Never say Never

 Never did I ever think I would enter my daughter into a Pageant...
but never say never I guess! :)

At first when I thought about child pageants...visions of overly made up girls fussing at their moms about their hair and makeup popped into my head. But last year a friend invited us to come to her daughter's pageant National American Miss that was being held really close to our house. Though we couldn't make it to the actual Pageant finale we did get to visit with them a few hours before the finale and it looked so fun! All the little girls in their princess dresses looked so cute. I asked Nicole if she would be interested in doing it the following year and she told me NO. LOL. Nicole gets a little bit of stage fright even though she's absolutely not a shy girl.

                  Now let's fast forward to January 2014, Lifetime Network announces:

Nicole and I instantly fell in love with this show. Kim Gravel is a pageant coach in Georgia and she teaches the girls how to be a pageant pros. Kim is a former Miss Georgia and participated in Miss America. What we really liked about the show is that she sometimes picks girls that are "not your typical pageant girl" to compete in the different pageants. Our favorite girl from the show is Addison. She is very much a tomboy but when she dresses up for those pageants she is breathtaking. But her speech and accent...still needs work though lol. But that's why we love her....her personality is great. Kim also works with the girls on self-esteem and confidence.

After watching the show, Nicole started getting interested in doing a pageant under one condition-NO MAKE-UP. You see I don't have the typical little girl that loves to play dress up with make-up...she wants nothing to do with it. Even when it comes to her dance recitals where they encourage the girls to use a little make-up...Nicole is probably the only one rocking "the natural look"!

Since the only pageant we knew about was the National American Miss, we went ahead and applied online to see if they were still accepting girls for this year's pageant. A couple weeks ago, we got our package in the mail and Nicole is on her way to being a Virginia State Finalist in the National American Miss Junior Pre-Teen category!! And guess what...for that age group...girls are not allowed to have on any noticable makeup! :)

Next step...find some sponsors!!!!

Stay tuned