HELP With an Idea for 40Th B/d

Don't do anything. Wait until 2 weeks after his birthday and then have the party or you can do it tomorrow. Plan it as far away from the actual date as possible.

Good luck.

L.

plan a party (or "help a friend" plan something) - wherever is convenient - pretend it's a non-related function and that you forgot it was his b-day when you "committed to go" - then pretend that you forgot it was his birthday when the day actually arrives - act normal and do your regular routine but totally "space out" that's it's his special day (that means no special breakfast/lunch or presents - have them with a friend who is going) - get him to "drop you off" at the function (party) and have him "help you" bring something inside - then everyone jumps out and does the whole surprise

If your person has to work or go somewhere on their special day, this is what I did for my Special Man on his 39th birthday: he had to go to work, so I took the AM off to do my thing, I borrowed the spare key from his wallet (this was not easy, I had to put a key in its place so he would not know it was missing) then when he went to work, I ran to the local wal mart and bought balloons, window paint and party poppers and a thing of extra string. my daughter helped blow up the balloons and we let ourselves into his truck from the passenger side, so I could take my extra string and tie them to the party poppers and to the door of his truck, (we tied 10 to the steering wheel) maybe a little overkill but it was fun! we put the balloons inside his truck (filled the front and back seat) and used the window paint to write happy birthday, its my bday, I am the bday boy etc, after we were done, we knew he would be out shortly for his break so we waited to see his reaction, he was so distracted by the window paint that when he unlocked his truck he was not prepared for the 10 party poppers going off and the balloons falling out of his truck at him! he was shocked and very surprised by this and now I am wondering how I am going to top this next year. but good clean fun!
good luck!

This is what I did for my husbands 30th. I paid $40 for him to learn how to fly a small airplane. YES $40. It was over at Falcon Field in Mesa. They instruct them for about an hour and then they let him fly the plane. He will do everything by himself minus some help with the take off and the landing. The instructor is in the plane by his side the entire time. I even got to ride along as well. It was awesome!! Then we landed right at the Ansio Landing restaurant (Italian food)that is part of Falcon Field where we had dinner. You can reserve seats for how ever many guests are planning to show and have them all there when you both show up to the restaurant. Good memories. Good luck in the planning. He would definitely never forget this birthday. :) Let us all know what you end up doing. My husbands 40th is in 3 years.

Hi, S. -
I can't help you with how to fool him, but here's what I did for my hubby's 40th, and it was a great hit. I wrote a little poem on the invitation, asking the guests to consider what they know about the guest of honor today (interests/hobbies), and using that as a reference, to bring him the gift they think he would have loved when he was 10. I set up a board of pictures of my husband at 10, and everyone got a kick out of it. The guests really got into the spirit of it! My husband, who is as an adult a coin, gun and motorcycle enthusiast, got great and funny gifts. Toy cars and motorcycles, old comic books, nostalgic candy, even an old-fashioned BB gun. You can even serve the food he would have loved at 10. My mother-in-law clued me in, and hot dogs and jelly beans had to be included at our party. Everyone said they loved the idea, and my husband enjoyed it. I don't think he would have wanted to do the whole bring-everything-in-black-and-tell-them-how-old-they're-getting deal. Good luck. I'm sure you'll think of something great!

When my Mom turned 80 we threw a HUGE surprise party. Dad gave me his credit card and told me to plan everything. I live in another state so the planning was never detected by her. I invited people she was friends with since elementary school, family she hadn't seen in ages...everyone told that it was a surprise. We all met at a the Marriott and waited for her to arrive. Meanwhile one of my sisters who lives in the same city invited her to lunch to celebrate. Mom loves going to lunch and was impressed that my sister wanted to take her to the Marriott for lunch. When they walked in we all quietly started singing "Happy Birthday" and she was so shocked that she just stood there crying and hugging people as they came up to her. It was priceless.

Now...I had more than two months, but you don't have to invite out of town people. Assign someone else you trust to make all the arrangements and act as normal as ever. Don't tell the kids, because it has been my experience that kids can be bought!!

My dh loves baseball, so one year we had a "normal" party at the house, with friends and cake etc. Then at the appointed time, I had him open his gift - about 20 tickets the the baseball game that was starting in an hour. We got really nice seats and each guest had paid for their ticket in advance.

For my husband's 40th I planned the "party" with family and then had a separate party later he wasn't expecting, plus had more family/friends fly in for it so it actually did surprise him. He thought it was just his sister and her husband coming into town for the week, so he was already preoccupied with them leaving me a lot of free time to run around and pick up food and set things up. By the time 35 more people showed up he was completely surprised! It did help that my sister-in-law kept him focused and busy, and that he thought we had already had a party.

For my in laws anniversary. We cleaned their house here in town they live an hour away from us. Told them we all were going out to dinner for their anniversary. We just didnt say where we were going told them that part was a suprise.

My BIL drove them so they wouldnt know what was up. Then my SIL called (she is very dramatic) and told them she stopped by the house to pick up their present. Then burst into tears cause she found the house flooded ( this has happened before over there). Said they should come quick cause she didnt know what to do. They called me to say they would be late to dinner cause the house was flodded (SIL and I were standing next to each other),

They walked in the door and all their friends and family were there to say suprise. It was a great night.

This is what worked for me. Do you have kids? If your sneaky enough or pick the right place you don't need kids, but mine help for this party. I tricked my husband to pick the location of his surprise party the day of. We had a small routine going. Every Thursday we would go to a kids place to eat since we were busy throughout the week and we wanted some time the kids could have fun. Since it is early, start a small routine. He hates picnics so I mentioned we were going to have a small picnic for his birthday. At the last minute I told him to invite his best friend and family and maybe instead we could do a pizza place which he would rather do than a picnic. So he said lets go to Chuck E cheese. Since it was by the friends house. I had already invited his friends because that is where we typically tended to go. You don't have to actually pay for a whole party. He totally was caught off guard. Try to start some kind of routine that "falls" on his birthday since you have 2 months to plan. Then act like you aren't going to do anything speacial and stick to the routine. Maybe he might fall for it.

I think you should start planning ASAP for an early party. My husband is "unfoolable", too. For his 30th I tried a surprise, but he was on to me. (We had a good time anyway.) Maybe you could shoot for a month early?

Good luck!
Let us know how it turns out.
C.

I threw my mom a 60th surprise party in June last year! her birthday is in October. i got my brother to come out and we used him as an excuse to have a party in his honor!! she never saw it coming! she didnt even believe it when we all yelled surprise!! it turned out great!!