My cute "little" squeezer...

This past weekend was very eventful for the Squeeze Family. Daughter Squeeze (DS) participated in the Utah National American Miss "scholarship" pageant downtown. She raised $450 through sponsors (THANK YOU to our SPONSORS!!!) to allow her to participate. 

Although they tout this as a scholarship pageant, it doesn't hurt if you look good too. It really was amazing to see the spectrum of girls that competed... it's promoted as an opportunity to help build self-esteem and life skills along the way. Daughter Squeeze needs those life skills... sweetie, your looks only get you so far ;)   

This pageant doesn't require you to display a talent or walk around on the stage in a swimsuit (thank goodness because soccer really isn't a talent to showcase on the stage, much less in a swimsuit!), but she did have these required elements:

• Give an Onstage Introduction (name, age, hometown & aspirations) – 30%
• Interview (one-on-one with 5 separate judges) – 30%
• Formal Wear (escorted by a male family member) – 30%
• Community Donation (children's books & stuffed animals to local charities) – 10%

The NAM Utah Jr. Teen Group

She competed in the Jr. Teen category (ages 13-15). There were 47 contestants in her group, compared to 35 in the other 4 groups. You could start competing at the age of 4! And those little, little girls... well, there weren't the train wrecks that you see on Toddlers & Tiaras, but it was free entertainment...

Friday night was the Formal Wear competition... We have some great people in our neighborhood who have a bunch of formals for high school proms, pageants, and so forth and were willing to share them (borrow = FREE!). DS fell in love with 2 of them, but ultimately with the guidance of a friend of mine who is a pageant master, she narrowed it down to the final dress. And she chose her brother to escort her across the stage... they looked so cute and it reminded me of when they were little. Wow... time has gone so quickly <sniff>...

DS with her brother

She had practiced her walk in front of the family, friends, and even an occasional visitor. She had to be comfortable on that stage after all... And when the time came, she did it with grace and poise. Nice! And I do have to mention that her hair and makeup looked good too (we were trying to cut $ where we could, so I played hairdresser and makeup artist) ;)

Saturday was the big day... It began with Production Number Rehearsal (8am), then Onstage Introduction (10:30am), Interviews (11:30am), Final Pageant Rehearsal (12:30pm) and then the final Pageant at 5pm. Talk about a busy day... It was back and forth from our hotel to the pageant hotel. Thank goodness we were only across the street, but it was a super hot day and trying to find a parking spot... well, we got lucky on parking :)

Onstage Introduction

The Onstage Introduction was nerve racking for DS... she had practiced her part in the car, in front of the mirror, in front of Son Squeeze's friends, and at church Girls' Camp. She was ready. But they said that it needed to be 30 seconds or less, so we timed it. It was 42 seconds and that worried her. We looked at it and tried to cut things, but in the end, I told her to keep it as is. There were going to be girls who would only take 10 seconds, so she could take up the rest ;) And when it all happened, there were girls who took 10 seconds and one girl took almost 3 minutes! Poor girl... THAT one was a mess :( DS did FANTASTIC (I could be biased, but she did... I can't wait to see her score on that portion)... Clear, concise, good train of thought. She wrote it herself... I swear she should be a writer, but she wants to be a K-9 trainer for law enforcement...

"Sprinkler" move during
the Production Number

The final pageant was the Production Number and then the re-presenting of the girls in their formal wear. I don't think I've seen DS move SO fast... going from t-shirt and shorts to formal and heels in less than 3 minutes! But we did it and she looked beautiful... 

They had 2 groups on the stage: Jr. Teen (her group – ages 13-15) and Teen (ages 16-18) and presented the awards in a bunch of optional competitions (talent, actress, spokesmodel, photogenic, top model, most tickets sold, most advertisements sold, best sponsor thank you note, most recommendations, service). Of course most of the optional contests cost money because you win money, but we were on a budget this year.

They announced the top 10 semi-finalists, and Daughter Squeeze was named first! Good thing because then we could sit back and wonder who the other girls would be... it made it more enjoyable for us. I could only imagine what the other parents were going through...

The Top 5 finalists & Queen

They brought the 10 finalists for each group back up, so there were 20 girls on the stage, and then they announced the top 5 for each group... DS was named Utah Jr. Teen 2nd runner up (3rd place)... holy cow – her first pageant :) She was the youngest of the winners, and the tallest. She's growing up so fast... It was a good mother-daughter bonding experience. Thank goodness I didn't have to mime a dance routine in the back of the room when she was on stage ;)