You may recall that I posted about Little Boy's Train Party and Girl 1's Camping Party and how frugal both events were. I'm afraid I cannot say the same for this little shindig. In fact, it's hard for me to find anything "homestead-y" about this party at all. Still, I did posts on the other two kids' parties, so what kind of mother would I be if I didn't do the same for this little stinker?
That smile right there is what every mother is after when she sets out to plan her child's party. I can't believe she's already 7-YEARS-OLD!!
2 things made this party more expensive than, say, Little Boy's.
1. We had to pay for the venue. Unlike a party at home, that only costs you the elbow grease involved in making it presentable, renting 4 lanes at the bowling alley for 3 hours, ain't cheap. BUT, we've had a lot going on around here, and rolled in from family vacation the day before this party. A party at home was absolutely out of the question.
2. We served a meal. My number one way to cut down on a party's expense is to schedule it at a time when a meal is not expected and you can get away with serving just cake and ice cream. Because of the bowling alley's hours, though, this was unavoidable. We ordered carryout and took pizza with us to the alley.
So, it may not have been cheap, but this party did have a lot going for it. For one thing, it was exactly what Girl 2 wanted. She's bowled on her PawPaw's Wii and was pretty sure she'd be good at the real thing. You should've seen the look on her face when she realized the bowling balls were heavy! Ha!
Also, putting this party together was crazy easy. Order a cake and pizza, pick up a few decorations and ice cream, blow up a few balloons, and you're ready to party. And, a party that's much more about the experience than the decorations is right up this girl's alley. She was way more concerned with hanging with her pals than with anything else.
I guess I could provide one little frugal tip. We do this for all our parties. In fact, I get ready to blow up balloons and Girl 2 goes to get the rocks. To create these balloon weights (that are actually cuter than the ones you'd buy at the store), I cut off the end of two different colors of disposable tablecloths. I knew the cloths would be too long for the bowling alley tables anyway, so this was a way to make use of the excess.
We just wrap up the rock and decorate it with some curly ribbon.
Here, Girl 2 is showing off her balloon weights. :)
Rather than a bag full of candy, each party guest received one super-cool ball that lights up when it bounces.
Little Boy and PawPaw get in on the bowling action!
What was most enjoyable to me about the party was that these kiddos are now old enough to understand bowling, but most of them had never done it before. It was neat to watch them discover it and see them having so much fun together!