Alternate title: How Free Bowling Cost Me $21.67
I don’t know about you, but I am loving summer! I could do without the heat – OK, so I don’t mind the heat but I (and Jeremy especially) wouldn’t mind having an air conditioner – but summer has become a time of going, doing, and seeing for us and I love it. After all, you’ve only got 18 summers so we are going to make the most of them.
One morning this week we headed out for our “free” bowling at Brunswick XL Interquest in Colorado Springs. Yes, I took five kids aged 6, 4, 3, 1, and 3 months bowling by myself, and we had a great time…
Clearly it’s been years since I’ve been bowling, and the new Brunswick at Interquest seems to be top notch. When did bowling alleys stop smelling of smoke? And the balls were all color-coded by weight! And the shoes were cleaner-looking than most of the ones I have at home. (Granted, the place is pretty new, but hopefully it stays all fancy and clean.)
Of course, nothing in life is free, something that I’ve proved several times in the past few weeks. “Free” frozen yogurt from the library’s reading program cost me about $15 due to neglecting to effectively police the yogurt dispensing.
And “free” bowling? Well, I was expecting a couple of bucks for shoe rental since that seems to be the number that gets thrown around, but it was actually $3.49. Three-and-a-half dollars times eight little and two big feet, plus a game for me ($2.99), made my “cheap” outing come in over $21.
But, fun was had and memories were made, and while I don’t think we’ll be doing free bowling again this summer, it was fun for a day! I even got a strike while bowling left-handed with a baby… (Shh – don’t tell anyone we had the bumper guards up and I didn’t even get a spare the rest of the frames.)
Here’s how to get free games of bowling for your own kids. :) Don’t forget about all the rest of the free summer fun in Colorado Springs and Denver! Yes, some of it is actually free.
$1.25 for Lucerne (half gallon) at Safeway, Fri-Sun Only
I have thought about trying to get bowling shoes for the kids to make it more reasonable, but haven’t had any luck. Especially since I wouldn’t want to pay too much for shoes they will only wear a couple of times before they grow out of them.
I know, that’s my issue, too – I’m still keeping an eye out, though, since surely if I bought pairs in a few sizes, I could get them to work for most of my kids most of the time, right? :) We aren’t too picky on shoe sizes around here, LOL… My girlies are good at wearing oversized shoes for dressup.
Still, I haven’t even seen any like at thrift stores! I’m thinking maybe I’ll wait a few years until it’s something we can all do and enjoy and then start looking for shoes more actively.