A trip to outer space for his 40th birthday

My husband and I just celebrated a significant birthday milestone.  His birthday came first.  On his birthday, I used social media to wish a happy birthday to the love of my life, and I even told the world that I think he is as "hot" now as the day I first fell for him.  He is an awesome man of God who still continues to grow even more each year in knowledge, wisdom, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, and faithfulness. I thank God every day for the blessing and privilege of journeying through life hand in hand with him. And I particularly love the fact that he, like a good leader should, went over the hill before me. This post will be all about his birthday celebration.

All my husband wanted for his birthday this year was a trip to outer space and a handgun.  Purchasing a gun was a hassle, requiring him to take time off from work on two different days to complete all the registration paper work "during business hours only".  The waiting period for approval took three times longer than it usually takes due to a dramatic increase in gun sales since the election of our current POTUS.  But getting my husband to outer space would prove to be a bit more complicated.

These days, you can actually buy a ticket to space, but the airfare could easily devastate a healthy retirement savings fund. So we worked out a little compromise.  Instead of launching him into space, we would launch him "over the hill" with a celebration that is "out of this world". 

After the guests were welcomed with "Greetings earthlings", they were introduced to the costumed guests and then voted for best male and female costume.  Two sets of Star Trek couples arrived in matching red or blue shirts and black pants with appropriate emblems and stripes.

I had hoped our family members would each choose costumes that complemented one another, yet we each had very different ideas.  My husband is a huge science fiction buff, so he chose to dress as Arthur Dent, the main character from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  Since my husband wanted to go to outer space, I thought I should dress as the wife of a famous astronaut.  Mom had a dress she wore in 1969, the year Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, so I went as Jan Armstrong circa 1969.  Jan had very short dark hair, so I kept my hair darker than usual and tried to put my hair into a faux bob.  Our daughter wore my confirmation gown from my middle school days, carried a Nerf gun, and styled her hair to look like Princess Leia.  Our son initially dressed as Buzz Lightyear, but he transformed into an Angry Bird from outer space by the end of the party. 

 

We converted our music room into a planetarium using our son's Star Wars planetarium night light.  This darkened room had the Star Wars galaxy lit up across the ceiling.  The kids set out their Melissa & Doug solar system floor puzzle as an activity for the children to do under the light of the starry sky (aka ceiling).  This room also served as a sleeping area for infant earthlings.  Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of the planetarium.

The most amusing game of the evening was Spaceteam, a virtual space game that guests downloaded onto their smart phones or tablets.   Each guest's digital device served as a space ship console with hilarious buttons and controls.  Commands appeared on the screen but each player's console was different, so players would shout out the command and whoever had the control on their display would have to activate the command before it was too late.  When entering an asteroid belt, players would have to shake or flip their devices over.  Watching them yell at each other as they all worked together to man the spacecraft was funny indeed.  Again, I failed to take photos since I was too busy chatting with guests, but I do have a short video clip I took of the kids, my husband, and my brother playing this game at my parents' home during our Easter visit.

Favors included inflatable space shuttles, space shuttle gliders and pop-up aliens for the kids and special symbolic gifts for the adults.  Prizes were baskets filled with space food, including freeze dried ice-cream which was quite popular during my youth but very difficult to find today.  Thankfully, you can buy almost anything on Ebay.

I outsourced the cake to my most creative and talented friend.  She baked him a UFO cake complete with battery powered landing lights, chemical tube lights, and candles that burned different colored flames to match the color of the candle.

The party decor was eclectic and simple since I have Pinterest-phobia which involves such symptoms as heart palpitations and hyperventilating at the mere thought of trying to recreate some of those artful, complicated masterpieces which require at least a PhD in craftiness.   I've been on Pinterest only once, and that was one too many times for me.  My son's Lego creations served as centerpieces for the tables, and his Lego Star Wars planets were hung from the chandelier over the table.  Glow sticks, space stickers, outer space wrapping paper, VBS space posters, inflatable space shuttles, and party tableware from Oriental Trading contributed to the theme.

 The birthday boy requested junk food like you might find at a football bowl game party.

Some of the food offerings included: 

Alien cupcakes

Cheesy star clusters

Virgo's veggies

Cosmic cookies

Chips & the big dipper

Sausage satellites

Butter bolides

Blueberry & vanilla almond asteroids

Saturn’s Rings de la onion

Nutty moon rocks

Lunar lemon tea

Galactic sweet tea

Chicken & bacon space stations

Celestial chicken

Pretzular perturbations

Flying saucer pizzas

Milky ways

Mozzarella marinara meteors

Jupiter Sharp cheddar Cheese ball with almonds