location.  No idea where my desk will be on Monday!

2/25 - Pidove is ready to fly the coop

The people on this part of my floor have moved to different desks while the renovation project is taking place.  Pidove and I went to check it out. We saw deskless desks, flocks of office chairs, and all kinds of moving things with wheels.

Pidove wanted to have hand-truck races, but I wanted to nap in the big boxes.

Instead, we went back to work.

2/24 - Pidove, take a note!

For a birdbrain, Pidove is actually pretty good at taking meeting minutes.  Of course, his handwriting looks like pigeon scratch...

2/14 - Kabuto finds a lotta love

Love balloons, that is.  They are having a fundraiser at work to help the American Heart Association, and people on my floor are assembling these “heart grams.”  They come with big boxes of candy, which is not especially heart-healthy, but is especially tasty.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

1/08 - Pikachu gets a lift

One of the joys of working from home is that you can wear whatever you want.  Which today, for me, was my skates.  :)

5/10 - Dexter and the Pottymon

Dexter went looking for Pokémon with me today.  We found these driving into the BART parking lot – probably for tomorrow’s Rodeo Parade.  Pottymon!!  Gotta catch ‘em all!  Er...  No!!!

Here, Dexter found some Poké Balls in the city.  The dogs tried to tell us they were toys for them, but Dexter was not fooled.

3/29 - Headless Yoshi is ready for a break

Spring Break, that is!  So am I.  (Both somewhat headless and ready for a break, that is.)  Look at my nice clean desk.  Now, let's get outta here before more work piles up on it!

 Lil' Guy got a new Pokemon friend.  Many thanks to ‏@MichaelJSealy for helping identify it as Axew.  #phew!