Mother and Daddy-O accompanied me on a mission to scope out the bowling alley earlier in the week. While I took pictures, Mother measured the tables and Daddy-O hid behind a napkin dispenser and pretended he didn’t know us. The employees approached us with a glimmer in their eye to inquire if “we were from corporate and measuring for new furniture.” hahaahaha!!!!! At any rate, a roll of striped wrapping paper and bunch of balloons went a long way towards turning the regular old bowling alley staples into a festive affair. I mean, considering what I had to work with I think it turned out pretty cute :-)
Most all of the party ware came from Party City. I made all of the stickers, labels and invitations.
I made the bowling pin cookies earlier in the week and baked them with sticks inserted into the backs of each one. I iced them white and cut pull apart Twizzlers to make the stripes. I gently pressed them into the wet icing and they held just fine. The black gumball “bowling balls” were a lucky find in the 80% off Halloween clearance bucket at Michael’s. I had Publix make the cupcakes since I was so tied up with the making of the cookies.
We decorated the three tables the same way we did the cake table – with wrapping paper table clothes and balloons.
I made little activity books for the down time and the boys had a great time with them. I’m pretty sure we would have had some swinging from the light fixtures by the end of the party if we didn’t have these to occupy those last twenty minutes. Personalized and non-personalized versions of these activity books are available in my etsy shop!
Even the ball return was decorated with a pennant banner reading “John is 7!”
Mother was a complete doll (as usual) and made these darling shirts for all the boys. It took me ten trips to Michael’s to buy them all with 40% off coupons but made for a precious party favor at under $3 a piece TOTAL. Now that we’ve reached an age where some party goers are dropped off, I also wanted to be sure all of our boys were easy to spot in the bowling alley. These turquoise shirts did just that!
After singing “Happy Birthday” and blowing out his sparkler candle, the littles settled down for cake and ice cream! Mother stamped wooden spoons with Js and we tied those to the tops of ice cream cups with a couple of strands of striped twine.
Sources:
Invitations - my etsy shop
Personalized and non-personalized activity books - my etsy shop
Polka dot and 7 balloons – Party City
Red and white wrapping paper cut to table clothes – Party City
Striped popcorn boxes – Oriental Trading
Red buckets – Party City (saved from the baby’s Mickey Mouse party)
Polka dot napkins – Party City
Plates, cutlery and paper cups – Dollar Tree
Polks dot tissue paper – Hobby Lobby (also saved from the baby’s Mickey Mouse Party)
Cake stands – Martha Stewart line from Macy’s (I’ve had them for a few years but think they still carry them.)
#7 sparkler candle – Party City
Red star balloons – Dollar Tree
Glass bottles (filled with marshmallows) – Ikea (I use these a lot for serving water at parties.)
Striped straws – Pick Your Plum
Bowling pin cookie cutter – CheapCookieCutters.com
Wooden ice cream spoons – Michael’s
I’m so glad that Sister reminded us to take a family pic before we left!!! As always, I couldn’t have pulled this shin dig off without help from her, Mother, Daddy-O and Honey.
As soon as we got home, the PCP requested to open his gifts on the porch. He faired well with all sorts of legos and beyblades and books and gift cards and toys and even a slime making kit!
It was a splendid celebration honoring one of my most favorite kids in the world :-) I’m off to bed…feeling exceedingly grateful for the last six years and thankful that I’ve got a couple more weeks to get used to the number “SEVEN”!!
xoxo
Flattered for the feature at House of Hepworths!
Find me at: My and My Insanity and The CSI Project
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