Bowling with Daddy...for Free!

One reason I love blogging (not that you would think I actually loved it since I post so erratically!) is because I love reading other people's blogs. I especially enjoy reading blogs of friends, but I've discovered several great new friends just by reading their blogs.

One particular friend, who just so happens to be named Rachel, recently posted about something fun she did with her daughter. This post really resonated with me because I'm constantly saying things like, "I wish I could think of something different to take the girls to do..." and then (in Asia) we'd end up at an indoor playpark, or in Oklahoma we'd just end up at the library - which, by the way, is a fabulous place to end up at.

The point of all of this is to say: we went bowling! For free! (Well, for almost free. We still had to rent shoes; but the actual price of the girls' bowling games were free. Here's the blow-by-blow:)

Check out this website to find out if there are any bowling alleys near you participating in the Kids Bowl Free! summer program. As luck would have it, there was one directly across from our house. For their opening at 11am, we left the house at 10:58. That's about as close as you can get!

We registered our girls online and then printed out their free bowling vouchers. They'd never been bowling before, but they knew that Daddy went bowling sometimes for guys' night back in Asia, so they were looking forward to this new adventure.

At first they thought the shoes were dorky, but I convinced them that they were very cool - "vintage" is a hard concept to describe to a four-year-old, but I think I did ok.

There's just something so unusual about bowling shoes that I can't help but keep looking at them. I mean, I'd never wear them around town, but they have such a bold look that I'd like to think I might.
We had a quick intro to what exactly the purpose of this game was:
...and of course, we had a great example from Mr. Eggroll. He was happy to give a little tutorial!
The bowling alley would give you a little ramp if you asked for one; that comes in handy for little ones who haven't yet built up their arm strength to roll strikes and spares each frame. But Emma opted out - she wanted to try it the "real" way.
She did a great job! (Of course, it helps when the gutters are taken out of the equation!)
Samantha wasn't embarrassed at all to use the ramp, and it eventually showed up in the final score. I think she bowled 3 strikes or spares!
I spent most of the morning chasing Abby around and learned a great lesson: bowling will be for josh and the big girls, not for me and Abby!
Thanks Rachel, for the great idea! We had a fun morning with Josh before he had to leave on a long trip, and we'll definitely be going back...as soon as Josh returns!