I wanted to do something completely out of the norm and special for my husband's 30th birthday but nothing felt like a right fit. Scott was really disliking the thought of turning thirty so the common 30-year-old themed birthday parties swimming around Pinterest ("Dirty thirty, "thirty blows", etc) weren't fitting. I wanted a theme that was positive, inspirational, but still silly and fun. That's when I came up with the idea to throw him a Rocky Balboa birthday party to help him "Rock 30"!

My husband is a huge Rocky (1-4) fan so it felt like the perfect fit! Especially when recalling that he air-boxed to Eye of the Tiger at one of his grade school talent shows... yup. Perfect!

I searched the internet for party ideas, but other than a few cake designs I had ZERO luck finding any pins or ideas for a Rocky themed party. So here you go Pinterest!

 Ideas for a positive 30th birthday party for the Rocky Balboa fan Or anyone needing a reminder of why they are going to ROCK 30!

Pic of Rocky fighting Mr. T... because Scott is turning thir-T! Huh huh? :)

 

What I Did

Everything including the theme was a surprise to my husband so I needed simple decorations that would be really easy to put together the night before but still look awesome!
So...
- I put a red tablecloth on the table.
- Threw up red, white, and blue streamers.
- Added red and white balloons here and there.
- Cut out a large circle of yellow construction paper and taped it to 3 strands of streamers to create a  "SCOTT ROCK'S 30" championship belt.
- And printed a few table-sized Rocky Balboa portraits to scatter on the table.






30 Gifts for 30 Years
The decorations were simple (I ran out of time to do all of my ideas!) but they gave a bold impression and a perfect place for me to put my "30 GIFTS FOR 30 REASONS WHY YOU WILL ROCK 30".
I found the 30 gifts for 30 on Pinterest here, but added my own spin by adding a little message to coordinate with each gift. Each message listed one reason why I thought he was awesome and would rock 30. I won't lie, if you decide to do something like this... it was A LOT of work! Wrapping 30 presents and writing 30 personalized messages takes MUCH longer than I anticipated it would, but seeing how great it looked on the table and seeing Scott's expression when he walked in made it completely worth it!





 Conclusion
He absolutely loved the theme! I played songs from Rocky while he opened presents and neither of us could stop laughing! Not only did he know all the songs, but he knew what movie and which scene they were from. Nerd. :)
Later in the evening I gave him another surprise by inviting friends to slip into our house while he was off on a run. He totally caught us in the act, but it was still great!

I sure love this guy. He doesn't get spoiled very often so it was fun to go a little above and beyond for him this year to show him how much I and others care about him.

Birthday kisses for Daddy

Why Scott's Awesome #16 "He's training for another triathlon!"

One of his gifts, a pair of sunglasses. After opening them he runs to the computer to show me a picture of Rocky wearing a pair just like them... I am good!

One of the last photos I took of Scott and Alexa before he deployed.

 All feels right in the world with this guy back home! Seeing him walk up to us and embrace us for the first time in 6 months felt amazingly unreal. In the photo below you can see that Alexa was shy at the airport but less than an hour later she was snuggling and bringing him books to read. She always was a Daddy's girl. I'm so glad she warmed up to him so quickly. It melts my heart to see my two favorite people reunited again.