Bowling Bash Party -7yr- At Home Bowling Games

For my son's 7th birthday he wanted a bowling party. I didn't want to just go to a bowling alley we decided to make it a sleepover and go to the bowling alley first and then back home to do more games and crafts.

For the invitations I made a bowling bag envelope by drawing a retro shaped bowling bag and tracing it onto red cardstock. I then cut two of these out and taped them together with double stick tape. I cut out a black handle and an oblong half circle to add to the bag to make it look more realistic. I also made a round label with pins and a ball and a wrote there name in dashed lines to look like it was stitched onto the bag. I found clipart of a bowling ball and put the following party information. Hope you can SPARE the time to STRIKE up some fun at Logan's 7th Birthday! Date, Time, Location were underneath. Then I added There will be a sleepover before you SPLIT! Don't STRIKE OUT RSVP today! I printed this on heavy cardstock and cut it out and put in the bowling bag. It turned out really cute.

I made matching bowling bag tote bags with colored totes and fabric paint. I also made T-shirts with colored tees to match the totes and iron-on transfers. I found the t-shirt iron-on on Hewlett Packert website. We will be going to the bowling alley for two games.

The first a regular game and the second a game of crazy bowling. I put several different ways to bowl (between legs, left hand, eyes closed, tiptoe, spin around, balanced on one foot, etc.) I printed these on bowling pins and put them in a mini bowling bag a small gift bag with the bowling bag envelope from the invitations taped onto it to look like mini bowling bag. Afterwards we will be returning home for the rest of the party, pizza and cake.

Bowling game/activites at home: Make bowling frames from wooden craft spoons (pins) and wooden circle (bowling balls). We are going to paint them and glue onto paper mache frames. What's in the bag? Fill a real bowling bag with bowling ball, shoes, chalk, glove, wristband, towel, scoresheet, bowing pin, etc. memorize what's in the bag for 30 seconds then have to write it down. Could also memorize then take one item away and tell what's missing from the bag.

Next we are going to do games:

Bowling Relay: Race to one end get bowling pin (between knees or elbows no hands allowed), when all pins and ball are back, set up and bowl until bowl a strike.

Line Bowling: Instead of setting up the pins in a triangular pattern, set them up in a long row. Let one player roll a ball to knock over a pin. If the player is successful, let him or her go again. If not, the line is reset and the turn moves to another player. Whoever knocks the objects over, one by one, wins.

Bowling  Bingo: Use sheet from dklt.com. Cut out bowling balls and pins (or find bowling confetti) for game pieces.

Speed bowl: See which team can knock down the most pins and set them up and knock over again in 2 minutes.

Slide bowling: Set up pins or use water bottle as pins and slide a bean bag to knock them over. Do 10 rounds and add up each round.

Twister bowling: Use a twister board-put bowling pins on different colors.

Spin wheel. If you get left hand red bowl with left hand and see how many red pins you can knock over. Left foot red-bowling standing on left foot only and see how many red, etc.

Dice bowling: Use 6 pins, roll the gaint dice and have to knock over that many pins in one try. If you do it, you get the score you rolled (or one point for your team-however you choose to do it). We will have WII bowling tournament-I'm going to make winner brackets. I found a printable score sheet, so I'm going to write the name of each of the above games on the scoresheet.

The cake will be an ice cream cake bowling ball. I'm going to put a layer of chocolate ice cream, hot fudge and oreos crushed up and a layer of vanilla ice cream then ice and decorate like a bowling ball.

Favors: T-shirts, canvas tote painted like bowling bag filled with glow sticks, bubbles, playdough, bowling ball cookie in cellophane bag with ribbon, bowling pin sippers filled with candy, bowling frame that they made, bowling stickers. It's been a lot of work, but I think it will be a blast!