My husband and I have been trying to come up with something to do for my son's birthday party in a month's time. We can invite friends to the house, which we do for at least one of the two children, or we can select a location that can host a few or a lot of children. When they're young, the choices are limited and in most cases, whatever you do needs to account for the additional headcount of the adult(s) that will be there with their very small child. Oh, and ideally you don't want it to be something one of their classmates did for their birthday party only a few weeks prior.
We were thinking things over when we got an invitation to one of my son's classmate's parties and I thought, "that was perfect, why did't I think of it?" This child's party is a mere two weeks prior to my son's and the children attending will largely be the same. So back to the internet and some more thinking.
We'd been considering a bowling birthday party but came upon another idea that ended up being what we went with: something inside, accommodates large numbers of children and their adults and is quite reasonable in price. I didn't think too hard about it, I booked the venue. (It's an indoor playground).
Back to bowling though... My only hesitation was that we had no idea if my son even liked bowling. What if he hated it and we'd just planned an entire party with his peers at a bowling alley. Even though we'd booked his party location, we decided to try out bowling with the kids for an hour this afternoon.
They got the shoes, picked out balls balls way too heavy for them (because color is more important than weight when you're three) and were ready to bowl. My daughter liked the slippery shoes and did this sliding dance thing for a while in the lane beside us.
My son really liked the ramp thing they brought for us that he could roll the ball down. They liked hitting the pins. They didn't care how many they hit down. They didn't care who was winning. My daughter wanted to put the heavy balls on top of the roller thing, but she couldn't carry them well (the ones half her weight, in particular) and would drop them. I really though there was a significant chance we'd leave the bowling alley to go to the doctor to get a foot x-ray for broken toes but we lucked out.
Twenty balls is a lot of balls in weight and movement for small children. They very much liked the entire experience, but one game is enough for three-year-olds.
My husband and I felt strange too. We used to play in leagues in that bowling alley. We didn't have our balls or our shoes and we had both forgotten a lot of our form. I don't think I've bowled since I was pregnant with my son, so it's been over five years.
The Big Boy Update: My son was adamant he was going to lift the heaviest bowling ball (my husband's) and carry it over to the ramp, hoist it up and roll it down. He did it too.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter liked to, "chin bowl." She would put the bowling ball up on the ramp and then not push it down for some reason. My husband would check on her to find her with her face right up against the ball (it was pretty much at head height). She would gently roll it down using her face.
Fitness Update: This isn't exercise so much as it's an observation. When I bowled before I used a light bowling ball. My friend used a heavy ball for a woman and I always wondered how she did it. Today, I picked up my husband's much heavier ball and decided I liked it much better than the one I'd selected. I suppose all that working out has made a difference over time.
No comments:
Post a Comment