A Christian themed, manly, surprise 40th birthday party {with FREE download}

 

Throw a manly, Christian fortieth birthday party!

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Free reference download of Bible verses and Bible references for the number 40 that I used for the decorations at this birthday! {at the end of the post}

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My husband recently turned forty. We love to do milestone birthdays BIG around here and since this really was a milestone I decided to throw my man a surprise party. His birthday is around the hustle and bustle of the holidays so I hoped he would never suspect it. It almost got foiled just like his 30th surprise birthday though because he started planning for his big day. I should’ve known. He only starts to plan for bigger birthdays like 30 and 40! After, 11 years he needs to let me plan. I was still able to pull it off!

As usual I searched and searched the internet for fun fortieth birthday ideas. I was pretty saddened by the types of themes that were out there for men turning 40. It all had to do with bars, women, gambling or drinking. Since I didn’t want the focus on other women, we don’t go to bars or drink and we don’t gamble, I needed to get my own creative juices flowing.

I wanted this birthday to focus on the Lord and His grace for my husband in his life as well as be an encouragement for him going forward for the next 40 years of his life. I also wanted his celebration to reflect who he was and his interests.

Using the number forty as found in the Bible as well as a few things my hubby loves like peanut butter filled pretzels, yellow cake with chocolate frosting and cars I was able to put together a pretty fancy-shmancy party. We also invited some of his (and my) closest friends and family to celebrate with us.

Using 16 instances of 40 coming from the Bible (Biblical Numerology) and 33 Bible verses that were either encouraging and/or about the number 40 I was able to come up with some fun decorations.

Decorations

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When the guests came in the door there were festive balloons greeting them. I had emailed the guests ahead of time that there would be an opportunity to write Steve an encouraging verse that might have been their favorite verse or something they think might lift him up for the next years of his life. I had a little signing station with black paper, a glass vase with a chalk sign and white pens. Next to that I had a mini easel that was written with the theme verse for the night which was Numbers 6:24:26. One of my favorite photos of my man was sitting next to the vase along with some painted wooden numbers for his milestone age.

 

 

 

 

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I used black chalk card stock paper from Hobby Lobby with white chalk markers and wrote out each instance the number 40 appears in the Bible as well as the 33 Bible verses. Each black sign I hot glued to a skewer that I spray painted black. For the display I used white rice topped with black shredded party paper in clear glass vases or tin pails and I stuck the skewers in the vases in groupings at various locations around the party scene.

 

 

 

 

 

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I also bought small medium and large wooden numbers at Hobby Lobby, painted them with black paint and used silver stickles around the edges of each number to make them stand out. The colors I chose were black, white silver and red. Underneath some of the table centerpieces I placed sheets of sparkly silver, white and black cardstock I bought from Hobby Lobby. It gave it just the right amount of pop.

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I bought black butcher paper from our local party store and silver and white ribbon for wrapping his gifts. Hobby Lobby also has some really awesome pop up stickers that fit perfectly with the birthday colors. I wanted the gifts to look really special since, after all, this was a very special birthday for a very important person to me!

 

 

 

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One of my most favorite decorations was the wall size number 40 made out of personal photos from Steve’s babyhood all the way to adulthood. His mom was gracious enough to send me several photos of him when he was younger and I coupled that with the many photos I had taken over the years and created this wall art. He absolutely loved looking at it. There were so many memories to talk about and things that even our guests learned about him through the photo forty. To adhere the pics I used sticky tac so it wasn’t permanent and wouldn’t peel off the paint. I also pre-laid out the photos ahead of time so I knew what would be placed where.

 

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I also made a birthday banner to put above the photo wall. It was black cardstock strung with silver ribbon. This was not my favorite decoration because my writing turned out not so great but it was still a nice greeting. We also used some black and white streamers to decorate various rooms.

 

 

The Cake

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Steve has been a car guy since he was a little tike. He noticed the tread on tires when he was a toddler! Since this was all about him and his interests and likes I hired a professional cake baker to make him a wheel cake. Steve’s favorite car is a Ferrai F40 and that is originally what I wanted the cake to look like but I ended up choosing a tire instead and topped it with a toy F40. The flavor of the cake was his favorite – yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I also made paleo cupcakes for those who needed a gluten free option and of course I wanted some cake too! I have to say that the only thing I was disappointed in was that the baker who did the cake made the tire glossy. What tire is glossy? Maybe one that has just been “armor-alled?”

 

 

 

The Food

Due to the fact that Steve’s birthday falls right after Christmas and my dad’s birthday is during the month, along with Christmas celebrations, family and friends visiting during this time, I decided to have the food catered. I know Steve loves Chipotle and it would feed a crowd so I decided to have them cater. We had the typical food from there and everyone had an option – even the vegetarians. Chipotle did a great job and I would have them cater again. Steve enjoyed it and we had plenty of food to go around.

The Encouragement

My husband has literally had a second chance at life and the friends and family at the party all knew his testimony. I wanted Steve to know that he has people who support him and want good for him in his life as well as people who are praying for him. So, after cake we did toasts with sparkling cranberry juice. Friends and family all went around the room and said uplifting things, advice for future years in life and gave him kind words. This was the most special part of the night and I am so glad it worked out for us to do that.

This was such a wonderful memory for Steve and praise God I was able to pull it off and honor my husband on this special milestone birthday!