Decorating for the 4th of July

It's July 1st.  Time to get out all that red, white, and blue decor for Independence Day AND Lilly's birthday!  She may be celebrating this year's birthday in heaven, but of course we'll be celebrating her memory here on July 4.

I started last week by making star shaped chocolate lollipops.  (Or as T., the expert candy maker in the house, dubbed them "Chollipops.")  I made a lot for our fellowship meal after church today and enough to share with family too.  I'd love to mail some to our out of state relatives, but with temperatures at and over 100 degrees lately, I know they'd just be a huge melted mess when they arrived.  (So how about a raincheck for Christmas?)

 Making chollipops is pretty easy, it just takes time. 

Most of this year, we have been decorating Lilly's memorial tree on the 4th of each month.  But this month, we went ahead and decorated the tree today.  We had lots of patriotic ornaments to put on it, courtesty of my aunt who gave me a big box of them last year.  The tree looks really good.  But, I do need to make some birthday themed decorations for it.

Today I made the tree topper:

I love the angel ornaments:

Here is what the whole tree looks like:

We also decorated the house today.  Every year I love how the bunting looks on our porch:

This year I had this special bunting down "In Memory of Lilly":

Finally, the kids were delighted with our new tablecloth:



I know the 4th won't be easy, but I am trying to stay focused on how thankful I am that we had Lilly a whole 17 months.  I've read about quite a few babies (with Trisomy 18) who passed away last week, while still in the womb, and it made me all the more thankful for the time we had with Lilly.

"I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High." -Psalm 7:17