National American Miss Virginia State Finalist - Princess Jessica

Can you believe it?  Only 5 weeks left til the wee ones are back in school?  My baby will be in kindergarten.  Where did all that time go?  How is it possible that five years have passed by so quickly?

And Samantha?  Second grade?  Really?  Wow.  I miss my babies but I sure do love my girls.


Speaking of my girls........how's this for cute?

Jessica, age 5yrs, competed 2013 

    

                                                                           Samantha, age 6yrs, competed 2012                                                                                                            

Aren't they adorable?


The NAM pageant this year was a lot less stressful than it was last year, but then again Jessica didn't participate in any of the optionals so we weren't running around like wild women trying to change outfits every 20 minutes.

Friday morning began with the group photo then the dance routine practice.  The princesses danced to the Barbie Mermaid song and I gotta say, it was super cute.  Only issue was Jessa couldn't seem to keep up with the rest of the girls so she was slower in her transitions from one move to the next.  But, she was still surprisingly good, especially considering I truly thought she would shut down on me and refuse to learn anything or participate in anything.  So kudos to my baby for sticking with it no matter what.



That afternoon we got her Red Carpet photo taken then off to the Escorted Formal Wear competition.  Since daddy couldn't attend we requested a volunteer escort and she got a really sweet guy who kept her calm.  She was fantastic !!! Did her walk exactly like we practiced, pretty toes, circle turn, and kept her head up - only glitch was she didn't have a beautiful smile but that's probably because she was somewhat afraid.  Still she was awesomely beautiful and graceful.


After the formal wear came the Personal Introductions.  Here is where I thought for sure we would lose her, but low and behold she surprised me yet again.  Other than not being as loud as she needed to be and a slight hesitation to get started, she was incredibly confident.  Man, does that girl shine on stage.

Saturday brought about the interview.  Since I wasn't allowed to watch or listen this was the hardest part for me because I simply could not "coach" her on how to properly answer the judges questions.  All I could do was prepare her for some of the questions they might have asked and hope she answered them with full responses and was able to keep the conversation flowing.  I will never really know how well she did in this category but I have a sneaky suspicion it wasn't her best area.

So with everything behind up except the finale Saturday was fairly leisurely.  We checked out of the room around noon, met up with hubs, Mama Lue, and Papa, and managed to grab some lunch before the excitement began.  And when it was her turn to walk across that stage with her State Finalist trophy she did it with such poise and grace you would have thought she was a pro instead of a newby.  She even smiled beautifully.

Although, as any mother will say, my daughter was a perfect pick for the top 10 the judges had other ideas.  And even though she didn't get any additional trophies or ribbons we are still so extremely excited and proud of our little baby.  Knowing how very shy and reserved she is and how hard it was just to get her to open up to her TaeKwonDo instructors and classmates, even after four months, watching Jessica perform on stage, in front of hundreds of complete strangers, was one of the most amazing experiences I could have ever had.



I will not lie - pageants can be expensive and this one was more than we wanted to spend, but given the opportunity to do it again I think we will probably encourage both girls to enter every year we can afford it.  That is why this year, knowing both girls will get a return invite to compete next year, we are going to start looking for sponsors early.  And we are going to pump up their resume's with lots of volunteer work this year.

               

Crowns provided by Mama Lue and Papa.  Heck, they both deserved something special !!

I have already managed to land them both an opportunity to provide lunches for our local Habitat for Humanity once a month.  Hopefully we can find other opportunities to get the girls involved with charities as well as doing some fund raising events.  Add to that the deep-seated desire to get both of them started in Girl Scouts this year and as long as finances hold out we are going to be doing everything we can to really give the girls the best opportunities to take home a few awards, maybe a banner or a cash prize; but most importantly - the insight to learning how lucky they both are to have all they have.

Years ago I wanted to get involved with some charities but since Samantha was just a baby I couldn't find anything that would let me have her with me.  Then Jessica came along and the age restrictions were still in place.  When we moved from GA to VA I looked again but still couldn't find anything that would allow two small children to help out.  Now they are slightly older I am hopeful there will be more opportunities to get involved.  It is my hope that by getting them involved in community service that maybe they will better appreciate what they have, be more compassionate towards those who do not have, and become better positioned later in life for some returns on their "investments".  In other words, start opening those doors now so its not so hard trying to pry them open later in life.

This school year is going to be hectic.  I am hoping to have the girls in Girl Scouts; they will be continuing TaeKwonDo; participating in local charities; volunteering in community services; and hopefully they will be doing good/great in school so we can avoid any necessary tutors (especially in Samantha's case).

Well, that's it.  Our beautiful girls are both NAM Princesses.  Sure, they don't have the official crowns but they were both deserving of one.


And with that I'm off to mow the lawn, refill prescriptions, call my dentist (damn it, this appliance isn't fitting right), clean the house, and get caught up on laundry all before trying to figure out what needs to be done for delivering lunch to Habitat for Humanity on Thursday.  And, Samantha has a birthday party to attend on Saturday.  Oh so much to be done.