Out of This World 40th Birthday Dinner

The Huz, wonderful man that he is, turned 40 this week. He’s fine about it, really. Says he feels like it was just yesterday that he was 39.

So, as usual, he wouldn’t tell me one thing that he wanted for his birthday. I toyed around with a few ideas: Canon or Nikon DSLR, e-reader, Satellite radio, new TV … the usual. But when my friend Jeff, aka Daddy’s Toolbox and a columnist at Chesco Moms suggested a telescope, I knew that was the gift to give. Its something he’s wanted to give to the boys for years, so that they could star watch together. How perfect!

Of course, I researched. And researched. And finally selected the Celestron 21061 AstroMaster 70 AZ Refractor Telescope. Please, don’t ask me how I selected. Just know that it cost less than I planned to spend and had great ratings and reviews. I should also mention that Amazon’s Telescope Buying Guide was fantastic. I wish more companies put explanations in writing like that.

To gift along with the telescope, I also purchased 2 basic books on studying the sky. (And I should mention that I walked around Barnes and Noble twice trying to find the Astronomy section. Finally, I asked someone for help. The woman took me, no joke, to Astrology. And this was after I joked about how I found Astrology pretty easily, but the Astronomy section was what I was looking for. For local readers, Astronomy is on the first floor, where travel used to be, by the coffee shop. And Astrology is around Spirituality and religion by the front windows on the 2nd floor.)

So, going with the gift theme (yay! I found a theme! Theme parties are so much easier!) we went to Party City to purchase our decor for our little family dinner party. After searching the store, the manager informed me that the only space sets they have in store are Toy Story 3. I looked at him in question. He responded “you know. Buzz Lightyear is from space.” Hmmm… Of course, then Big showed the manager Star Wars. Moving on…

We opted for 40th birthday decorations. And nothing that said “oh no!” or “over the hill” because that’s just mean.

Big and I decorated while Middle and Little napped. Big pulled his Solar System poster off his wall and hung it on the kitchen door. We added a few extra 40 and space items and then decided it was time to plan our menu for our dinner under the stars. (ie on the back deck on the 2nd day of summer).

Dinner Menu:

Jupi-burgers (cheeseburgers)
Flying Saucer chips (Potato Chips)
Star-rocks-on-the-cob (can you guess it? Corn-on-the-cob)
Water-on-the-moon (yup, Watermelon)

Desserts:

Crater Cookies (chocolate chip cookies)
Colossal Cake (actually, it was quite small, but the name sounded good)
Milky Way Bars (because, really, who can resist?)

The weather held up, then it didn’t, then it cleared up, and thunderstormed and, just as we were heading out to a table at Max & Erma’s, the sun came out and we grilled.

And I learned one very important thing: if you give a gift of a telescope on the 2nd longest day of the year, expect your kids to stay up very, very late waiting for dark.

About Julie Meyers Pron

Julie Meyers Pron has written 813 post in this blog.

mom of 3 and wife, Julie is a former elementary school teacher and a Public Relations manager. She is the owner/editor of Just Precious, founding partner of Just Centsible, and a team member of Splash Creative Media. Julie is a PTOer, volunteer, elementary educator and that's just the beginning of the list!