The thunder is being really rumbly outside right now, so I really hope that the power doesn't go out in the middle of my writing this...
Today we celebrated A.J.'s birthday with his bowling party at Leopard Lanes. Yes, his birthday was 26 days ago, and yes, today was actually
Dad's birthday, but well... that's just the way things worked out. A.J. decided a while back that he wanted to go bowling for his birthday because he was really, really wanting Dad to be there, and bowling is one sport that Dad really likes to do. However, we've still got some time before Dad is due back home, and we just didn't want to wait that much longer for A.J.'s big bash.
So again, his party was today at Leopard Lanes here in Bellevue. He gave out Madagascar party invitations to his entire class on Tuesday, and the party was this afternoon at 1:30pm. He was so excited! A.J. had only been bowling one time before, and that was almost 3 years ago when we were visiting Grammy and Papa George in West Virginia. He was Jack's age then, basically. And of course, Jack had never been bowling before, so he was practically bouncing off the walls to get going.
Heather called this morning around 9am. She was at Wal*Mart and she checked to see if A.J.'s cake happened to be ready (it wasn't due to be until 11am). It was, so the boys and I headed out the door (already dressed, bathed and showered by that time - amazing for a Sunday morning since we usually laze around and go to the 11am service) and went to pick up
the cake. While we were there, we picked up some candy, some more things for the goodie bags and some socks - in case anyone forgot to wear socks and needed a pair for their bowling shoes. By the time we got there, Heather was pretty much done with her shopping and she checked out while we were finishing up. We all then decided to have breakfast at IHOP next door (and we took the cake inside so it wouldn't melt in the car), and we were there for a good while.
After breakfast, we came home and A.J. and I sat at the dining room table and assembled the goodie bags (nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?). Each Madagascar baggie contained the following: four kinds of assorted chocolate candy, a noisemaker, a sheet of stickers, a wobble penguin, a trading card, a character straw, a finger bowling pin game (ten little pins and two marbles packed in adorable little cases!) and an animal koosh®-y thing. Each guest also received a plastic Madagascar cup to keep (we had themed disposable ones for the party). We packed everything up nicely and made two extra goodie bags and cups for surprise guests - just in case. We had a big
inflatable palm tree to blow up (Madagascar has beaches, after all - don't believe me? Just look at the
picture!), so I loaded up my vacuum cleaner into the van so that I could use it to blow up the tree once we got to the bowling alley. The boys then helped to load everything else into the car. I grabbed the ice cream last thing, and then we were off to Nobbies to pick up the balloons.
We ran in quickly to grab the balloons (already paid for - nice and fast!), and then we were finally on our way to the bowling alley. The party planner had told me I could come in at 1pm and start setting up, but we arrived at 12:30, and they went ahead and let us in. I started by blowing up the palm tree, and Heather arrived and joined me right about that time. She set to work on the streamers, and I put A.J. in charge of making a place setting for each of his guests. Speaking of guests, they started trickling in a bit early just about then.
A.J. was in heaven. As it turns out, we did have a surprise guest, so I was glad that I had made an extra goodie bag or two. I'd only met one of A.J.'s friends before, but all of the rest were so nice and so well-behaved. And I was especially glad when A.J.'s new friend - the boy we just met at the park on Friday evening - did indeed show up for the party! (We invited him on a whim while at the park fishing, told his mom the location and time of the party, and then had to leave, barely knowing each other's names, even!) Altogether, A.J.'s guests were these kids: Christopher, Shelby, Jade, Christian, Derek, Angelica, Drew, Michael and, of course, Jack. :-)
Heather was in charge of getting the food and drinks for everyone in the party, and I made small-talk with the kids in the meantime. We had a bag of miniature candy as well, and the kids had no problems scarfing several pieces of that down while waiting on their sodas and hot dogs or chicken nuggets.
Annie arrived a bit before the food was ready, and then she helped to shuffle things back and forth get shoes for the kids while they were eating.
When the "lunch" food was gone, it was time for cake and ice cream!
A.J. looks at his cake while we sing 'Happy Birthday' to him.Once everyone was finished, we cleared the party table and A.J. began opening some of his gifts while Heather helped the kids to get the right size bowling shoes on. He was a very gracious in receiving his gifts, and I was so thankful that he made each guest really feel like they had picked out something wonderful for him (though they each really had!). He opened his friend Angelica's present first - she gave him some packs of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, but she also included Madagascar lion masks for everyone at the party! What a cool gift!
A.J. dons his mask (while Jade and Angelica stand close by).And I was so proud of him - he took the time
to read each and every one of
the cards he received before moving on the either the gift or the next thing. I think taking time for the cards always makes the giver feel a bit more special. :-)
Finally, it was time to BOWL! (Jack had been asking - no joke! - every minute, "Can I go bowl now, Mom?") Annie finished clearing the party room for me, and she helpfully loaded everything into my van before she had to leave. That was wonderful - we had to be out of the party room by 3pm so that another group could use it, but I needed to be out in the lanes with the kids. I divided the kids into two groups of five, and we bowled on the two bumper lanes. About half of the kids had bowled before; one even had his own shoes and bowling ball.
The bowling took some time, of course, but the kids seemed to absolutely LOVE playing the game. Some of the passes went so slowly down the lane that, even though they did knock down pins, the machines didn't register their turns. Oftentimes, one kid would get to roll the ball down the lane 3 or 4 times before the machine finally understood that their "2" turns were up, causing the kids to get more chances and more strikes than
I ever could in a regular game with regular rules. *wink*
A.J. runs up for his second frame.Though Jack was the youngest player by 3 years, he was the first one in the group to score a strike... and he got it the RIGHT way (many strikes were made throughout the game, but some of them were actually 2 or 3-roll strikes, meaning that the machines just weren't registering the light 'tap' of the kids' passes). He cried when he had to give up the ball after his first frame, but he was okay once I rubbed his back and explained to him that all the kids on his team would have to take turns each time and that he still had 9 turns left. He ended up bowling an even 100 for his very first game - I was quite impressed. Jack scored the highest on his team, and he was seconded by A.J. with a score of 98. On the other team, Christian topped the scores with a 118, while Christoper lagged behind just 1 point at 117 (and he's the one with his own ball). We lost 3 kids during the game because their parents had to take them home, but those that made it to the end seemed really happy with their games.
** Interesting tidbit: Though the bowling alley was called 'Leopard Lanes,' the things that come down to clear each lane had banners across them that read 'Cougar Lanes.' Hmmm...And the parents could have been just telling me so to make me feel good, but several of them said their kid had just told them it was the "best party" they'd ever been to when I was thanking them for coming. I was so happy to hear that - altogether, this party was kinda thrown together at the last minute, but it seems that everyone enjoyed it just the same.
Even if they had to wait in between turns...
Jack waits patiently for his next turn.*wink*
(And if you're so inclined, the rest of the party pictures can be found
HERE.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
