Bowling

We had planned to spend an afternoon with Grandma Laurie a couple of weeks ago but thanks to my rain curse (I apparently should never plan an outing because it's pretty much guaranteed to rain) our original plans had to change. So we decided to take the kids bowling instead. Unbeknownst to each of us we both had our own reservations about how this would actually go (ummm.... Benjamin with lots of balls lined up just waiting to be thrown?!?!?) but as neither of us voiced them we finally found an alley that was open on Thursday afternoon and went ahead with it. And to our surprise it turned out to be great!!

The alley we went to was perfect for kids, they already had bumpers set-up and they brought us a ramp for Julia to use when she got tired. As for Benjamin, you forget as an adult how things you find ordinary can be so magical and thrilling to a little kid... like the automatic ball return! It was so much fun to watch him get so excited every time a ball came up the ramp - we spent the whole afternoon laughing.

The alley had a deal going on where you could bowl as much as you wanted for about 2 hours for a set price. As we were getting our shoes and paying, the man behind the counter told us we had til 4:00 but that he was sure we wouldn't make it nearly that long. Boy, was he wrong! While the kids did start to get tired they used the entire block of time! Of course, this could have had to do with the pace of bowling with a preschooler! For those of you who have forgotten what that's like here's a refresher:

As for the scores, let's just say that Grandma and I were both happy there were bumpers in the lane! Alex was tough competition!

Alex and Julia's bowing shoes 

 Ready to bowl

Taking a break!

cousins!