40th Birthday: Through the Decades

Planning a birthday party for an adult is more difficult for me than planning for a child's birthday party.  I still want the party to be interactive and playful - but sometimes adults are so, well - adults.  It is especially hard planning parties for my husband because he 1) doesn't like surprises and 2) doesn't like to be the center of attention.  Believe me, I found that out the hard way when I planned a surprise 30th birthday party for him.  Let's just say I'll never do that again!

So for his 40th, I still wanted to celebrate him, but I had to do it gracefully.  I only invited immediate family - no surprises!- and I kept things low key.  I went with a "Through the Decades" theme.  I took each decade since he was born and displayed personal momentos, photos, and decade-specific items.

Since we had it at home, I was short on space.  Instead of using one long display table, I used exisiting furniture plus a card table. 

The 70's - His old teddy bear, some of his old matchbox cars, tie-dyed shirt, elementary school photos, mood rings, pet rocks, a disco ball, and "The 1970's Fun Facts" (that I created after researching online).

The 80's - His varsity jacket, high school photos, baseball cards, rubiks cubes, pacman, jelly bracelets, trivial pursuit, and "The 1980's Fun Facts".

The 90's - College stuff, VHS tape, floppy disc, CD, Snapple, blue m&m's (both which came out in the 90's, who knew??), flannel shirt, our wedding photo, "The 1990's Fun Facts".

The 00's - Newspaper stock reports, DVDs, tattoos, cell phone texts, sudoku, a croc (shoe), pictures of our kids, "The 2000's Fun Facts".

Close up of the Fun Facts.

 Of course I had to throw in some 40 things!  We also had balloons with 40 on them.

And the 40 cake I made.  The kids wanted their dad to wear a birthday crown.  And yes - he was a good sport!

Overall, a good party for a guy who doesn't like surprises or doesn't like to be the center of attention.  I still surprised him with the details - he had no idea what I was up to (and was quite nervous!) - but when he came home and I had everything decorated he actually said, "Wow.  Good job, I love it!" 

Score one for me :)