Markku's 7th Pokeman Birthday!

Last weekend, on May 12 Markku turned 7! We had a truly fantastic birthday party on Saturday-it was a combined party with one of Markku's friends, named Zane, who also was born on May12. It was held at Zane's house and both his parents and Heikki and I planned it all out! The friends are very creative people and so we had some personalized poke balls and we each had  a T-shirt with our own pokeman character! We invited half the world, so it was a rather large gathering of 6-8 yr olds...in other words-really chaotic but fun! 

 Here we are, minus Kai as he was napping, with our mascot, Pikachu piñata. There is a rather amusing story that goes along with this ridiculously large, irregular shaped Pikachu. Natalie and I spent hours looking all around Austin party stores for a Pokeman Pinata. We were sent store to store to no avail, until someone suggested a rather authentic piñata store on South Congress. It was all piñatas, all this gigantic size for $24! I had filled it with 6 pounds of candy and it barely filled him half way!

 This is another photo op spot with our personalized poke ball

 And here are the birthday boys!

 And their cakes-of course we had to have two!

 

 

There were several stations set up with games to keep everyone busy and having fun. We had Pokeball "Beer Pong without the beer" 

 And we had Hot pokeball (basically hot potato)

And another game where they had to flip chips into a disk and see who got closest to the center. And lastly there was a game where you had to guess the number of pokeman cards in a jar. 

 And here is a photo of the party guests!  Whew I am still exhausted from keeping these kids entertained and out of trouble for 3 hours!

 Cake time!

 Of course we had to have our piñata as well! I will miss my friend Pikachu, who spent a week living with us! It took the kids two rounds and then the adults to finally break him up!

 In case you were wondering, Kai did make it to the party once he woke up from his nap. He came just in time for cake and presents!

 Many, many thanks to Natalie and Darin! We could not have ever had such a fun, creative birthday without their help!

 

 

 Happy 7th birthday Markku!

Of course we then celebrated his true birthday on Sunday, at Mummo and Ukki's house. It was Mother's day as well. A full busy weekend for us all! Markku got twister for his birthday, and it was a huge hit. Suvi especially loved it! She was just about standing on her head in this shot!

Of course you can't have a birthday without cake. More cake! This time cake balls made by Mummo and Suvi!

 Markku got so many gifts this year since he had a huge party! One of my favorites is this Ukulele Aunt Jenn got him!

Of course one of his favorites is this bow and arrow set.

But the best gift of all time (according to Markku) is his new pet Spike the Crested Gecko.

 

Spike is well love by Suvi and Kai as well. Kai is just so excited to see him! It is funny because every morning and the minute we get home from school or wherever we may have been, Markku  rushes  up to get Spike out of his cage. He will play with him for hours. Allie cat is also very interested in our new friend. I am hoping she doesn't ever get the chance to get too close!