“When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.”
J.R.R. Tolkein The Fellowship of the Ring
This year, my dear sweet husband turned 30. Not only is he married to me, but he’s survived 2 pregnancies. He lives in a house of 3 wild, strong willed, women. He provides for us, and is the best partner I could ever hope for. I truly don’t know what I would do without him. The man deserved a day to celebrate him.
Last year, as I began planning his birthday, I knew I would have to get creative. A quick Pinterest search rendered me bored and annoyed as apparently the only birthday theme for an adult man was alcohol. I had joked for a number of years now that for his 30th birthday I would do a giant charcuterie board. Going with that line of thinking I thought, “What could I do that a charcuterie board would work?” Thankfully, it wasn’t long before I realized that a charcuterie board was the perfect kind of food for a Hobbit.
From there, the hardest part was keeping it a surprise. WHICH I actually somehow managed to more or less do!👏🏼 But I digress.
We fortunately have a nice little place not far from our house that is the perfect size for such a party. There were a lot of things I wish I could have done, but as this was a surprise party, I was slightly limited in what I could get away with. I also managed to convince him that I was working on a party for his mother, as her birthday is right before his. I told him she was helping, but thought it was a birthday for him as his was a milestone birthday.
The crowning glory was not a cake, but true to my word, a giant charcuterie table. I purchased the meats & cheeses from Sam’s Club and Wegmans.
On the other end, I did dessert goodies. Ethan LOVES chocolate, but there were a few puns and references I just couldn’t pass up…
Many items of food had punny references including Dragon Eyes, Goblin Chunks, Troll Boogies, Counsel of Elrod cookies, Orc Guts, Aragorn Apple Juice, Gimli Grape Juice, and White Gems of Lasgalen.
It would have been a true travesty had I also left out a “Meats on the menu tonight boys!” reference. I got all of the little black boards at the Dollar Tree! These larger ones are reusable. The smaller clip ones were just painted wood and not an actual board. I am planning on repainting them to reuse them anyway.
I kept centerpieces simple references. We happen to have a wicked awesome Pop! Figure collection. I knew we had a Smaug, and was shocked to find Aragorn, Tree Beard, Gollum, Gandalf, and Pippin as well. I may have borrowed some of Athena’s horses for a Riders of Rohan table. Another had doilies, a book, and tea cup, as a nod to Bilbo Baggins.
As we were having a number of guest drive in from out of town, and it was early afternoon, we wanted to make sure we had some “real food” too. His mom and grandma made baked potatoes and Hobbit Beans (hobo beans). And thus, we had the Prancing Pony Potato Bar- boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew.
One of our friends also happens to be an incredible artist. She got into town the day before the party and was able to lend a hand. She painted a lovely poster with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli for us to snag a few pics with.
For the tiny humans I created a spot of Smaug’s treasure. Along with some Play Doh and glow sticks as take home goodies, I also got a pack of pirate booty that was perfect to emulate the treasure of the Dwarves Under the Mountain.
For the sake of this post, I wish I had more pictures. The reality is, I don’t think any of these are even from me. Everyone I would need to talk to was at the party and thus I didn’t even have my phone on me. We enjoyed the afternoon together. We were lucky to have beautiful weather and were even able to spend a good bit of time enjoying it.
With the exception of food, just about everything we either already owned, or I picked up at the Dollar Tree. I even managed to find a Tolkein playlist already put together that I played.
I’m happy to report, I do believe we partied like Hobbits and hopefully celebrated the entrance into this new decade in a way that even Bilbo would have been excited for.
*No knives were blunt or forks bent in the process of this party.*
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