Linnea's 8th birthday party

Linnea had been planning her party for a very long time, although we have a rule in our house that we don't talk about her birthday, until Daddy's birthday has been (24th September). She knew already from long ago she wanted to have a party where both boys and girls could come and have fun, but she didn't want to do a water slide one at home, for some reason she wanted to be out of the house - hey, no complaints from me!
So we finally decided to do a bowling one, like Lucas had for his 9th birthday. Although wise from experience, I put a cap on the invite list to a max of 10 kids in total - which meant Linnea, Lucas and eight little guests only. A lot more manageable.

Here's the invite:

This is how you look when you are hosting your 8th birthday party. We had bought her a whole new outfit in Singapore last week. All new from top to toe, new shoes, new dress, new cardigan and new headband!

We had her party at the bowling alley yesterday, a nice way to end the school holidays.

Whereas most of the boys at Lucas' party had enough after one game and a bit, Linnea's friends were most dedicated and super focused - they all played two games each, and took it really seriously.

They were all into the game and had so much fun cheering on and supporting each other, it was really nice to see.

After the bowling, Linnea had wished to go to Fish & Co for early dinner. Easy peasy!

This time there was no balloon swords, but a TV with some cartoons. I kid you not, had there been sound to this photo...

... you would have heard nothing, because they were all totally zoned out and mesmerized by the TV at this stage, ha ha!

Anyway, they all enjoyed their dinner, and after their food - of course it was time for cake. Linnea got sung to (well, they rapped!) by the staff at the restaurant, and then she got to cut her Glee cake.

Blowing out the candles!

 

 

The goodie bags this time included the usual goodies and chocolate, plus some bowling pin & ball-shaped erasers.

There we go, what a great afternoon!

Strike!!

Today it was time for Lucas' 9th birthday party. We didn't want to schedule it for last Sunday even though we were home in the morning, just in case we wouldn't have made the flight. So he has had to wait all week for it!

It was an easy one to organize this year as we had decided to have it out of the house. No decorations to prepare, no food to plan, no games or entertainment to organize - just the party bags. Easy peasy.
We had 13 boys plus Linnea and Gemma coming to the bowling alley for a few games of bowling.

















We had to stop for prayer at one stage, and the local boys did their bit:



I had organized for them to play 2 games each, but most of them actually had enough after about 1 1/3 game...



... and started chasing each other around instead!
Only the two most hard core players were left by then. They finished everybody's second game!



A quick after-the-game quiet moment with a drink:



Then we organized everybody and went downstairs for pizza! Not sure giving the kids balloon swords was the best idea the restaurant had though...





An attempt of a group shot:



Pizza time! Went down a treat after all that bowling!





Cake, from 'Greet and Treats', of course! A very cool bowling alley cake!







AND - Lucas got sung to by the staff here too!



One of Lucas' friends said afterward the party had been the "best party e-v-e-r", so I guess that's a good testament! Some of his friends were disappointed there was no food fight (say what?!) but Lucas seemed to have had a good time anyway, and that's the most important thing!