40^th Birthday Party        

A few weeks ago, we surprised, astounded and stunned my brother on a chilly Saturday evening.  I lured him to my home with promises of expertly prepared tenderloin and all the fixings.  Foolishly, he accepted my invitation thus falling prey to the devious efforts of his family.  Later he said, as he turned on to my street he wondered why there were so many cars.   As he pulled into the driveway, he knew we had him.  Staggered throughout the snow banks along my sidewalk were obnoxious 40+ sayings printed on cards.  On my porch, my nephew was playing taps.  Black ribbons adorned the left over Christmas decorations.  Oh, we had him good!

Whenever I have a party, my wish is to greet my guests before they enter my home with some sort of welcome as if to say – we are so glad you came!  In this case, the guests all appreciated my efforts at decorating, with the exception of the birthday boy!  My deed was done!

40 plus Birthday Signs

The signs I had printed at a copy center on card stock. My home printer is an ink jet and I knew the ink would run if it snowed so I wanted the signs laser printed.  My cost was only $2.15 for a dozen signs and it is super easy to do.  Just send a PDF to your local copy center with directions for printing.  Then, go pick them up! Using different fonts on multiple colors of card stock, made the signs fun, easy and inexpensive!  My three favorite things!

Birthday Signs
Celebrate the 19^th Anniversary of my 21^st Birthday!
40 Happens
Halfway to 80
40 Years,  Est. 1974
Lordy, Lordy look who’s 40
Holy #%*@  You are 40!
Cleverly Disguised as a Responsible 40 year old!
It took me 40 years to look this good!
I’m not 40, I’m 18 with 22 years of experience!
Looks 18
Feels 14
Acts 8
That makes 40

Click here for a PDF file:  Birthday Signs for the 40 year old

Mourning Veils

As you can see in the very solemn picture, the ladies are all sporting black veils!  This was super easy to accomplish.  I purchased black netting and black curling ribbon.  Netting usually runs around 1-2 dollars per yard – so – very cheap!  We cut the netting in 24-inch lengths and 8-inch widths then tied a black curling ribbon a third of the way down the long length.  This provided a great spot to use a bobby pin and pin the veil in place on the top of our heads.  The veils made my brother laugh so we met our goal – to humiliate and have fun!

Party Food     

Luckily for me, my guests contributed to the menu for the evening and my only duty, besides providing the venue, was to have beer and wine available for all the guests.  I did have my husband prepare a favorite appetizer.  Bacon-Apple-Jalapeno Pop ‘Ems

These are very yummy.  Even my niece, who is only 8, declared she had 4 of them so don’t let the Jalapeno portion of the recipe sway you.   The recipe calls for the jalapeños to be seeded, but my “spicy-loving” husband, likes to leave the seeds in a few of the appetizers.  He indicates the HOT ones my leaving on the stem of the Jalapeno. I personally know better and will never eat the stemmed Jalapeno appetizers, but not all my guests have my sense.  One time my brave/foolish sister tried a HOT one and ended up drinking cream to wash the fire away.  It was very funny!  Yes, I can be a bit sadistic!