W38 of Y4

July 4, 2018

The 4th of July is a pretty big deal here because it's the only day of the year that Italians are invited on the base.  They drive by it every day but have no idea what goes on inside the gates unless they know someone who invites them in.  So, they come in droves every year for a concert, festival rides, food, and of course fireworks (some are also there looking for American husbands!lol!)!  The majority of the people on base on the 4th are definitely Italians and they want to try American food so it's a huge money-maker.  This year the scout troop decided to get in on the action and set up a food booth!

Setting up at 8:00am

Got the first hog cooking at 11:00am

Our food booth is directly behind the stage so we had a pretty good view all night long! (and a steady flow of people coming through)

We really lucked out with the weather.  It was warm but there was a cool breeze all day.  These coals were HOT!!

The firemen were very curious about the hog roasting process

First hog is done!

The heads really drew in the crowds!

Opened for business at 4:00pm

After working hard all day, the kids were ready for a little bit of fun

Connor dunked him!!

He was not complaining!  I was tempted to get dunked myself... it looked so refreshing!

Put the 2nd hog in around 5:00pm

Everyone wanted to get their picture taken next to the piggy head

This guy begged us for the pig head so we said "Sure!"  He got all of this for $20!

At this point Whitney was not taking any sass from any of these boy scouts! lol!

Time for fireworks but my kiddos are so tired!  They just want to go to bed!!

Always a great show here!!

After the fireworks the crowds all wanted more food.  Look at this line at 11:24pm!!

Luckily the band stopped playing at midnight so people would go home.  They ended by playing Born in the USA and then chanting USA, USA, USA while holding up the American flag.
This was an Italian band by the way!

This is what 20,000 people looks like

Then....  the real work began!

I left Jeremy with the others to finish cleaning up our food booth and took the kids home because they were about to pass out around 1:00am.  When we pulled into the driveway we immediately knew something was wrong.  There was a river in the driveway with water dripping down from the doors.  While we were out ALL DAY a pipe under our kitchen sink broke and was pouring water out!  Our first and second floors had standing water on them and the electricity on the first floor had been shut off.   I had the kids start putting down towels and I went back to finish cleaning up our food booth and pick up Jeremy.  We got back and mopped up as much water as we could before crashing at 3:30am.  I had been up for 22 hours at this point.  

The broken pipe

drying out all of the towels 

Oh! And as if we weren't already having a bad day.... kayla found the bag with all the leftover hog parts in it and drug it into the front yard and spread out rotting pork flesh and hooves all over our yard!

Definitely a crazy, hard, fun-filled day and Totally Worth It!!!  I think Troop 514 is probably the richest scout troop in Vicenza!! ;)