Yanni, the littlest ones and I spent the day across the state today. She had her first Jr. Miss pageant workshop.

It was interesting, because at the last meeting, we had met just one other girl and two other mothers. The workshop featured 20 girls.

Really, today was about clothes. The girls showed the pageant ladies their various degrees of costume readiness. Bling was the word of the day. In general, bling is very good in a pageant, except for the interview outfit. That should have color, even pattern, but no bling. The ladies approved of Yanni’s dress, except for her shiny buttons and lacking belt. We can cover the buttons and find or replace the belt, and she’s good to go. The other girls got recommendations from wear pantyhose to change your blouse, to add color, to rethink the whole outfit. The pageant ladies apologized for being picky, but I found it very satisfying, in a catty way.

We need to change our evening gown. 1985 does not even come close to the bling factor of 2010. Every other dress had some kind of sequin or rhinestone. We will hit the stores to find something suitable. Some of the other girls brought in several dresses, and were eager to try them all on for the ladies. Eventually, the mothers weighed in on the different dresses. The girls were excited to get the feedback.

The final costume of the day was the talent contest. The girls were also supposed to demonstrate their talent briefly. Some girls had talent ready, but no costume. Most had neither. Yanni had both, except she’d forgotten her hair ornament. She was nervous enough to be singing in the intimate setting that she just looked at the ceiling while she sang. The pageant lady beside me told me that Yanni had a beautiful voice, and she loved her dress. (Yanni is wearing the black dress we’d bought for the evening dress before we found out the evening dress had to be long). Now she needs to calm down and work on movement and acting while she sings.

The girls found out about selling program ads and tickets, ordering t-shirts, etc. Yanni is very excited and motivated to do well in the competition. She even looks forward to ad sales for the first time ever!

And I learned to stop dreading the whole process just a little bit. It looks like it could be a great opportunity for my girl, and really challenging.

The next meeting is in January. We get to see more clothes. . .