The Weekend

With her winnings....
Her "Queen" shelf, as she calls it.

Casual attire.

The froo-froo dress.

Talent costume.

So, as promised- here is a re-cap of our weekend, and Grayce's trip to the State Diamond Miss pageant.

First, I don't think I'm cut out for this. I mean I have been sick at my stomach since last Thursday. Wasn't able to eat all weekend, and still can't without getting a little or a lot sick. I may need anxiety meds to continue on....Grayce wasn't nervous at all. Just me.

The pageant took what seemed like forever to get done with- as we had stuff spread out from 4pm Friday to 8:30am Sunday. And I DO NOT like Chickasha, OK. Or the stinky Best Western there. Yuck. Grayce performed wonderfully. This pageant is not like what you think of when you think Miss America (winner wise), or what you think of little girl pageants. Diamond Miss focuses heavily on Talent, Modeling, and Interview. It's more of preparedness for Miss America. Since girls that are 3 are essentially competing against girls that are 18 for the over all titles, it's unlikely that your 5 is going to win the whole pageant. So, State winners in Talent and Modeling within the age groups are the sought after crowns for the younger ones. Grayce was 1st runner up in talent and 4th runner up in modeling. Her scores were very good, quite a few perfect- so I am not sure what the other girls had.

Her talent was a wonderful fiasco- which didn't even make her flinch. 434 times we'd practiced it and not once did the hula hoop get caught on her glove or her hair. But it did Saturday! The first time she must have spent a whole minute trying to get unstuck and the emcee had to help her- but she went on and finished it out. The judges asked if she wanted to go again- and I ran back stage where she told me she didn't want to with the gloves on. I told her we'd just take them off. So, she was fine to go again after the next person finished. Her routine is almost 3 minutes of non-stop motion, by the way. She went out to go again- and it caught in her hair- only momentarily this time- but when she went to throw it off, the timing was just right going into her cartwheel that her foot launched it almost off stage! Kinda of like it was supposed too! Oh my! She didn't even worry about it, just went on smiling and dancing. We got it back on the stage for her by the time she used it again. I will have video soon of it which I will upload as soon as I can. (you had to buy the DVD's, no filming allowed of course! Argh) Later Sunday at the awards breakfast, she won the Silva award for her unwavering, excellent performance- because everyone was sure no one else would have had the guts to go on. The director said even a big girl surely would have burst into tears and ran off stage. This award won her $225 towards entry fees to Nationals. Great.

So, because she didn't get crowned, only 2 big trophies, a melt down came on quickly. And she was MAD. Really, really mad. First, she was never going on stage again. But now, she is going again, because she is going to win, by golly. I'm gonna need a fundraiser for that, ya'll. Even with her winnings, this is going to cost out the wazoo. Nationals is spread out over 6 days. We will have to stay in stinky Chickasha for 5 nights. The cost of that alone is over $300. She has to have a new dress, and other new outfits and the other entry fees (like $300 more!). Aye yi yi. I twittered yesterday about fundraising ideas- and I wasn't kidding. Any ideas?