YOU & ME | Jane's SUB-sational Birthday

My family gathered for a few hours to celebrate my sister Jane's birthday on July 22, however preparing for the event actually took a tad longer.

The event was held at my mom's apartment and I was her party coordinator.  A week or more prior, we discussed what the menu would be. We wanted something that would be tasty, but not require one or both of us to be spend hours in front of a hot stove. After all, we wanted to enjoy ourselves just like the rest of the gang hopefully would be.

Mom and I came up with the idea of subs, but instead of buying them already prepared from a sub shop, we would purchase popular ingredients required to make them and let the guests do-it- themselves. This way everyone's sub would be just the way they liked it.

The day before the party, mom and I went to our local Walmart Superstore and Dollartree, where, between the two places, we found everything on our very well plotted list. I helped lug the stuff into mom's apartment and that was all she wrote for day one.

The actual day of the get-together, Timmi and I went to mom's several hours before the rest of the family were expected. We had trays of cold cuts, assorted chopped veggies, various sliced cheese, pickles, sauces, chips and a fruit tray.

PHOTOS & GIFS BY SCRIBBLES

I had made my infamous homemade iced tea, which I brought with me. Mom had put the bottles of pop in her small freezer and their contents were very close to becoming completely frozen when I retrieved them. No one would be able to say the pop wasn't cold at today's function. LOL (inside joke here.)

My sister Kim purchased a cake with fresh strawberries on it, which she would bring when she arrived after work, so we had that part of the birthday covered as well.

I helped mom put sections in the dining room table and gather up chairs from around her home, so everyone would have a place to sit. Even though mom isn't a big fan of them, I had bought some balloons and blew up a cluster. How can you have a birthday party without balloons?

Guests arrived starting around 5 pm, including of course the birthday girl, her husband Ken and son Graham, who I picked up using mom's car.

The sub idea was a big success and I liked that once it was set up, mom and I could join in the fun without having to keep serving the rest of our group. The eating of the cake, opening gifts and taking photos all followed.

Now that the prep and party were wrapping up, I wouldn't require mom's car anymore, so my niece gave Timmi and I a ride home. I won't lie, I was in massive pain by the time I got home and despite meds. stretching exercises and ice packs, I was still hurting all night and into the next day.

As they say, "No pain, no gain". It took planning and manual labour, but we had pulled off another fun-filled family birthday party and I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.... just not any day soon. LOL.

Glad you had a good time Jane!