I am sure that you have seen at least a clip of a Toddlers & Tiaras episode, if not an entire episode. You see some normal folks and then some absolutely crazy "pageant moms" that give the rest of us a pretty bad rep. Well not all pageants or "pageant moms" are created equal, I can tell ya that.
My daughter has never really been into pageants. This is my sad face -----> :-( I have always wanted her to do pageants but I never wanted to be "that mom" so I never really pushed it. Well she finally decided she wanted to do one. Woohooo! The pageant she chose to do was Little Miss Houston County which happens to be a preliminary pageant to the Little Miss National Peanut Festival Pageant. Yes, a pageant associated with peanuts. Stop judging me!
No really, the National Peanut Festival is a pretty big deal where we live. Dothan is known as the "Peanut Capitol of the World". Well really I don't know who else knows that except the lovely residents of the Wiregrass but we know it and that's all that matters. Anyway, to be eligible to compete at the Little Miss National Peanut Festival Pageant you have to win your town or county preliminary pageant. Based on where we live, Madison is eligible to compete at Little Miss Houston County and Little Miss Dothan.
They have a few practices to help the girls prepare. This was my little princess and my husband while we were getting her ready for her first "official" practice.
My sister owns a formal shop and does pageant coaching so in the weeks leading up to this we did a few practices with her since Madison had never really done this before. The night before the pageant we went for one last practice.
My little guy decided he was going to practice too --- notice the lovely pageant heels. LOL
The morning of the pageant she did an interview with the judges. This is just an opportunity for them to get to know the girls. All of the girls were given a pageant T-Shirt to wear with jeans. We just added a few girly touches to ours. My sweet husband was very involved --- he even went with us to pick out the fabric to add to her shirt.
He also went with us and sat through her hair appointment. Gosh I love this man. :) He was the only man in a room full of moms and pageant contestants.
At this pageant, they don't wear the glitzy dresses. They wear heirloom dresses instead. They also have an onstage question. All the Little Miss contestants had the same question which was "What makes you special?"
Here is my little princess with her two Aunts.
The pageant was a blast. She didn't win but she had so much fun and I was so proud of her. I thought she did an amazing job for her first real pageant. When we went back to the dressing room for her to change back into her regular clothes she looked up at me and said "Mommy it doesn't matter if you win or lose it just matters if you try!"
There is so much that we try and teach our kids and so much we actually learn from them. :)
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Hi! I'm Ciera, the face behind SwankyMomsClub.com. I live in Dothan, Alabama with my husband, three children and our mischievous dog Harley. To read more about me and my family just click the
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