Bowling Party!!

I usually plan a big birthday party each year with family, my friends and their kids. It is usually between 30 and 40 people and I spend a lot of time and money planning it! With our son turning 7, we weren't sure if this was the type of party that we should have this year. He loves bowling and wanted to have his party at a bowling alley. We decided it would be a lot easier and probably more fun for him to just let him invite 5 or 6 friends from school and do a small friends party. He doesn't know the kids in his class this year that well yet since they have only been in school a couple of months, so he invited friends from his kindergarten class and a friend from his preschool class that also goes to his school.

We asked my Mom and Step-dad if they would keep our girls for us so that we could focus on the birthday boy and his friends. If our 2 year old had been there, one of us would have had to focus on her the entire time and we wanted the focus to be on him. As it turned out, my husband was forced in to staying over at work on Friday night and wasn't able to make the friends party.

It did give the birthday boy and I some one on one time, which was nice! We got to the bowling alley pretty early so the two of us bowled a game before his friends arrived. I loved it! And I bowled a 140 which is really good for me! ;) I love the above picture of us. I was trying to get him to have a more natural smile for a picture.

Love this boy so much!! 

I didn't have to do that much planning for food or decorations since we had the party at a bowling alley, but my sister-in-law sent me a picture of candy airplanes similar to these when I told her he was having a Planes party. I also found it on Pinterest and made these cute little favors for the boys. The red one is supposed to be like Dusty from the movie for the birthday boy.

A few Planes decorations 

I had my friend Angie who has made all the cakes and cupcakes for our kids' parties make cupcakes and I ordered the fun toppers on Etsy! 

The 5 first graders. I feel like 6 was the perfect number of kids to have for the party. They all seemed to have so much fun together!! 

The birthday boy is also friends with his friend's younger brother. He was busy eating his candy airplane! :) 

Yum, pizza!! 

My friend Sarah had already planned to stay before we found out my husband had to work, and another one of the Mom's ended up staying so we had a good time chatting while the boys bowled and played.  First grade boys are so in to tackling, wrestling, trying to pick each other up, and general craziness! They are a really good group of boys though and were all having a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you! You would think I told half the boys to give me a scary face. ;) 

Bowling fun! 

Gift opening

We gave each of the boys a $5 arcade card in their goody bag and they had some arcade time at the end of the party. 

Love these three sweet guys! 

This last one is too funny not to post. Sarah and I have been friends for a little over a year and have never taken a picture together. It is always just pictures of the kids! I asked our son to take a picture of us, and this is what we got. The next one can only be better, right? ;)

Happy Happy 7th Birthday to our handsome boy. It was so much fun celebrating with you and your friends! 

I love you!