We spent this 4th of July with the extended family.

Eleanor loves it when we spend time with the family. She gets to hang out with her second-cousins and eat food we would never let her eat at home, like potato chips and cake. We’re terribly cruel parents.

The 4th of July is also my first-cousin-once-removed’s birthday.

Eleanor begged for cake like a puppy until her Grandpa gave her a few bites.

Then she had to show her belly full of cake to the dog to make him jealous.

After cake all the kids played in the backyard.

Eleanor’s generation thus far is almost all girls. There is one boy who is 13, but all six of the younger kids are girls.

After fun with the family we thought we’d try to check out the fireworks at a local park. All of the parking within several blocks was full so we drove to the top of a parking structure about a mile away and watched them from there. The view was decent, and the show was fine, but I really prefer a show with accompanying music, so fireworks from a distance don’t really do it for me. My parents were always doing that when we were kids, parking near fireworks shows to avoid having to drag all five kids to a show and pay the admission cost for a family of seven. Although we had fun, I was always a little disappointed. I vow to never do that again, it’s all about the paid admission shows from now on.

Eleanor may feel the same way I do about it, because she was not at all interested in the show. It was past her bedtime and she was a little cranky and did not want to hold still to watch the show. She really enjoyed last year’s show. I suspect it was the lack of music. We’ll do better next year.