It's Time For The Family Reunion!!

Over the past 23 years of our marriage I've attended the Wilson Reunion as often as I could.  It's a  wonderful time and 2 years ago, my husband, his sister and cousin were asked to take the baton and organize the annual event.

What we did to refresh the event:

It's All About the Location - Air Conditioning in June?  THANK YOU!!  It wasn't easy, but we found a place that would hold all of us, a clubhouse in Frankfort.  It was much more expensive than the previous shelter at the park, but worth the investment.  Being able to be out of the heat and in comfortable chairs was great.  It made the day more enjoyable and we didn't have to fight flies off our food.  It also had a good  outdoor, but secure area for the kids to play.

Silent Auction - this was a huge hit!!  We needed to be able to raise money for the better location and the idea came from Mary.  We had about 40 items, all donated and we made enough to rent the building for next year.  Some of the things donated: handmade aprons, homemade wine, family mementos (I bid HUGE on my mother in law's old canning jar), gift baskets, etc.

Traveling Awards - Farthest traveled, youngest attendee, senior attendee, etc.  I purchased some inexpensive plaques from a local trophy shop for about $7 a piece.

Gift - Custom printed magnets and buttons with the year.  I found these inexpensive ones on eBay.

Family Tree Share - As the keeper of the family tree, I preprinted some really cool diagrams and held  a 40 minute mini-class with tips on how to search for geneological information.

We got such great feedback and had a fantastic time, so we're planning to outdo ourselves again.  Strap in clan, it's going to be a blast.

Here's a tiny peek:

The Photobooth is coming! - My daughter and I had my husband build this for her Ever-After Party and it was the hit of the day!  We're packing this massive thing up with all the props to take it 600 miles.  These pictures are just so much fun and my niece, a budding photographer, has agreed to work the camera. 

Face Painting - For the youngest attendees, always popular, I'll be asking my tween granddaughter to help and perhaps her amazing brother could show some of the younger boys how to make origami.

Online Family Searches - I'm working through the details, but we are planning on having a laptop hooked up to allow all the newest additions to the family to be entered on to Ancestry.com.  Who knows how many new contacts we'll find?

Most importantly, we'll get to reconnect with family we haven't seen in a while and meet all the new babies that have been fortunate enough to be born into this amazing group of people.

I can't wait!!