Dexter's Party

Joshua, Clara, and Hannah's entire class was invited to their classmate Dexter's birthday party today.  It was a bowling party, and we decided Hannah would stay home (we didn't think she would have as much fun in that situation as she would hanging out at home with Mama), and that I would take the older two.  There were two lanes set up for all the kids that not only had bumpers, but also some sort of ramp thing to help propel the ball down the lane.  That was probably a good idea, because the last time we took the kids bowling, Clara was barely getting enough oomph behind the ball to get it all the way to the end.  I took charge of one of the lanes to ensure whichever kid was up was actually there to bowl.  This was a challenge, because there was an arcade and game area around the corner that attracted the kids like bugs to a nightlight, and it was a constant struggle to get them to be in the bowling area when we needed them there.  After bowling, they had cupcakes and did gifts, and everyone signed a bowling pin for Dexter.  The theme was Phineas and Ferb, which is some show I've barely heard of and don't know anything about, but the party wasn't targeted at me, so it was fine.  One of the party favors was a stack of tokens to use at the arcade, which is about the best possible thing all the kids could have gotten, as pretty much every kid was suddenly elated that they would then be able to go to the arcade area and actually play some of the games that had been taunting them the whole party.  So we had some time playing the various arcade games and then turned in our tickets for a few small things.  Joshua got a couple small plastic army men, and he's really excited about them, so hopefully he'll at least get some enjoyment from his winnings.