<p>Need to come up with a fun way to celebrate. How did you celebrate an ‘older’ milestone birthday? Or, have you helped someone else celebrate in a creative way? Would love to hear ideas!</p>
<p>My girlfriend has a job that takes her abroad a few times a year. She has pursued learning her hereditary language the past few years and just spent 8 weeks in that country…amazing. She invited all sorts of friends and family to join her as well as finding ancestors.</p>
<p>I was sad that the timing did not work out for me to go :(</p>
<p>Well you have to have a big pocket book for this one, but we just went to the 60th birthday party for a friend. She hired her favorite mime and her favorite up and coming Broadway singer and hired a local hall and put on a dinner theater. In between the acts she spoke about two charities that she hoped we would support in lieu of presents. We had a wonderful time. It was really professional level theater we got and I think she raised a lot of money.</p>
<p>What time of the year will the party take place? I threw a surprise party for my husband on his 40th birthday six years ago. His parents had a large boat and volunteered to let me host the party there. I hired a party band that does a lot of cover songs, and invited a bunch of friends and family. I had everyone get there a few minutes before us so they could wait up top and yell “surprise” when we arrived. Several friends transported all the food and liquor for me. We frequently spent weekends at the boat with his parents, so it didn’t seem unusual at all to DH that we were going out there. We ate, drank, and danced while taking a lovely cruise on the lake. The weather was perfect, the company was great, and the party was a huge success. Good luck with your plans! Parties are such fun to plan, especially when there is the element of surprise.</p>
<p>I threw a surprise 50th for my husband a few years ago. I’m not very creative, so it was simply cocktails/dinner in a nice restaurant, but I had asked people, in lieu of gifts, to bring an anecdote about H. During the meal many of the guests (who ranged from people who had gone to elementary school with H and known him for 40+ years, to more recent work colleagues) got up and told funny or poignant stories about him. That not only provided wonderful entertainment for the evening, but also showed people sides of H they hadn’t known about before. He loved it, and everyone seemed to have a great time.</p>
<p>I’ve only been to 2 50th birthday parties so far (and no, my friends aren’t that young – they’re either not having big celebrations or they are and not inviting me). One was a big party at a local restaurant, and one was at the Metropolitan Museum where all the couples were grouped into teams and we had to find items in the museum, then we all went upstairs for dinner. Very memorable!</p>
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<p>That sounds really fun! What a creative idea.</p>
<p>I’m going to a 60th birthday party for two friends, who decided to have a joint party for themselves. It’s going to be in a winery/restaurant, which has great ambiance–rustic, cozy, antique structure. The menu is champagne, chocolate, and cheese–their favorite foods. No presents–instead they’re asking people to donate to a local charity that both of support. They’ve hired a jazz quartet to provide music and have requested that people bring any photos of them to post on a bulletin board. I’m looking forward to it.</p>
<p>collage: I really like the winery idea…maybe a private tasting etc…??</p>
<p>You could visit the 50th state…</p>
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That’s how I would love to spend my 50th!</p>
<p>I didn’t want a party - you should check with the birthday celebrater (if it isn’t you). For my 50th we travelled to Ireland and I checked out a couple of small towns that I had discovered in my genealogical research. For my 40th, I went to Wimbledon, a life long dream for a tennis fanatic!</p>
<p>Some great suggestions! This party would be sometime between May and July and would be a party that includes people from many areas (family, professional, social) and different times of the person’s life. We’ve all been to a variety of parties, though, so selecting a venue, having some background music, dinner and dessert just doesn’t feel exciting enough; hence, the request for suggestions. Love the idea of the boat…no access to one but will think about that. Definitely no gifts–love the idea of asking guests to either bring a story, bring pictures or make a donation. I think the party at the Metropolitan Museum is great and it’s that type of “something different” that I’m thinking of… something at a unique venue or even a more traditional venue with some type of activity that stands out. Again, thanks and any additional suggestions are welcome!</p>
<p>My DH loves a particular lake a couple of days drive from our home. We went there and camped on the lake for nearly a month. Some of our kids were able to come for a week each, another couple came and camped for one of the weeks and some friends houseboated and visited our camp site for a couple of days. It was quite a memory making time.</p>
<p>***caveat- we like camping</p>
<p>For my husband’s 50th, I threw a Casino Party in our home and it was a complete blast, by far the best party I ever have ever thrown. I moved all my downstairs “public space” furniture into the garage and the casino company brought in two black jack tables, Teas Hold’em, Three Card Poker, Roulette, and a Craps Table. As each guest entered, they saw the “banker” (our daughter) and she distributed $500 in chips. Players played until they were broke or built a stash and we awarded prizes at the end of the night. A Trophy going to first place, which we had made at the local trophy shop. If you went broke, you could take out a marker from the banker for more money, but when prizes were awarded, any extra money you took would be subtracted from the winnings. This way you could always be playing. We piped in music from an IPOD play list with the guest of honor’s favorite music and mixed it up with songs from the 50’s/60’s. I did hire a caterer for heavy appetizers all night and we created our own bar, but did hire a bartender. For the Casino staff and all the tables, it was $1100.00. I thought it was a bargain for a crazy good night. We had about 70 people and I can’t remember how much the food was.</p>
<p>You could do a jeopardy type of game where the categories could be Youth, 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, Work, Family and divide into teams to play.</p>
<p>Not the type of party you are looking for, but I wanted to share this idea. When my sister turned 40 she had a slumber party! She rented a room at a suite hotel and invited her close girl friends. There was dinner out and then we headed to the hotel where we played older board games, gossiped, chatted, ate old time candy; your typical kids slumber party. We all had a blast, but this would only work for a small group of women.</p>