4543

Bowling Party -6yr- Birthday Bowling Trophy

July 2002

Mara in Albuquerque, NM

Honorable Mention

Bowling Party!!!  After having gone bowling with her Kindergarten class, my daughter wanted me to take her and her friends bowling for her 6th birthday. 

INVITATIONS: The invitations were made out of construction paper with a bowling ball striking a bowling pin.  On the front:  In your spare time, come have a ball at (name)'s birthday bash!

LOCATION: We had the party at the local bowling alley.  We invited 20 kids, 17 came.  It was quite hectic, but my daughter had a blast. 

DECORATIONS:  The bowling alley provided us with several long tables and chairs and we decorated the area ourselves.  We used red tablecloths to cover the tables.  We tied helium balloons in different colors to the chairs.  We made them look like bowling balls by coloring in three dots on the side of each balloon. 

We bought several inexpensive oversized bowling sets and tied several balloons to each bowling pin.  These were used as center pieces.  My daughter was given a real bowling pin as a party favor, which all the kids signed as they came in.  We bought plates and cups with a bowling theme, these really brought everything together nicely.  

ACTIVITIES:  The kids were allowed two hours of bowling.  They played two games (about an hour and a half).  Since all the kids were between 5 and 7, I didn't want to make things too competitive. Each child got to keep his/her score card.  To liven things up, we had everyone take a turn rolling the ball in between the birthday child's legs.  This proved difficult, because the kids couldn't see.  We also had the kids bowl backwards. 

After that, they became very creative and started bowling in all different ways.  The video is a riot to watch. During the second game, the kids were allowed to "bowl in the dark".  They had a blast because everything glows in the dark.  They walked around smiling so they could see each other's teeth glow in the dark.  It was so much fun to see their enthusiasm! 

FOOD: After it was all over, we sat down and ate pizza.  Then we sang happy birthday.  Since we invited so many people, I made cupcakes for the kids--I frosted them with dark purple frosting, since black would have been too eerie.  I also made a bowling ball-shaped cake and a cake shaped like a bowling pin. I found some bowling candles (6 bowling pins and a ball); I set them up on the bowling pin.  They looked just adorable!  I bought gumballs which I stacked in pyramids around the cakes simulating bowling balls. 

GOODIE BAGS: Party favors were a little difficult to find, so each child got a plastic trophy with a homemade label that read:  Winner/ (name)'s Bowling Birthday Bash/ and the date. They also got bowling stickers, glow-in-the-dark bouncing balls, gumballs, a mini bag of M&Ms, and a plastic bowling pin with balloons(from the tables).

THANK YOU CARDS: I made the thank you cards on the computer, since it was less time consuming.  They looked very much like the homemade invitations, but on the front I wrote:  Thank you for making my birthday party a STRIKE!  Then I had my daughter write a little message for each person. I included a picture of all the party guests with the lanes as the background, and a picture of each child with my daughter.

The kids had a lot of fun bowling and being silly.  Even though it was a little hectic because we had to decorate, I loved that I didn't have to worry about cleaning up, or cooking.  All I had to worry about was the cake.

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