Score a strike with your son or daughter by throwing him or her a bowling party! Your party is sure to be a hit with our bowling party decorating ideas, planning tips, food suggestions and bowling games. Bowling parties are popular with all age groups, so you can be sure everyone will have a ball!

Bowling Party Planning & Invitations

In addition to basic bowling party supplies, like plates, cups, napkins and decorations, you may want to consider purchasing, borrowing or renting the following items for your child's bowling party:

• A bowling game
• A bowling pinata
• Small trophies
• A bowling balloon

• Include a bowling sticker and some confetti with each bowling party invitation and seal the envelope with a personalized bowling party sticker with party information or a fun message on it!

• Cut out the shape of a bowling pin from white cardstock, and add red stripes around the neck with a thick red marker.
  

• Cut 43/4 inch circles from black cardstock. Add three white circle stickers to each "bowling ball" to serve as finger holes. Turn your invitations over and write your party details on the back in silver ink. These invitations will fit into paper CD sleeves, which you can use as envelopes to mail them.
  

• Use fun wording on the invitation and your guests will be excited before the big day arrives! Create your own or try something like this:

Bowling Party Decorating & Food Ideas

The location of your party will be a factor in choosing decorations. Generally, a bowling alley party will have fewer opportunities to decorate, while a party at home offers more freedom! Look through our suggestions below and choose the ideas that will work best for your party.

• Hand out matching shirts to your guests to make them feel like a real bowling team! Purchase kid-sized bowling shirts, order colorful tee shirts with a bowling design, or make your own! If you make the shirts yourself, look for inexpensive tee shirts at the craft store, and draw a bowling pin design on the front with fabric paint. If you like, add each child's name just below the bowling pin. A big advantage to matching shirts is that your guests are easy to spot inside a bowling alley, which may help if the party location is crowded on the day of your event.

• Make a banner that says "Welcome to the [your last name] Bowling Alley" and hang it near the party entrance or entrance to your assigned lanes. See our personalized bowling banner and let us do the work for you!

• Set up a small plastic bowling game as a centerpiece for the food table.

• Anchor a group of balloons at one end of the food table with a balloon weight.

• Tie a balloon to the back of each chair, and tie a group of five balloons to the chair where the birthday child will sit.

If the party is at a bowling alley, you may be required to purchase food from their concession stand. In this case, you will need to provide only the cake. If you are allowed to bring additional food, you may want to offer some healthy snacks for your guests to round out the typical concession stand food options. Choose a kid friendly vegetable tray and serve it with a simple dip. Or bring a platter of grapes and apple slices, along with some cheese cubes and wheat crackers.

If you are not at a bowling alley, it can still be fun to serve some of the food items typically found at a concession stand. Start with pizza or hot dogs, and add pretzels, popcorn or French fries. You'll want to include some healthier options such as grapes, sliced apples, cubes of cheese, and wheat crackers. Serve the drinks in a bowling pin sipper cup.

For a sweet finale, let the children create their own "Bowling Alley Banana Split". Offer chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream. Set out bowls of bananas sliced lengthwise, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, maraschino cherries, chopped nuts, etc., and let the children choose the toppings they prefer.

Bowling Party Favors

Send your guests home from the alley with awesome party favors! To find a large variety of bowling party favors, visit our bowling party favors and click the "Party Favors" tab or the "More Fun Stuff" tab. Some of the favors we have include:

• Mini bowling games
• Trophies
• Bowling pin sipper cups
• Bowling pin straws
• Bubbles
• Reusable tote bags
• Fun-shaped candy and lollipops