For my husbands 40th birthday I planned a surprise party. My husband is from Arizona so I decided to invite some of his buddies to make the surprise even greater. I sent out a letter about nine months prior telling everyone that I was planning this party so they could begin making travel arrangements. About one and a half months prior to the party I mailed out the actual invitations.  The party was a BBQ theme. I found cute plates and napkins with bbq's and aprons on them and I had a pinata that was in the shape of a ketchup and mustard bottle.  I also found some gummy candy that was shaped like mini hamburgers and hotdogs. It was a July party so it was a great time for a bbq. We barbequed hamburgers and hotdogs and had homemade ice cream.  I told my husband that he and I were going to spend the day together and we were taking the kids to my moms. They live on a farm and have enough property that we could easily hide the cars. When we got there, everyone was in the backyard and yelled surprise when he came around the corner (we usually go in the back door). He was not only surprised by the party, but he was surprised to see a couple of his friends from Arizona. We had a video camera set up to catch the surprise as well as the other events through out the day. The kids loved the pinata and so did my husband. For an added surprise I bought 2 dozen Phoenix Suns hats (his favorite basketball team) for very cheap on ebay and gave them out as party favors. We had everyone put on their hat and then took a group picture. My husband will have the group picture and the video tape of his party so he can always remember the day. We had a great time!