Family Bowling...success #1

We took the kids bowling on Saturday.
It's been a while since we have all gone together so we were really excited about this little outing.
However, knowing my children as I do, I spent many an hour going over all the possible scenarios with them before we left the house. I knew to remind them about the shoe rentals (K is a bit grossed out about other people's feet and underwear). I knew to explain that we would not be getting a five course meal at the alley (B tends to develop an intense need to eat no matter where we are). I knew to explain that no matter how much fun the arcade games looked, we would not be taking out a second mortgage to play all of them. And of course I knew to remind everyone (Steve included) that little man had to be carefully watched the entire time (because there was no way in you know where that he would stay in his stroller for longer than about 30 seconds).

One conversation we stressed over and over was about bumper guards vs "regular" bowling. This was specifically for our sweet and delicate K....ummm, not really....more like our strong-willed, almost meanly competitive K. I told her that if she didn't want to use the bumper guards, she just needed to be prepared for gutter balls. She insisted that she did not want bumpers, she wanted to "regular" bowl. She insisted that she be on the same lane with the same alley as the rest of us.
Okay, fair enough.

We arrive, successfully get our shoes (fortunately K got the 'cute' ones she eyed from the start...obviously they didn't seem too gross), smoothly bypass the concessions and the arcade, and safely get the appropriate balls for each of us. Yay...we've got a nice start.

Now the training begins...


B gets quite a few gutter balls in the beginning...


Daddy demonstrates proper technique...yadda yadda yadda...(I am now rolling my eyes)...


Yes, K does indeed get many a gutter ball.
In fact, she set a new family record of 6 in a row.
She didn't really enjoy this recognition for some reason...
This is K saying: "I am so humiliated!"
She didn't really enjoy my laughing either...


Hallelujah and raise your hands! K gets a strike!


It would appear that little man simply stays out of the way and happily watches everyone...


Yeah right...
He will not leave the score computer alone and keeps calling for service. (I really should have left that poor employee a tip or something)...


He eventually decides his own property isn't nearly as appealing as everyone else's and spends the next 20 minutes almost dropping bowling balls on his feet...

He also spends quite a long time pushing his stroller around (i.e. interrupting other people's games and rolling over their shoes). Yay for happy, friendly strangers who think my son is cute even when he is being "a tad energetic". And no pictures of the stroller marathon because I was too busy running around after him, praying we wouldn't get kicked out before our game was over.

And guess where we all finally wind up playing together before we leave...?


But seriously, how cute is this?


Ultimately, a great day! We managed to somehow avoid any major meltdowns and/or catastrophes. The girls, of course, want to go every weekend, but honestly...I'm a little apprehensive about pressing our luck. Is it possible to have two outings without a near-miss of the end of the world? Maybe I should just be more positive...

Nah. That can be next year's resolution.