Miss NE Anniversary Pageant 2013

Yep, I'm misty eyed as I make this blog and see these pictures.

April 27, 2013 was our Miss NE Anniversary pageant, basically our big state pageant and it marked one year of NE's existence.

 I'll give you all a little background. I started NE by a poolside wanting something to do in my free time. My mom, sister and hubby were with me and NE was born that night. A true, natural, fun and different pageant system, centered around Community service is what I wanted. I wanted to carry on what my mother instilled in me during my youth.....GIVING BACK. I intended on a couple of pageants a year.....L.O.L........at this time, we were doing at least one per month. :)

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I wanted this pageant to be the most extravagant, classy, and luxurious one we had ever had!  I found the most gorgeous venue I could find, the Community House in Cornelia GA, the most luxurious crowns I could find and I had black lace sashes made. Everything about this pageant was pure luxury.

I also wanted to do something special and different. I offered a party the night before and not just a fun little party, something with some meaning. So we had a GO GOLD Party for Silas, a little boy who had terminal cancer. He asked everyone to paint their nails gold for childhood cancer. So we had cookies to decorate, a dance party and a nail painting party!

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The kids had a BLAST!

This pageant was by far, the most sentimental one we've had. It meant so much more to me than a crown. I've watch some of these girls for a year now, grow into true pageant girls, I've truly gained another little family.

Our OOC was DIVA wear and let me tell you, these girls owned it!  

 The picture below has a story, and yep, Im misty eyed again thinking back to it. These 3 girls have been with me since the very beginning. Pictured left to right: Hannah Faith, Anna and Mackenzie. These girls are very active with our system. They and their sweet mamas planned a little surprise for the audience and myself! The little stinkers dressed up as "me", did little skits in front of everyone during our tallying and I almost died. How thoughtful, sweet and just plain fun?? I am so truly blessed, I say it all the time, but it is the truth. These are lifetime memories for them and me.

 I am so grateful for everyone who came....this pageant was amazing. Great atmosphere, great kids, great moms and great venue! The venue was amazing....words just do it no justice. Below are our Queens and Supremes.

Miss NE Celebration: Prelim to Miss NE Anniversary

March 30 was our very first preliminary pageant! This particular prelim was for our big April Anniversary pageant.

I wanted to make this pageant something special but for a very affordable price. We used the same style crowns, the same gorgeous peacock fabric and the same venue , just not the theater, as our very first pageant in May of 2012.

We had some GORGEOUS awards for a $55 entry fee! This was a simple, easy going pageant with beauty only competition.

 I honestly thought this would be one of our smaller pageants, but it proved to be one of our biggest ones with 71 girls! Shocked the heck outta me!

The kids were all relaxed and had a blast! 

Lots of new faces for this pageant! 

Pageant went smooth as silk this day! Thank you to everyone who came out! You made our very first prelim pageant a HUGE success! All Queens received a discount into our Miss NE Anniversary pageant! 

Saint Patrick's Day and Easter Bell Minor Nursing Home Visit

Sunday, March 17, Saint Patrick's Day, Natural Elegance and some of it's girls attended the monthly Bell Minor Nursing Home visit. 

As usual, we met our sweet Brianna there for our opening statement and we have started a new tradition of starting our visits off with a group prayer. 

Usually, I ask all the girls to bring with them at least 20 crafts. This time, I asked they bring around 10 because we were doing something a little different this time. We also made crafts with the residents in the big eating hall at the beginning of our visit. Without violating HIPAA, we were able to catch some sweet shots of the girls making their crafts :) Even my sweet hubby joined in with them!

 

 

Again, we want to give a HUGE thank you to Sabrina and Brianna for allowing us to spend a little time with the residents. The girls look forward to each visit and we are getting more newbies each time!

After our visit and the girls had visited with everyone, I took them out for Shamrock Shakes! Sad to say, McDonalds was all out, so they got chocolate, vanilla or strawberry, I think I was more disappointed than they were! It was a good day and the kids had a blast. They were able to give back to those less fortunate and then spend a little time together afterwards. They have a TRUE sisterhood with NE and its truly growing. I love these girls more than anything!