How did you celebrate the big 40?

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Mine is looming (next spring)!

I'm looking for ideas really and just wondering how others marked this most special event.

Please tell all.... well, perhaps not all, but enough to inspire me .

I have 13 yrs yet ladies...........................

Hi Rhuby. Very well thanks. Lost that one but got pregnant again within 3 months so am now 17 weeks up the duff. What have I done????

How's it all going for you? When will you be on telly?

Damn, sorry to hear about that one Tinker. Hopefully this one will go smoothly. Sending good vibes your way.
On telly this summer/late spring. Not sure about it all yet, depends on the editing I guess. They have filmed around 100 hours to be made into 1 hour, so I guess they could take any angle they wanted to, all rather scary and am dreading seeing the finished result!

DH is 40 in January and I am just booking a weekend away to Rome - he chose where to go. It is our 5th wedding anniversary the day before, so extra celebrations. For my 40th I quite fancy repeating what I did for my 30th. I went away for the weekend with a group of friends to the Champagne region of France, staying in nice hotels and of course drinking lots of bubbly.

Well, I shall keep my eyes peeled for next spring. Hope all is going well. Am very envious of the couple who have been on telly here having bought a chateau in France and converted it to a hotel. . One day... Keep in touch.

Azure - Rome - lovely. I feel very . Went there this July for our 10th wedding anniversary. Would go back again any day.

Thanks everyone .

Some great ideas (and lovely stories) on here.

I'm going to mull over all the things I've wanted to do and not got round to yet.

One of the things I have ALWAYS wanted to do is travel on the Venice Simplon Orient Express and I haven't been to Rome yet, so perhaps me and dh could combine the two. There's a 1 day journey from Venice to Rome which isn't too horrendously priced.

If we do anything like this, we need to butter up some relatives for looking after ds1 & 2!

I'll be 40 shortly and am planning on having a big party at home. No idea of a theme yet. Masks sound good - to cover those wrinkly little eyes!!

We'd had a sht year with all the issues around grandson and my 40th was the last thing on my mind. Suddenly decided to go ahead and have a party - turned into a massive event, even though it was quite literally a last minute thing (decided to go ahead five days before the big event). Marquee in garden, lots of food & booze, lots of friends (many, I'd not seen for years), right back to school friends who I'd not managed to maintain contact with , but traced through other people - everyone invited turned up. Started at around 7.30 on evening of my birthday, many people stayed on with the last ones going at 3.00am the following* afternoon. It was also the only birthday party that I've ever had and definately an event to remember.

Just goes to show that you can have a great time without putting too much thought into it.

I know it's early, but I hope you have a great time, whatever you decide to do.

My DH took me to Newcastle, without the children

(We're in Kent & I'd never been that far North before....)

Damn! I didn't do anything really (dp cooked a nice meal but that was pretty much it!)
Think I'll print this thread out and leave it lying around .... a long weekend in New Orleans would be nice!

ha ha tanzie at wrinkly little eyes!

I haven't read all the thread yet but thought I'd add my story. I had to teach the day of my 40th but brought along a couple of bottles of bubbly to share in the staff room. Just as the corks were popping, my mother rang, all in a panic, because my then 1yr old dd was running a fever of almost 40°C. Abandoning the champagne and the other teachers, I dashed home, dosed dd with calpol, gave her a tepid bath, called the doctor, cancelled the babysitter and our reservation at a lovely restaurant that I'd been looking forward to for ages. (I didn't realise then that little ones can run a high fever without being at death's door!) We did eventually get to the restaurant a few days later but the Big Day itself was pretty awful.

I think the best advice for a "big" birthday is not to expect too much. As an only child, I'd always had quite a fuss made over my birthday and somehow still expected the same kind of treatment!

Birthdays, I've come to the conclusion, are just like New Year's Eve parties. Overrated! You can have the best time by doing the least.

I will be 40 on christmas day, the one night of the year the pubs are closed-typical. The kids have got their advent calendars now and this morning it said 24 days to go, and I thought gosh, thats how many days I have left in my 30s.

I've just been to New York with 4 friends - we're all forty over the next few months. It was great to just hang out together, stay up late without worrying about being woken early by the kids the next day, shopping without husbands or kids moaning, etc, etc. Ok, it was an extravagant thing to do, but we booked the flights a few months ago and because of the cost, we knew no-one would drop out unless it was for something really serious.

To be honest, we didn't do much in the way of sightseeing so we could probably have done something similar closer by. However, there was the added bonus of a 7 hrs on a plane, i.e. more time to ourselves!