How we celebrated Lilly's July 4th birthday

I can't believe 2 weeks has already passed since Lilly's 6th birthday.  But if you've read my last few posts, you see we've been a bit occupied!  I do want to go back and do a "photo diary" of our day July 4th though, for our own memories.

We first went to Belhaven for the annual 4th of July parade.  While waiting, we walked down to the Pungo River:

Yes, Hunter brought a shaded pole motor along

 Solomon and Frank got to go inside this boat:

I took this picture on the bridge:

Tabby taking photos at an interesting angle:

Then we went into my sister-in-law's place, Gingerbread Bakery & O'Neal's Snackbar (website here and Facebook page here), and had some tasty treats and something to drink.  (FYI - this is THE BEST place to eat in that area!)

The parade starts with LOUD firetrucks.  I liked this old one:

Solomon and I liked the gorilla:

And Hunter liked this crazy solar powered mower thing:

After the parade, we drove down the road to the Pantego Academy Historical Museum (website here and Facebook page here) for a free hot dog lunch.  It is such a beautiful old school building with a wonderful museum inside.

 After eating, we explored the museum.  Solomon's favorite part was playing school and then getting "water" from the dipper:

Hunter spent a long time studying the old stove:

 Solomon posed with my mother-in-law.  I appreciated she was in costume while working at the museum:

Then the boys did some gardening work before we left (these are possible publicity photos for the museum):

That evening, we gathered with family for supper and cake for Lilly.  Solomon was super excited about Lilly's cake (when I bought it he kept shouting it was "beautiful!") and he got the honor of blowing out her 6 candles:

Next we headed to Washington, to the cemetery Lilly is buried at.  We had 6 birthday balloons for her and her Lilly-colored owl which I put at her grave for her birthday.  I tied one of her balloons to it then we let the other 5 sail up into the air and watched them float away.

Finally, we watched the town's fireworks, while sitting on a floating dock on the Pamilico River:

I love all the busyness of Lilly's birthday celebration.  It keeps me distracted.  It is SO MUCH easier of a day than her angelversary in December.  I treasure remembering the absolute triumph of leaving the hospital with her, on July 4, 2010, and against all odds, she was ALIVE.