Every season seems to have its own perfect variation on bowling, whether giant inflatable unicorns in the summer, haunted bowling in the fall, and now ice bowling in the winter!

For pins, fill water bottles about 3/4 of the way with water and let stand outside overnight to freeze (or place in your freezer if the temperature in your region doesn’t dip that low). Make sure to leave some room in the bottles for the ice to expand.

For balls, fill water balloons with water and freeze overnight. In the morning, slip off the rubber and you have perfect ice spheres to bowl with. The little balls of ice absolutely delighted both kids, so much so I worried they would just play with those and ignore the bowling completely!

Eventually Travis loved taking tosses and rolls at our ice “pins” and seeing how many he could get with one shot.

There’s an extra catch that makes this version of bowling harder; if you throw your ice ball too hard, it might shatter!

Come to think of it, that fact probably added to Travis’s fun.

Veronika didn’t seem to be a huge fan of the ice bowling, so I took her inside for a warmer and more toddler-friendly version. We emptied the ice from the bottles and simply rolled a nice big bouncy ball at empty ones.

For a toddler, persistence is key! I showed her how to reset the pins and try again after each roll.

We also lined up the bottles in different formations to make the game more interesting.

And sometimes, she preferred just to sit and play with the bottle pins, which was all part of the fun!

What’s your winter spin on bowling? Please share in the comments!