Kids Bowling Birthday Party

My daughter celebrated her 7th birthday with a bowling party!  

Here are a few pictures of what we did to make the day special.

Bowling ball and pin sugar cookies -
packaged to stay fresh and go home with the guests.

Bowling pin cups (purchased through a party supply store).
They were personalized with paint pens and I added ribbon
to help give a little celebration look.
Many of the bowlers at the party site asked me about these!!

I ordered a fun shirt for her to wear.

The cake!  All frosting decoration with sugar cookies on top.

The cake with candles.

The cake with candles.

Lots of goodies for the guests!

Bowling frame craft (to go with the picture they would get with their thank-you card.

A special keepsake.

Don't forget a group picture!

Bowling trophy (from party supply store).
I added personalization with printed labels.

Take a picture of each gift with the giver.
It makes thank-you's so much easier later!

Themed thank-you cards.  They were sent with a picture of the group
along with a a picture of the gift giver with the birthday girl.
Those two pictures were options to put in the bowling frame they made at the party.

Tips:

I did a bowling themed invite with a picture of the birthday girl.  I found a cool version on Etsy.  

I did not add that to this site due to the personal information that was on it.

Ask the parents to get shoes for the bowlers before they leave.  Otherwise you will be running around trying to help everyone get bowling shoes and put them on.  

This, of course, depends on the age of the bowlers and their shoe tying abilities.

The cookies were super cute but a lot of kids ended up eating them at the party (instead of taking them home).  That was fine but the black bowling ball cookies made for some interesting purple/black smiles the remainder of the night.

Gift giving:

Take control!!!  At this age the kiddos wanted to swarm around the birthday girl - fighting over who's gift she would open next.  Sit the kids down and have an adult decide which order the gifts would be opened.  You can have the gift giver stand next to the birthday child while their gift is opened.