Ten-Month-Olds and Tiaras

Today Annistyn was in her first beauty pageant.

I LOVED doing pageants when I was little. My mom only started putting me in them because I begged her to when I was 3. I placed in my first one and I was in love! I did several throughout the years and actually did pretty good. I won a few and placed in several. When I graduated high school, I cashed in all the savings bonds that I had won by doing pageants and WOW! I had a pretty good bit of money!

I was first alternate in our county's junior miss, and that money paid for a lot of the extra hours I took that my regular scholarship wouldn't cover. (Because they think 16 hrs. is a "full load") Anyway- long story short- I will never MAKE Annistyn do them if she decides she doesn't want to. But if it is something she likes and something we can have fun doing together, it could open a lot of doors for her one day.

I haven't put her in any because I felt like she was too young. Since she is walking and standing up now, I thought the "Miss Relay for Life" pageant would be a good one to start with.

Younger age divisions are always asked to only wear Sunday or heirloom style dresses. I am so glad because I think they look much more natural. Lucky for us, I didn't have to go buy a $400 heirloom dress because we already had one. My mom made me a pink Swiss batiste dress with french lace when I was little. At the time she didn't know that her granddaughter would be wearing it 22 years later.

We arrived at LBW with all of our things. I had two bags, the dress on a hanger, and you would know they would only let one person (me) back with Annistyn. So we parted ways with my mom and when we got to the dressing room all I could smell was hair spray. We were sharing a dressing room with the "toddler miss" contestants. I felt like I had walked in the show "Toddlers and Tiaras" on TLC. There was make-up and hair curlers from one end of the room to the other. I don't remember it being quite that bad when I was little.

We were the first age group and Annistyn was #1. She really liked the stage. She liked the other little babies in her age group. We wrestled backstage while they were introducing the judges and talking about the pageant. She did not want to wait her turn, she kept trying to run on the stage. She held my hand and walked beside me a little bit. She smiled and was excited about all the lights and people. I wasn't sure if she would like it or if it would scare her.

Here we are on stage:




When it was time to crown the winners, we went back on stage. She won photogenic. I had used the picture that is on our blog header right now.



The little girl that brought her the sash wasn't sure how to pin it on her, so I was trying to do that for her!

They started calling out the second and first alternate and....



Guess what sweet baby was the winner?!

We were really excited. The crown really didn't want to stay on her head though.

She had her picture made for the paper and here is one we took afterwards. You can tell she is getting sleepy. She wouldn't let go of me to stand by herself.



Here are some I took after I took her crown and sash off. I am POSITIVE that she will wear this dress many many more times, but I wanted to get some pictures of her wearing it today.






My mom is so talented. There are several dresses like this that Annistyn will be able to wear over the next few years. It is so fun for her to wear dresses that I wore when I was little. Especially since they were made by my mom.

Here is a picture I got of her sashes and crown:



We had a lot of fun and I hope it is something that we enjoy doing together for years to come. Everybody loves getting dressed up! I will never spray tan my 4-year-old or give her fake teeth or hair extensions like they do on Toddlers and Tiaras, but if she grows up and wants to be Miss America (like I did!) then I will be there right beside her cheering her on.

Speaking of Miss America...
That was my dream at one time. Every year from age 4 or 5 on, I would stay up watching Miss America. I would cry when the girl I picked didn't win. I would record it and watch it again and cry again. Ask my mom- it is really true. I actually competed in some local preliminaries, but they are SO much work and I just wasn't "bred" to win at the level. I still love watching it and I usually host a "Miss America" pajama party and we all wear crowns and watch it together. Here's some pictures from our 2007 party-




Annistyn and I watched it tonight and she was GLUED to it. She sat in my lap the whole time and watched every second of it.

Miss Virgina won, by the way.


It makes me sad when I see how "modernized" they have made it. Local competitions and some state ones (like Alabama's) are based on the old standards- which I like a lot better. I like seeing Miss America in a suit- not jeans and a tank top. I don't think the cleavage is appropriate for evening gown and the swimsuit walk tonight was really risque. I just would like it to be a little classier. The questions they asked tonight were not very intense either. When I was in Miss Troy University, of all the pieces of paper in the bowl, I drew out the one that said, "What steps would you take to stop illegal immigration?" I mean, really, if there was an answer to that question- it wouldn't be an issue in the first place. So I had to answer that off the top of my head in front of 500 people. Then tonight, at Miss America, one of the questions was something like- do you think sports figures should be good role models? Well, duh!

Alrighty- well that was a really lengthy and possibly somewhat boring post. In conclusion, my sweet baby won Baby Miss Relay for Life today and she was so stinkin' cute in her pink dress! :)