Pageant Winner in the House!

After a very exciting pageant, Sophia was crowned the new queen of our city. She's the one in the lovely green dress, below, flanked by her two sweet and talented attendants.

I suspect Sophia competed mostly for the sparkly crown. Well, and the $2000 scholarship and the other great prizes. But mostly the sparkly crown. Like her mom, she's kind of drawn to sparkly things.

To get that scholarship check, though, she has to show up to a number of events throughout the year, culminating in crowning a new queen next July. What's funny is that one of Sophia's very good friends won the crown last year. She is a year older than Sophia, and Sophia has been following her in theater since they were both in elementary school. Fortunately, they were never jealous of each other, even as they auditioned for many of the same roles. We have a picture of them together from when Sophia was in sixth grade (about age 12) and Kat was in seventh grade; Sophia played Sleeping Beauty the younger, and Kat played Sleeping Beauty the elder in the same play that year.

Tonight was the first night the three girls started their official duties as the new city royalty, with a car show, BBQ, and karaoke contest in the city park. They didn't have to wear formal gowns this evening (phew!), but they do have to have some security with them at all times, which is sad. Sophia came home and reported that many of the men at the park kept asking how old they were, and when they were serving up hamburgers and hot dogs, they were asked if kisses were also on the menu. Now I'm not so thrilled about her being royalty. It didn't occur to me that having a crown on your head made you such a target for dirty old men, and it was a good thing her dad wasn't there.

Becoming royalty in our burg is small potatoes compared to winning at state, national, or international pageants, but I'm proud of Sophia for the effort she put in. She worked really hard on choreographing and perfecting her dance for the talent competition, and she practiced for the interviews, as well. She was fortunate to know some people who were familiar with pageants and helped her prepare, and I think that made a huge difference in how she presented herself. Also, that dress! It was a show-stopper. No one else wore a green dress, and that particular shade of green in that iridescent silk is my absolute favorite color in the world. I had many people stopping me for days to ask about that dress.

Sophia has no plans to compete in further pageants. She's satisfied with this win, and she has other things she wants to do. For now, though, she'll really enjoy the duties that come with being pageant royalty, and she'll very much enjoy getting that check next year.