First Pageant

Gracie has been asking me for over 2 years to be in a pageant. I've looked around for one before, but there aren't that many of them around here. So, I just kept putting her off. She's really been talking about doing it alot in the past few months, so when I heard about a little pageant coming to our area, I asked her if she wanted to enter. Of course, she said yes!

We went shopping for a dress and shoes last weekend and she's been walking in her high heels every day to practice. Although I've got some pageant experience, I never gave her any advice. I had no idea what to expect, so I didn't really know what to tell her anyway. This was a natural pageant and only a little blush and lip gloss was allowed. Also, we were told she didn't need a pageant dress. (Of course, when we got there we noticed almost all of the other little girls decked out in pageant attire and lots of makeup :)

When she would practice doing her pageant walk at home, she was rockin' it out with a sassy walk and lots of smiling and waving. She's been so excited!

When we were getting dressed for the pageant, she kept saying, "I've been dreaming of this day for so long! I just can't believe my dream is coming true!"

We had to be there 2 hours before it started, so she was pretty bored and tired by the time it was time to start. Although she was still excited.

When we got to the stage area and the younger divisions started, she was on the verge of tears and begging me to not make her do it. She said she didn't realize all those people would be there watching. After lots of talking and encouraging, she eventually agreed to walk on the stage, but she wasn't going to wave and she was only going to do one turn in front of the judges and then she was "getting out of there".

Here she is on stage. She did her little walk so fast that she had to stand there for a little bit while the MC finished reading her info :)



Here she is getting a medal for "Best Personality"



Here she is getting a trophy and a crown for Runner-Up!

Here she is with all of her awards afterwards.

After it was all over, she decided it wasn't that bad and she'd like to do it again. I'm not opposed to her doing it again, but we're not going to jump right into it. I'll just have to see how much she talks about it and try to judge if she really wants to do it. Because the next time, it's going to require the real pageant dress, etc. I sure don't want to invest in that stuff if she's going to get embarrased and beg me not to make her walk on the stage again! :)

But for a first experience, it was good. She walked away with some awards and she really loved getting all dressed up. She really did look so very pretty!!

And, to top off the fun day, Daddy took the family out to eat a really nice dinner afterwards to celebrate! It was our first nice dinner out of the year and everyone enjoyed it!