ideas for DH's 40th B-day??

[zag95]

Hi all!
Just trying to think ahead and plan my hubby's 40th b-day party. I would like to do something fun.... like have a big dinner somewhere (since we don't get out as much since DD arrived) and invite friends and family.

Any suggestions? Some ideas I was thinking of were: dinner and a movie (like at a McMenamins- Portland area), wine tour or ???

Thoughts? I would like to do something with the pictures but my MIL won't release them and they are not even organized in any way! It's a shame that my husband has no baby pictures.... don't even get me started! :(

[elektra]

Just finished getting together my own DH's 40th stuff.
I posted this exact same thing a few weeks ago and got some good ideas.
THe best idea that I felt would work for DH (that I ended up modifying a bit) was having him do a long weekend cooking bootcamp at Graystone at the CIA in Napa. When we can save up a bit more I will do that and I will tag along with the kids and do stuff during the day while he is in class.
What I did instead was sign him up for a woodworking class locally that is two Sundays over the next month, and I also bought a certain tool he will need to go with it.
For the party, we are hosting a party at our house inviting family and friends.

Another great idea someone had would be to surprise DH with a dinner out and have friends show up at the restaurant. And how cool would it be to get everyone up to someplace in Napa?! Not so realistic for us but if you could swing the whole suprise at someplace else out of town with whoever would be up for it, that could be really cool too.
I wanted to do something cooler than we usually do for the big 4-0, and I think I was able to do something along those lines, but it was hard to keep things from getting too OOC $-wise.

[BeachBum]

For my 30th, my DH surprised me with a party. A great idea he had was to rent the local trolly--he had the guests meet at the restaurant and then take the trolly to our house. That way I wasn't tipped off about going to the wrong somewhere, seeing the cars, but the party wasn't at our house etc.
I was just finishing getting ready (I thought we were going to dinner at a fine dining restaurant) when I heard strange horns and a lot of racket. I walked outside and there were all my friends wearing party hats, blowing horns, two big trollys etc. We hopped on and went to a nice dinner at one of my favorite casual restaurants.

We've seen several people use the idea since, so it must have been fun for the guests too.

[mommylamb]

My DH turned 40 last year. He's not really a party kind of guy and really didn't want one, so I respected his wishes. I took him to the B&B where we spent out wedding night, we had a wonderful dinner at their very up scale restaurant and a great night.

[niccig]

DH and I ended up going away, which was great, but costly. A couple of months after his birthday, we thought of an even better idea. There was a bar that DH and all his friends used as a 2nd living room - it was a block from the house they all rented. We could have gotten all our friends, played pool and darts and drinks. A friend actually did this for her husband's 40th. She wanted a fancy place, he wanted a regular bar. She found a bar that had a back room with pool tables and dart board. We couldn't book the room, but there were enough of us that it was mostly ours. They paid for drinks up to a certain amount, and the bar food. It wasn't a fancy party, but her DH loved it as he never does that kind of thing anymore. She even rented a hotel for the night for the two of them.

So, I would see if there is a hangout that your DH never goes to anymore, and have it there. Or find a similar place.

[Asianmommy]

For my husband's 40th, we had dinner in a private room at a seafood restaurant with family & close friends, then spent the weekend by ourselves at a bed & breakfast.

[BeachBum]

She found a bar that had a back room with pool tables and dart board. We couldn't book the room, but there were enough of us that it was mostly ours. They paid for drinks up to a certain amount, and the bar food. It wasn't a fancy party, but her DH loved it as he never does that kind of thing anymore. She even rented a hotel for the night for the two of them.

So, I would see if there is a hangout that your DH never goes to anymore, and have it there. Or find a similar place.

We did this for a work celebration for my hubby. We had some unique stickers made, and that made it easy for the bar tender to tell who was in our group, ie whos drinks to put on our tab.

[zag95]

thanks for the suggestions! I'm going to be thinking hard over the weekend on this!

:)

[hellbennt]

we're doing this tomorrow night at a local bar- our 'thing' is live music, so we picked a night that a band we like is going to be there & we're also piggy-backing w/ a band of our 'own'- dh's friend is in a band- we'll have drink tickets to treat everyone to a drink or two (then they're on their own) & some platters of (bar) food...can't wait!