Todd's 40th b-day

40?  Seriously?  I'm married to an old man!

I had been planning Todd's party for several months and all that work finally paid off!  It all started with a funny idea at church.  I mentioned to my friend while in Primary that I should do a "shooting" party for Todd since that's what his current hobby is.  Todd bought a gun (Glock 26) after Christmas and he's been in love ever since.  He takes clients nearly every week to our local gun range and enjoys shooting.  We've also gone a couple of times together.  It's not my favorite thing to do but it's something fun to do together.  I'll admit that I'm a bit scared of guns.  I just don't want to shoot anyone.

I decided to call the gun range and see if they would be willing to host a birthday party.  I know it's probably not a request they receive very often but it was worth a try.  I spoke with the owner and after some pondering, he got back to me and it was a go.

Friday, May 4th was set on their calendars.

Let the rest of the planning begin...

I've had several ideas floating around in my head, and these are what I came up with:

• matching t-shirts for those who come to the party
• a book about Todd's life (I was told NO DVD!-he didn't say anything about a book)
• a 1year subscription to the NRA (this is funny because he's a flaming Democrat)
• Subscription to the Dollar Shave Club (go watch the video, you'll laugh til you cry!)
• some cool gun t-shirts
• a fun 4-0 photo montage via Martha Stewart (I did it on foam board-it looks like a Kindergartener did the project)
• a new gun (well, maybe just some $$ to buy a gun)
• ordered Todd's favorite ice cream from Morelli's - Rosemary Olive Oil

I had my ideas and now I just had to implement them...I started w/the range and got that squared away.  I also had to coordinate with the IDPA instructor who would lead our group's match.  I then proceeded on the little things.  I emailed/messaged on facebook a bunch of people to write me a note, a birthday wish or funny memory of Todd to add to the book.  It was sure fun to read some of those memories.  It took a lot of time scanning photos, uploading and typing out all the messages but the book looked good and was ready to be uploaded.

(Side note:  I uploaded the book on April 20th and received confirmation that it was shipped on April 24th.  On May 2nd it still hadn't arrived so I contacted Snapfish and they said "you should have received it by now"  DUH!  I told them I HAD to have it by May 4th.  They expedited a new upload and overnighted it.  I checked the mailbox on Friday and it was there!   Phew!  Around 5pm our sitter came and just as she pulled up, the UPS truck pulled up and you guessed it, the 2nd book arrived so I got both books on the same day.  Serendipity I suppose).

I made contact with a former high school acquaintance who is currently a graphic designer and asked him to come up with a logo for Todd's b-day t-shirt.  I gave him the info:  40th b-day, "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, " sponsored by the NRA, etc.  He came back with an awesome design.  I got the t-shirts made & distributed to the party-goers.

Here's the graphic for the shirt!

The other stuff was pretty easy to manage and it all came together on Friday and we had a blast!  He was surprised which was fun because I had a few slip-ups along the way.  We had such a great time at the range, had a yummy dinner at our favorite Thai place and dessert at Jennifer's house.

Happy 40th to my hubby!

Here's a little video I put together of our adventure!