Pumpkin Princess Pageant Queen

Every year we go to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point for some Fall fun.
It's a cross between an Autumn-Festival and a State Fair. There are pig races and hay rides and giant slides and jumping pillows. The kids love it.
This year, my Brownie co-leader, Megan, and I took our Girl Scout troop there. It was a blast.
While I was on the Cornbelly's website, looking into group rates, I found mention of a Pumpkin Princess Pageant.
Sounded like fun...so I told Tessa about it. She was immediately excited.

So I agreed to make her a pumpkin princess outfit if she'd wear it for her Halloween costume, too. And I agreed to enter her in the pageant on the condition that she not miss another assignment in school.
(this is a problem lately)
She did a great job in school, so last weekend she entered the pageant.

(in line to have her hair done)

Before it started Matt said to me "watch her win..."
and we agreed that would probably NOT be for the best. Let's face it...Tessa has an ego on her.

(hair all done and sprayed with glitter!)

There were only about 15 girls in the pageant, about half in the 2-4 category and half in the 5-8 category. No one showed up for the 9-12 category!
It wasn't a REAL pageant - there was no talent portion or anything like that. The girls game on stage with the hostess (a local celebrity) and she read the paragraph that had been submitted for them and talked to them for a minute. Each girl was asked questions or was conversed with enough that she had a moment to talk into the microphone.
Tessa was charming, of course. I think her favorite part was using the mic!

She was also beautiful. The hostess went on and on about her dress and asked me to identify myself as the dressmaker. I gave a tiny wave. Embarrassing attention, and undeserved, too. The dress really wasn't that great - it was just pretty colors!

(the majority of the contestants - waiting for the winner to be announced)

In the end, Tessa won her age category.

AND the overall prize.

(I think she was just rubbing her nose here...but she looks like she's doing the pageant cry!)

She was so excited about it and said she had a lot of fun. She said she didn't think she was going to win because there were lots of girls with pretty dresses but "I guess it was just your sewing! And....me!"
LOL!

(Tessa and the other winner with the judges - the Pumpkin Princess herself and Miss Lehi)

She made sure to tell the other contestants that they had done a great job and not to feel bad that they didn't win. No big deal.
Although, later, she saw two of the other girls in line to get food and went up to them to tell them the same thing. That's when I told her to knock it off. Not sure if she was gloating on purpose or if she really thought she was being nice, but I figured I ought to nip it in the bud!

(In the princess carriage after the pageant)

Her prize package was...
4 free tickets to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens, 4 free tickets to the Dinosaur Museum, 4 free tickets to the Farm Country petting zoo, a big bag of caramel popcorn, a bag of those candy/roasted almonds, a cornbelly's t-shirt, a coupon for free face painting, two coupons for a free pumpkin, a toy wand and a giant caramel apple.
Her big prize (for winning the overall pageant) was a $100 gift certificate to a local photographer's studio. We're excited to use that! It expires at Christmas, so we'll need to get in before that :)

She really enjoyed herself and would like to do more pageants. The jury is still out on that one. Daddy says (absolutely, positively!) NO and I have a lot of reservations about it, too. If she continues to ask we might try another one, but I have a feeling she'll forget all about it.

(after using her free face paint coupon!)