Love, Annaleigh 2012 and the end of summer

I'm a little late on this, but I wanted to make sure to talk about how wonderful our day on August 22nd was. Usually, this is a day we dread being as it is the anniversary of the day we said goodbye to our Annaleigh. But this year the day was one we actually were looking forward to, because it was the day we were able to bring all the wonderful donations we'd collected in Annaleigh's name to the St. Peter's NICU and PICU. Just look at that haul! We had almost 100 items to donate!

Charlie was so excited - he felt the need to show almost every item to the executive director of the Saint Peter's foundation, lol.

While we were there we visited the NICU and got to chat with some of our wonderful doctors and nurses. We also got to see the rocking chairs that we donated three years ago using the money we received from kind friends and family after Annaleigh passed away.

Super blurry, but this is us in one of the chairs.

With staff of the PICU.

After our visit to the hospital we took Charlie and Lily to Toys R Us and let them pick out something special for themselves, then we all went to IHOP for a pancake lunch. We think Annaleigh would have approved of the day. Thank you again to everyone who made our Love, Annaleigh donations possible!

The rest of August was spent soaking up the last of summer. We spent a lot of time in the kitchen - Lily loves helping me cook and bake.

We also celebrated my birthday. Charlie and Lily love a good birthday party!

One of my presents from Joe. The necklace has little charms inside - a heart that says "Mom", a train for Charlie, a ladybug for Lily, a butterfly for Annaleigh, my birthstone and the kids' birthstone. I love it!

And, Joe did this with the yard. Charlie and Lily's own personal water park, complete with water slide.

And I ended summer on a fun note too - I did the Color Run with some great friends. I highly recommend this run if it comes to your area - it was a blast!

Before:

After:

Today Joe went back to school, so I'll go ahead and say that summer is officially over. We had a great time having him home though - only 10 short months until next summer! And tomorrow Charlie and Lily start preschool! Seriously, where did my babies go?!?! I don't know about them, but I'M excited! I can't wait for school photos, class parties, Halloween parades, special snacks....