Litchfield’s annual Watercade celebration continues today and Sunday with a full slate of events.

Today’s activities started early, with a Kids’ 1-Mile Run at Lake Ripley Memorial Park at 7 a.m., followed by the 4-Mile Run.

Also today will be the kiddie parade and Art in the Park, where there will be many interesting things to buy, good food to eat, and entertainment all day long. At noon on Lake Ripley beach, the annual sand sculpture building contest takes place. A lip sync contest starts at 1:30 p.m. The Grande Day Parade begins at 6 p.m.

Athletic tournaments take place all weekend long, including tennis, men’s softball and horseshoes.

On Sunday, the golf tournament begins at 11 a.m. at Litchfield Golf Club. A Taste of Meeker County starts at 11 a.m. at Memorial Park, along with adventure games. The Little Crow Ski Show will take place at 1 p.m. on Lake Ripley, followed by A Ripley Home Companion show at 3 p.m. in Central Park, and the grand finale of Watercade, the Queen Coronation at 7 p.m. in the Litchfield High School gymnasium.

It looked like Mother Nature might spoil the fun Friday as a storm rolled through the area. The Rotary Club brat feed already had begun Friday afternoon, and the KLFD radio crew had begun setting up for the popular beach party when a tornado warning sounded.

There were several reports from people at Memorial Park/Lake Ripley who spotted a funnel cloud. Though that funnel cloud apparently never touched ground, storm spotters did report a tornado on the ground south of Litchfield. A tornado also struck Willmar, leaving some property damage and two people injured.

By 8 p.m. Saturday, however, the storm had left the area, and Watercade celebrations resumed with the beach party, followed by fireworks.

In one of the first events of Watercade week, new junior royalty was crowned Thursday at Zion Lutheran Church. Annika Grams and Hunter Wills were crowned as the new junior king and queen and will lead off the kiddie parade this morning at Lake Ripley Memorial Park.

Hunter is the son of Dave and Shelly Eischens, and Annika is the daughter of Mark and Betsy Grams.

The junior princesses crowned were Ashley Sangren, daughter of Mike and Angela Sangren, and Peyton Borchardt, daughter of Korey and Teresa Borchardt.

Junior princes crowned were Spencer Atkinson, son of Troy and Sarah Atkinson, and Matthew Miller, son of John and Donna Miller.