This grandmother knows how to celebrate a birthday

As Gladys approached her 98th birthday, her granddaughter Shannon Weikle had an idea to mark it in a unique way.

Grandma Gladys (or Grams for short) and Shannon had already gotten matching maple leaf tattoos from Grams’ 95th birthday, so this time the 29-year-old from Maryland thought of something a little different.

She came up with the idea of a fun photoshoot for her Grams, involving champagne and a smash cake.

“A lot of my friends are having babies and are either doing newborn photoshoots or smash cakes for their child’s first birthday,” Shannon told People magazine.

“She’s the person I do all these fun things with, and that’s where the idea came in, and I wanted to do something special for her,” she explained.

The birthday girl got dolled up in a T-shirt and tutu, with Shannon also convinced Grams to dye her hair blue for the shoot, which left the grandmother “mortified” but she went along with it.

“I thought wine might be good because it would calm her nerves since she was a little nervous about getting her picture taken.

“We poured her a glass of wine to sip on and take pictures with, and then she just chugged it - she was pretty excited when we drove home!” Shannon said.

The outdoor shoot was done by local photographer Cara Lynn McGilvrey, who posted the images on Facebook, where they immediately went viral.

Some shots from the set have had over 16,000 Likes and over 3,000 comments.

Shannon says her grandmother is delighted at the impact the photos have had but was surprised by the attention.

“I’ll read her the comments and she’ll just giggle and can’t believe so many people care about what she’s doing," she told the publication.

"She thought people would think she had gone crazy.”

“Hopefully, this inspires people to realise they are never too old to do anything or to enjoy life.”

For Glady's 100th Birthday Shannon's trying to convince her to skydive, but Grams isn't on board with that idea just yet.

You can find more of Cara Lynn's beautiful photography on Instagram, Facebook, and on her website.