Little Beauty

Faith has been so excited about her very first beauty pageant, and last night was the big event. As soon as she got home from school we started curling her hair and getting her ready to go. She wanted an up-do with lots of little curls. At one point I had her bangs looking like this, and asked her if she would like to go with the 80's bangs look, and as you can see, that idea didn't make her very happy... lol

So we got the bangs styled in a way she felt happy with, added a little glitter to her face, put her dress on and went off to the beauty revue. I hadn't planned on putting any make-up on her, but once we got there I decided to go ahead and let her put a little on. I went and got Jessica, who never goes anywhere without an arsenal of cosmetics, and we gave her some mascara and lipgloss. (I just wasn't willing to put eyeliner, foundation, blush, and bold lipstick on her for this.)

Then my usually extremely confident and out-going little girl got very big case of stage fright just as she was heading out on the stage. She did remember to smile, but she was the littlest one on the stage, and we could tell she was feeling very, very nervous. But that is okay... we were all there to see our little beauty queen and cheer her on, and that is what we did. Seeing us smiling and clapping for her seemed to calm her down a bit, and she got around to all the places she was supposed to be on the stage. (this isn't a great picture of the kids watching the show, but at least you can see Beth's dress... she insisted on wearing one of her really nice dresses to the pageant as well!)

I knew going into this that she probably wouldn't place in the finals at all, and she didn't, but after her initial heartbreak she felt good about having participated. Two things happened that really highlighted what is important here. The first was when I brought her back out to the rest of the family and she was still crying, and all of the kids gathered around her and tried to encourage and comfort her... that just warmed my heart to see them all caring so much for her. And then when she had dried her tears, she told me that she was just really glad her dad was there to see her in the pageant. It made her day that he took some time off work to make sure he could be home to see her get ready and then go to the pageant, and I think it meant even more to her when she overheard another little girl asking her mom why her dad wasn't there, and she was given a really heart-breaking answer.

It sounds trite and euphamistic, I know, but beauty really is subjective and truly is more than a set of nice facial features highlighted by a pretty dress, styled hair, and full make-up. There are a lot of things about beauty pageants I really do not like, but in the end I think this was a really good experience for Faith. She wants to do it again... and next year we still won't spend hundreds of dollars on a dress, we won't take her to a stylist to do her hair, and we won't deck her out in full make-up... but we will be there to cheer her on, and to encourage her to let all of her REAL beauty continue to shine, shine, shine!

I was playing with some color modes and vignette styles on these when I was editing them, which is why they all look different in color. When I go to print them, I plan on using the same color actions on all of the photos to make them match.

Afterwards we went to Walmart to pick up some shin-guards for the kids' soccer tournament today, and people kept smiling and complimenting our little girls. When we got home Beth absolutely crashed on the couch... our little Sleeping Beauty,LOL

Today was spent at the gym watching Faith, Kyle, and Matt play (and in Matt's case, coach) the tournament. We are all exhausted again tonight... lol.. so I am going to go get some sleep. I will post those pictures in the next day or two! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!