One of the hardest parts of celebrating July 4th with kids in the in-between stages of babyhood and pre-teens is the tricky timing of fireworks and bedtime. Add rain on top of that and it's sanity saving quite tempting to completely skip over the holiday with a young family. Our first July 4th as a family of four was super easy: we lived in Jersey City at the time and had an amazing 360 degree rooftop view that allowed us to see about 5 sets of fireworks from Manhattan to deep into New Jersey.
Here's a throwback pic...