David was able to convince us with his constant pleading, and big blue sad puppy eyes that his party neeeeeded to be at Stars & Strikes, the bowling alley/arcade/fun place. Only 3 friends (plus one's little brother) were able to come, so it was just the 4 of them playing bumper cars, laser tag, and then running free in the arcade!! They gave us a sweet party hostess who ran interference for me and handled candle lighting, cupcake handoffs and more!
I made some cupcakes with sprinkles to mimic storebought confetti ones, then added milk chocolate frosting (alas, from a can!)and then added some cute sprinkles from Wilton with purple jimmies, colorful dots and lots of stars. They were really cute.
Goody bags were different this year - no toys or junk that will end up in the trash. Instead I raided my back-to-school box and gave the kids a composition book, a pen with multicolored ink options, a package of mechanical pencils, crayons, ring pops, and assorted candy. His class is focusing heavily on journaling, so I thought that would be a great way to continue the learning at home! Hopefully the kids enjoyed their bags - I know his friend Kennedy did, she sat down at a booth with the crayons and comp. book ready to get busy!!
Here are a few pics ~
Yes, even the birthday boy got a goody bag, though the majority of the candy & ring pops were gone before I got a picture of it!!
I wish I'd gotten pics of the arcade. Compared to the ones we had growing up (Goldmine, 2001, etc), and even compared to our usual game place - Chuck E Cheese, this one was incredible!! They had Guitar Hero, simulation rides (the kids went to a haunted mine on one of those), Dance Dance Revolution, and so much more. There is even one of those claw game (you get to try to grab Ipods, no less!) that is the size of my closet!! Can you tell we don't get out to places with arcades much?
It turned out to be a super-fun night that David will always remember, and Stars & Strikes made it easy by giving us such a great hostess to take care of the details. Katie wants to have her 17th party at their Boutique bowling lanes, and David said he is having #8 there as well!!
