30th Birthday Surprise

My family is a big believer in celebrating birthdays and major holidays. I've grown up always making a big deal about these annual events, and I think it's made my life happier. As humans, we have a need to celebrate, to do something out of the ordinary and have fun. I've come across people who don't put much effort into birthdays or holidays, and while I understand that sometimes it's just not part of their family culture, I still think it's perfectly reasonable to get excited and make big plans for those special days.

With that, I would like to share what I did for my hubby's thirtieth birthday. When planning something for another person, it's always a good idea to take into account what they like to do, what best holds their interest. With my hubby, I know he loves puzzles and strategy games. He also enjoys physical activities, like rock climbing and bowling. I figured I could either rent a couple lanes at a bowling alley, or I could throw a Magic the Gathering party at the local game shop. (I definitely knew I wanted to host SOME sort of big party. Thirty is a major birthday, after all.)

So then I had to decide which he would enjoy more. I would have enjoyed the bowling party more, but I am an extrovert at heart, whereas the hubby is an introvert. Then I had to decide if I wanted it to be a specific Magic party, which would limit who I could invite. I went with a board game night, since it would appeal to the interests of everyone I invited.

After that, I decided to make it a surprise party, and for the two weeks leading up to the party, I would give the hubby clues and riddles to solve. Since I put in a lot of hard work into this, I am posting all the clues here! (Feel free to use this as inspiration the next time you want to do something fun for your family or friends!)

First, I hid the starter clue inside his backpack.

"Thirty is a special year,
It comes just once, they say.
To celebrate, I'll rhyme, I fear,
Give tasks and clues along the way.

Two a day, for one fortnight
Leaves time for school and work.
IF you need help, ask, don't bite - 
They're for fun. And me, don't shirk!

I'll do my best to make these varied;
they're harder to write than solve.
Hopefully my skills aren't buried.
Perhaps they'll grow, evolve."

Then, the first "official" clue:

 Your next clue - a haiku!

Although you're older,
In the Twilight of your life,
You surely are not.

This led him to our copy of the book Twilight (yes, I own the books, and we BOTH enjoyed reading them - obviously enough to purchase and STILL own them, despite the heavy Meyer criticism. But that's a topic for another post...)

I had left a piece of paper inside the book, with a series of numbers written down on it as the next clue. It was a cipher! I wrote down a page number, a line on the page, the number word on the line, then the letter in that word. For example, I looked for a capital letter C and let's say I found it on page 234, it was on the 17th line from the top of the page, the 5th word in, and the 1st letter in that word. The code would read 234.17.5.1. There was a total of eight codes like that, to spell out a simple message, "Call E---" (one of his siblings). 

I gave the next clue to his sibling, so they could give the next clue. Not entirely necessary, but it gave the hubby a chance to visit and chat (he's a guy, after all, and not all men are great at keeping in touch).

The next clue was supposed to be read with emphasis on the capitalized words, but the hubby figured it out anyway: 

"Wish we were There, And we hope you can come Back Again."

Yes, this would lead him to our copy of "The Hobbit." Inside that book was another slip of paper, with this cryptic message:

100-25= ? , (27 & 28)

This one wasn't quite as clear as the last cipher; it was supposed to lead him to page 75, and read lines 27 and 28, which was the next clue, borrowed from Tolkien:

A box without hinges, key or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

THAT clue took hubby all of five seconds to figure out, since we both love that book and riddles in general. The next clue was hidden inside our egg carton in the fridge :)

This is what the following clue said:

"Not Indiana Jones."

This one threw him a bit, wondering if we had any family with the last name Jones, or if we knew anyone from the state, Indiana. Instead, it was a teacher on campus with the last name Jones. (Hubby was impressed I had involved his professor.)

I had emailed the teacher and given him the next clue, which read:

Here you will find a Link to your past.

Hubby loves the Zelda video games, and the hero's name is "Link," so it led him to our video games. Inside one of the game cases I hid the following clue:

Just "wing" your way over to this eatery.

Hubby and I had our first date at a restaurant called "Wingers." I left an envelope there with another clue inside, a youtube link. This link led him to a music video, the one where someone had taken a line from a Lord of the Rings movie, "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" and remixed it into a fun little song. 

Initially hubby looked at our LOTR books, so I had to redirect him to our DVDs. Inside the second movie's case (since that line was from the second film), ther was another slip of paper, this time with a fill-in-the-blank:

J______ J______ helped to make "us" official.

We bought our rings at Jensen's Jewelers, a local ring shop. They had another envelope for him, and I had drawn a pictogram clue, breaking down the name of one of his other siblings into a few syllables that could be figured out with images. That sibling had this clue:

Find a friend whose last name rhymes, and you will have a clue in time:
"I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck."

This one was a little harder - we have some friends with the last name Beck, so I had to point out that the word hubby was trying to rhyme was "peck." Once he got a hold of that friend, he was given a task:

To receive the next clue (this will be great!)
A high hit must be rolled - not just one.
Twice times twenty, divided by eight.
In the clue giver's presence, D---- son."

That was his dad's name, just to finish the rhyme, referring to hubby. He had to roll five "critical hits" with dice, which, if you're a gamer, you know that means on a twenty-sided die, you need to roll a 20. Then came the next clue:

He may often work in solitary,
Just like you prefer to do.
He is not head of a monastery,
But you respect him through and through.

Hubby has a boss with the last name "Abbott," so the clue was a play on the literal definition of "abbot." His boss then gave him this clue:

 The next clue will not come, I'm afraid,
Until you Face the facts and make it known
Just how awesome your loving wife has made
Your whole life, and how much you've grown.

Basically I just wanted him to post on Facebook something simple and sweet about how he loves me. I mean, who doesn't want to hear that? :) After he completed this task, I gave him the next clue.

The redheaded kin studying south.

Hubby has a sibling going to college in the state directly south of us, and she has pretty red hair (they all do!). This was her question:

"What does the fox say?"

Right now there is a popular song called, "What does the Fox say?" and it's pretty ridiculous and funny. So hubby had to sing for her, the part of the chorus where it's supposed to be what the fox is "saying." I told her to put the phone on speaker - I hope she did :p - and then give him the next clue:

Hardware and software you play all day.
Some would call it work, you seem to think it is play.
Geeks only are allowed, it keeps regular people at bay.
You may find this place, just do it before it is all canned.

This clue was actually written by hubby's boss, and it was an inside joke about a big project they had worked on at the office for almost a year when the people upstairs decided to shut it down. The clue was at the office, and it read:

Run, swim, climb or bike,
This Don we both like.

We have an athletic friend that hubby likes to ride bikes with, and his name includes the word "don." (Fun fact: "Don" is a title or honorific originating from Italy and Spain - just think of the Zorro films with Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas.)

This friend had the following clue:

It goes by chocolate or by Cocoa,
No matter how it's seen,
This place I often go-go,
But I'm not sure you've ever Bean.

There is a cupcake shop in town called the Cocoa Bean, and I go there a lot, usually to buy cupcakes for birthdays or to congratulate new moms. They had a clue in an envelope for hubby, along with a gift certificate for a cupcake. (You can't go to a cupcake shop and not eat a cupcake!) Extra sweet surprise: Instead of getting himself a cupcake, hubby use the certificate to bring one home for me!

The envelope had another youtube link, this time to a video of the song, "Wake Up, Little Susie." (Hubby's mom's name). I made sure he had this clue last, so he would call his mom on his birthday. She sent him a text with the last clue, a word scramble:

ylraedgnos smeag

That one didn't take long for him to decipher: Dragonslayer Games is the only game shop in town. He said I should have made it harder by spelling out actual words with the letters, since that messes with your brain more.

The hard part of all this was telling him he couldn't go to the shop until after 8 pm, something to do with their inventory and not having his final "gift" ready until then. Oh, no wait, the hard part was having to CANCEL the party since hubby got sick on his birthday! I had to move the whole thing to the following Tuesday and STILL keep it a surprise. Everyone I invited did a good job keeping the secret, but hubby said the way I made him wait until after eight was a bit obvious. Oh well. I was tired after all that clue-writing and hiding and party coordinating!

Anyway, I hope this helps give one of you some fun ideas for your next loved one's special day!