My wonderful hubby turned 40 a few weeks ago and I wanted to celebrate this milestone. Since he's not a big fan of being the center of attention, I knew a surprise party was out. Instead I wanted to keep it simple and have a low-key party that incorporated some of his favorite foods- BBQ and cupcakes. I found my inspiration from this blog.
I only did a few small craft projects for his birthday, including staining some wooden crates that would serve to hold the barbecue platters on the food table. I got these crates at Michael's for about $4 each and also found a spray paint stain for them- on clearance for only $2! Below are the before, during, and after pictures of the crates. They looked pretty good and they were super simple with the stain spray.
Another project I created was a Happy Birthday banner. I liked the idea of using burlap in a couple different places in the decor so I found a huge roll of burlap to cut out the parts of the banner. B's favorite color is navy so I used navy scrapbook paper for the letters and navy ribbon to hold the banner together. So it would hold together, I made each word a mini banner. Below is the final product.
I also decided to bring the burlap theme into the food labels and found the cutest squares of burlap at Michael's, then layered them with the navy scrapbook paper. Since I didn't have enough of the squares of burlap, I also made some larger ones without the burlap. Below are the food labels.
Since B saw me working on a lot of the projects, the only surprise was the photo collage. B's parents and brother were able to make it down for the party, and I know they all got a kick out of seeing all these photos.
To make life easy, I had the BBQ catered from 'cue barbeque (cuebarbecue.com) and just had a bunch of side dishes to go with BBQ including a Mac and cheese bar, bacon-wrapped green beans, baked potato salad, baked beans, coleslaw, veggies and fruit.
Some photos of the spread.
And of course, who can forget dessert. I got cupcakes from the same place we got them for our wedding- Jilly's Cupcakery (jillyscupcakery.com). B loves rice Krispy treats so I also had to make a few batches of those. The desserts were a big hit, as usual!
B had a great time and it was so wonderful for our friends to come and share in his special night.
The food spread with B's banner
Me and the birthday boy!
My wonderful in-laws!
And some photos from the rest of the night!
Later in the night, we had to bust out some beer pong and flip cup!
All in all, it was a great night and we so appreciate everyone who came out to celebrate!!
Until next time (I promise it won't be another year!)
Cathy
