How we spent Lilly's birthday

First, here are a few pictures from Lilly's 1st birthday, July 4, 2011.  I'm not sure what she looked like in heaven this past July 4, but I'm sure she was even more beautiful!

We were blessed to spend this past Monday through yesterday afternoon at my mother-in-law's home.  She lives less than 30 minutes from where Lilly is buried.  (We live over 2 hours away.)  We stayed very busy - and hot! (it's something being pregnant in temperatures in the upper 90s and low 100s!) - helping her do things.  It worked well - we were able to help her out and it helped us to stay busy and distracted.

On Wednesday morning, we went to the 4th of July parade in Belhaven, North Carolina.  T. and H. had never been to a parade before and were very excited.  We were blessed to have access to my sister-in-law's bakery, so we could stay cool until it started.  If you're ever in Belhaven, it is THE BEST place to eat.  It's called Gingerbread Bakery and is on Main Street:

Here is my husband and H. enjoying a drink and snack before the parade:

T. in her favorite place - by the cookies, cakes, and donuts:

The best float in the parade was the one my mother-in-law rode on, in her colonial dress.  The float was for the Pantego Academy Historical Museum. 

After the parade, I made our angel girl Lilly and angel food cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.  And of course she got two candles:

After supper that evening, we went to Lilly's grave.  We took her some new flowers.  They were to share with my husband's father and sister, who are buried where Lilly is.  The flowers looked beautiful.  (They were done by the same woman, at Flowers on Broad Street, that did the spray for Lilly's casket and flowers for her grave after.)  LillyBear and crazy sock monkey (who was celebrating his 1st birthday) came with us:

We brought Lilly three pinwheels, in red, white, and blue:

We had a balloon release for Lilly.  T. and H. both had a birthday balloon and a "Lilly colored" balloon.  H. loved the idea of sending balloons "up to heaven."  But after awhile he wanted them back to play with.

We spent some time praying and thanking God for giving us Lilly.

Soon it was time to leave.

We then stayed in town (Washington) and watched the fireworks.  Seems like the whole country was celebrating Lilly's birthday!