I need help on planning a "non-party" birthday celebration for my DS -- He will be turning 6.

DS and I agreed that we will have a birthday party every other year. We had a party last year, and this year we will have a low-key celebration with friends. He is turning 6. We checked out a bowling alley close to our house and it got DS very excited. I have never bowled before (!!!), so I really need some input on putting this together!

There will be 5 of us - DS, DH, me, and DS's BFF and my friend (BFF's mom). The celebration will be in late January so I assume we can not count on the weather and probably would be wise to stay inside.

- We may have a baseball game practice earlier in the day, so it makes sense if we start bowling in the late afternoon, say 3:30pm or 4pm. Is it normal to stay and play for 2 hours, and then have dinner there while you play? And ask them to bring out a cake (that we brought in) at the end?

- Will it even be a possibility, say, if we bowl between 3:30pm-5pm, and have a dinner reservation somewhere else at 5:30pm, and have proper dinner and birthday cake there? I am just curious if bowling for 1.5 hours is enough or will it cause a tantrum to drag them out of the alley to dinner. The reason is really because I just wish we will be able to treat ourselves a little better than hot dogs / cheese pizza (this is just me, hope I am not offending anyone )

- The venue we went to has a lot of TV screens. I have peeked into another venue which is pretty much the same. I know the kids are going to be 6, but I wonder if it would be sensory overload, and if it would be too much for them.

- Do most venue offer lighter bowling balls for little kids? I just don't want the experience to be miserable for the little ones for their first bowling experience.

- Say if we have the baseball game/practice early in the day, and we have some time in the afternoon, will it be feasible to watch a movie before bowling? Or will that be way too much considering there will be so many screens in the bowling alley?

- DS has yet to watch a full movie in a theater (the last time was a year ago when we tried to watch Finding Dory, DS was traumatized. He broke down in tears and we had to leave half way. We haven't tried to go to a theater again except we did watch a few movies on the TV screen at home, and he was fine). So if we don't do a movie and if we do have some time in the early/mid afternoon, any wise ideas/suggestions of a light activity we can throw in?

- Any other wise suggestions?

Thank you so much in advance!!