Proliferation of Pink: Unrighteous Pride

The certificate pictured above was from the Freedom Festival Baby Contest in 1981. It lives in the photo album my grandmother put together just over 20 years ago. My mom took me to participate in it on my very first Fourth of July. I always thought it would be cool to do the same thing with my daughter one day. Today was that day.

I signed Eliana up for the contest in her age category, thinking I didn't have time to make a costume. I ended up making it, anyway, because I couldn't think of what she already had that I wanted her to be judged in. This dress is the fruit of my labors. The best part about it is that the only thing I had to buy for it was the silver ribbon. Everything else was leftovers from other projects. Score. The flowers in her hair and on her dress were the last two leftover from the hat I originally made to be part of the costume. With somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 flowers, I thought it was a little over the top when paired with the dress. I decided that bald babies can wear cute hats, but my little girl has lots curly blond hair and that needs some seeing. I even used some mousse on it--a first. Anyway, the outfit came together nicely (and extremely cheaply) without previous planning. Sometimes you just get lucky. In other pictures further down you'll see her awesomely cute sandals I bought at Walmart a couple of months ago with no intention of using them in a contest.

Everyone was busy today, so Eliana and I spent the late morning and early afternoon at UVU being judged and stopping by all the booths to give the poor vendors something to do. I actually did buy something that later found out I don't like, but I'm not sorry I gave him the money. That's a whole other story, but just know he was doing it to earn money for his mission, so I happily gave over the money that probably should have gone to groceries. I can't say it would have been better used as groceries because those would have just gone to waist. Yes, I spelled it like that on purpose. Although, in the end, "waste" would have been an accurate, too. Ha! Two bad puns in a row! I digress.

I chatted with a very nice lady in line for the judging ahead of me. While we were talking one of the volunteers took a look at Eliana's dress and asked if I was going to the costume judging next. I let her know I hadn't registered for it and she told me it was fine and to go, anyway. It was nap time, so Ellie was not as cooperative for the judges as I had hoped. When I finished in the age group line I went over to the costume table and, as there was no one else there at the time (there had been before), Eliana was judged immediately. They had a little flag at their table and that was a better toy for her than the other table had had. It was cute to watch her wave it. The photographer loved it, too.

I'll skip all the other details of what I did until the award ceremony/drawing because I've already been long winded. The guy announced door prize winners, some of the age categories, and more door prizes before getting to Eliana's age group. Her name wasn't called. I was, of course, a little disappointed, but not surprised. There were a lot of babies.

Fast forward to more door prizes and then the multiples and costume categories. We didn't win any door prizes, but they did call Ellie's name as third prize in the costume category! Go Ellie! I thought that was pretty good for a dress that wasn't originally meant to be a costume. And I have a really cute girl.

So now we have the option to march in the Grand Parade on the 4th of July. By "march" I mean "walk her in the stroller". I think I just might. When else am I going to get the chance to be in a big parade. Um, I mean, Ellie would have a good time strolling past everything. That's it.

Here are some pictures of me and my baby at almost exactly the same age and in our baby contest outfits. I've always wanted to see how much we look alike and this has been my best chance so far.

The picture of me below is the official picture they took for the contest. The one for Eliana won't be available until June 20, otherwise I would have put that one up.