I'm Back!!!

Whew! June was a busy month! First we had the Rodman Hillbilly Days with horseshoes, kids' carnival games, bingo, pork tenderloin supper and an auction. Quinten liked the dunk tank the best! It was a day of fun, sun, beer and food. Nothing better than that!

Then the town started REALLY cranking up for the Sesqui celebrations over the 4th of July. Everyone went the extra mile to get their businesses and homes ready for the deluge of people who would be coming into town for the All School Reunion. We fed around 700 people on Saturday night who came from all over the country to attend this event alone. The Antique Tractor Ride had 98 entrants which actually shocked the committee members. They didn't think there would be that many people interested in doing it. Rain fell when they started out, but the sun came out with a vengeance later. I saw a lot of red, sunburned faces that evening at the street dance.

Almost every organization had a food booth running on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Cattlemen even cooked steak sandwiches uptown Friday and Saturday night during the TWO street dances. Three, if you count the Stingrays which performed out at the Country Club on Saturday night as well.

Entertainment was everywhere - Celebration Iowa singers, Redemption Singers, Stingrays, Standing Hampton, Chaos on Wheels, the Pacesetters Drill Team, and the excellent DJ for Friday night's street dance. Our fireworks display was done on Sunday night and it was excellent! West Bend always has had a really good fireworks display, but we out-did ourselves this year.

Our annual July 4th auction (which is a Herculean effort - thank God I'm not on that committee!) was a smashing success, raising over $11,000.00. This money all goes towards next year's fireworks display. I'm glad people enjoy watching fireworks because we spend a lot of money to put them on. All the fundraisers throughout the year go towards this one event. Like I said - West Bend has a really good fireworks display. It's kind of our signature event.

Many families had their family reunions during this weekend as well, so the town tripled in size (at least) for four whole days. It was fun, but the exhaustion was etched on the faces of many people in the days that followed. I'm finally reaching the bottom of some of the piles of work at the office and Quinten went home. Normalcy should return soon. No more obligations. No more extra people. No more fundraisers. Whew!

P.S. - DH just reminded me that we did the Fireworks Golf Tournament as well in early June. I must have blocked that stressful event out of my memory. LOL