Grandmother's 80th Birthday
So, Saturday was my Grandmother's 80th birthday. We had a big surprise party for her 75th, of course the joke was that hopefully we wouldn't scare/suprise her too much, and she said that all she wanted was a big party for 80, since it was a pretty big deal.
My mom and her brothers and sisters all put in the money and time to arranging it, I helped out a tiny bit with getting the venue ready, and thought I'd share some of the festivities with anyone who's still reading my blog.
The night before we went over to decorate and prepare. There were going to be about 140 people there, so we'd better have enough tables and chairs for them all to sit when they ate:
My neice was big into helping with everything
We wrapped napkins around the cutlery to make sure that it looked pretty (notice the child labour at the end of the counter)
There was even some dishwashing to be done
and decorations to go up
Of course, there's always time to goof off
Once everything was set up, we headed home for a good night's sleep before the party. On Saturday some of us went to a special mass for my Grandmother, but she was late because her hair appointment went long. Then came time for the party!!
People started getting there just after 1pm
My gramma the social butterfly
Everyone got in the party spirit,
People were up chatting, so I went around and got some nice group shots: (L-R Mike, Brian, Vanessa - all cousins)
Sarah, Debbie (mom's cousin), and other cousins - I can't read thier nametags, but I remember that he's my mom's cousin...i think... (if my family reads this, give me names and I'll fill in the blanks)
My mom's cousin Sue her Aunt Verna and My aunt Cathy:
Some more of my Grandma's side of the family, Brenda (mom's cousin), her son's gf, her son, mom's uncle and aunt (names are totally escaping me right now)
Aunt Laura, her friend Mo, Mo's husband (John), Uncle Paul and Aunt Brenda
Cousin Mark and gf Catherine
My neice decided she needed to help me take pictures: My cousin Emily and her bf Brandon:
Cousin Christina and her boyfriend Chris
My mom and nephew:
Not too bad for a 2 yr old, hun? Then we went off to take pictures of the tables of people eating... cause isn't everyone at thier best when they're eating:
After we'd eaten I got dragged out side by my neice, I thought she was saying 'outside' but no, it was slide, so we went to the little playground across the parkinglot
This was the attempt at taking a picture of her coming down the slide..
Then she played on the teetertotter with my cousin's little girl Sarah. I think this is the most precious picture ever!
We got back inside just in time to sing Happy Birthday and have some cake
The fun began with the nametags, some of the inlaws (or outlaws as I like to call them) had added funny comments in the 'relationship' section (mine said granddaughter) like "married to favourite son" or "dating cleanest daughter", somehow my 1 yr old nephew had the best ones
Things started to wind down as people headed home,
my grandmother got up and busted a move (but I didn't get it on film) and we cleaned up. We headed over to one of my uncle's places and chilled for the rest of the day, just chatting and laughing.
I drove my gramma home and she said that she was so happy at how it'd gone and she'd had a great time. So I'd say that my aunts and uncles hit a home run with this party