I want to do something really cool for Mrs. Rainy’s 40th b-day coming up. I’m thinking a big surprise party with a bunch of her friends invited would be a blast. If I do that I’d definitely want a theme, something fun that esily lends itself to decorating ideas.
What kind of great parties have you guys done in the past?
Thanks in advance,
-rainy
I threw my husband a surprise birthday party and had a Mexican food theme going on. Never mind that neither of us can look at tequila any more . . . the food was easy to pull together and people who wanted to bring food were able to be as creative or off the shelf as they cared to be.
We did a pirate themed birthday for my brother’s 30th last year. It was fun and easy.
Mr. S grew up poor (as in, if they’d been on welfare they’d have been better off, but his dad was too proud) and never had a birthday party when he was a kid, with the cake and friends and presents and decorations, etc. Plus he says he liked being age four. So for his 40th, I sent out invitations with the zero in 40 crossed out, making it really his “4th birthday party.” I asked people to bring inexpensive gifts of the type one might give a four-year-old: Silly Putty, jacks, crayons, etc. He likes that kind of stuff anyway and gets uncomfortable when people spend money on him. So he got a bunch of silly kid swag, some of which he actually uses and some of which gets used by visiting munchkins (coloring books, Barrel of Monkeys), as we have no kids ourselves. A good time was had by all!
Well 40 years ago was 1968, so a groovy 60’s theme might be good. The sixties didn’t go competly to hell until later that year.
That was going to be my suggestion as well. People can easily dress up to a greater or lesser degree – and the music will be easy.
You could always get her a Mr. Happy
RR
That’s really cool. What a great story. I’m not sure I could make that work for us though. And I’m just not turned on by the 60’s theme for some reason.
Keep 'em coming.
Get a whole bunch of “old age” type jokes. Put them on note cards or whatever, and leave them everywhere the birthday girl will go, per her routine. Example; she goes in the bathroom, there’s one taped to the mirror. She lifts the toilet seat, there’s one on the lid. Start her day with a zillion jokes.
My contribution…
An elderly couple is getting ready for work one morning. Ethel kisses Fred and gets in her car for work. Fred’s finishing the morning dishes and getting ready to leave. He has the radio on and about fifteen minutes later he hears that there’s trouble on the freeway that Ethel usually takes to work. It seems that someone is driving the wrong way and it’s causing all kinds of havoc.
Sweet man that he is, he calls her cell phone to warn her. “Ethel, some car is driving the wrong way down that road.”
She replies, “It’s not one…it’s HUNDREDS of them!”
Did I mention I’d like to have sex with my wife sometime during her 40th year? I’m not sure your strategy furthers my agenda in that respect.
:smack:
Here’s a bunch of ideas for birthdays that end in a zero, let’s call it 40:
All party guests must bring something older than 40 years. (For guests above 40 this is easy - it is a fun challenge for the younger set.)
All party guests must bring 40 of something. I did this for my husband’s 50th, actually, and put up a sign like this on the table. The gifts were very creative - one person brought SPF 50 sunscreen, another brought 50 rubber bands, someone else brought 50 horseshoe crab shells, etc.
Make lists of songs, famous actors, movies, etc. that are approximately 40 years old. Ask all the party guests to guess “Younger or older than (person whose birthday is being celebrated)?”
Then just before you cut the cake you can announce the answers – “George Clooney is TWO YEARS YOUNGER than ----!” “The move ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ is ONE YEAR OLDER than ----”
For my ex-wife’s 40th birthday party I made up a book. It was photocopies of photographs we had and stories about things we had done (hand written) hand bound into a book. Everyone had a copy at their place at the party tables.
While she was out of the room I told all the guests that when she returned to the room they had to, in turn around the table, tell a personal story about her or explain why she had been important in their life.
There was barely a dry eye in the place once we finished.
Absolutely no gifts or cards with the phrase “over the hill.” No black balloons, no dead flowers, and no walkers. Anyone bringing such crap must be sent home until they come to their senses. There is no fun in being cheerfully told you’re living on borrowed time.
Those are all outstanding ideas, Carol. Thanks.
Don’t Ask, that’s cool. I considered something along those lines and decided I may save that for five-0. What a great sentiment.
AskNott, good advice. I figure my SIL will be all over the black balloon stuff, so I want to be the fella reminding her that she’s never been more beautiful in her life.
What else do we have? For once in my life I starting thinking about the arrangements way in advance so I can probably pull just about anything off 
You could have her party at Chuck E Cheeses…
or not.
At a wedding I went to there was a clothes line (really just a string with clothes pins) and a stack of handkerchiefs and markers. Guests were invited to write haiku about the couple.
Similar to what don’t ask did, with an extra step. Can you ask the guests before hand to make a page of their memories ? They could write out the story or share a photo with a caption. They could share the stories at the party but then your wife would have the pages…(stored in the binder in sheet protectors you thoughtfully brought to the party).
Are there one or two “surprise mystery guest” people you could invite for a sort of “This is your life” theme? A school friend or former coworker she’d love to see and who would have some good stories to share with the crowd?
I’ll be watching this thread closely…later this year I’ll be “changing the front number” (any dopers grow up having their birthday’s announced on WFAS in NY?).
I’m with you on this one. For my mom’s 50th, one family member brought 50 packs of Skittles – her favorite. Another brought Depends – hardy har har and what a waste of money.
I do hang on to the plastic cake topper that came with a long-ago birthday cake, along with some plastic black balloons: a picture of the Grim Reaper captioned, “Relax, I’m just here for the cake.” For some reason this one is funny to me and not insulting.
Please don’t put a photo in the classified ads with the caption “Lordy, Lordy, look who’s 40!”
I once went to a non-surprise, surprise party.
The guest of honor was told only four friends were coming for dinner at 7:00.
At 7:15 it was just the six of them.
Then at about 8:00, a few more friends showed up, then more and more and after about 20 people were there, did she finally catch on that all of her friends had been invited. People kept showing up and it was great.
It was fun to watch her face as people showed up, and she had more time to chat with each of them as they came in bearing gifts, food and drinks.
As far as theme: I once threw myself a “kitsch” birthday party. Everybody had to bring a gift from a tacky gift store or 99 cent store or the local Goodwill - whatever. The only rule was that it had to be under $5.00 and so kitschy that it was almost good. People caught on and I got some amazingly funny stuff. It was great to see people eagerly watching as I opened their “surprise”…lots of laughs from the guests and people were eagerly looking forward to the next present I opened.
That’s cool. Not exactly what I was looking for, but with enough merit to add it to my bag-o-tricks for another year for sure.
Got to remember to unsubcribe to the thread every time I reply. I work from home so my email account is always up in case clients email files, so I think she’d notice a bunch of “Ideas for a 40th birthday surprise” emails arriving