This year we decided that it would be fun to let Ella do the Queen Contest at the County Fair. Here at our fair the youngest age group is from 3 to 6 years old. I was a little nervous that Ella was going to be to shy to talk in front of people, so practiced as much as possible. (considering we decided to the contest a week before!) We borrowed an old mare that my nephew rides for Ella to ride and we were set!
Well... the horsemanship part of the contest didn't go quite as we had planned. Ella did great warming up the horse in the arena. I asked her if she wanted me to help her walk in to start her pattern, but she wanted to do it herself. Her horse walked into the arena, saw that it was empty and started loping straight across the arena. Before we knew it the horse switched directions and started RUNNING toward the gate. When she turned around she threw Ella sideways. LUCKILY Ella held onto the horn for dear life. The scene that unfolded before my eyes was a horse running straight for me with Ella holding the horn, both legs on one side of the horse, and visions of her falling flashing before my eyes! I guess she is stronger than I ever thought because she held on long enough me to stop the horse. We caught our breath, threw Ella back on the horse, and I lead Ella through her pattern. I don't think the judges were very impressed with the symmetry of my figure 8, but I did it anyway. When we got around to the judges, Ella was still crying, but she managed to answer all of the judges questions.
The morning Ella got up bright and early to go and have her personal interview with the judges. They asked her: What does the American flag look like? What cartoon character would you be? What color is your horse? and What breed is your horse? Of course I wasn't able to go in the room with her, so I'm not sure how she did, but she acted very confident.
Later that night she got to do her Presence and Composure, along with her "Speech." For their speech the Peewee Princesses were supposed to tell their name, their parents names, and something about their horse. Watch the video, I think she did a great job.
The following week I got to witness personally how much Ella's confidence grew just from those few days in the contest. Ella sold tickets for the rodeo and the fair BBQ and talked to everyone who bought a ticket. She even sat at the drug store for a few hours and sold tickets to total strangers. She did great!
When it was all said and done she got 3rd place in ticket sales (not bad for a 5-year-old when she was competing against the big girls!) and she won Speech! Of all of the things for her to win, she won the competition where she had to stand in front of a large group of people and talk!!! I was sooo proud! She might not have won a sash or a crown, or even the title but she made us proud. She will ALWAYS be
OUR PEEWEE PRINCESS!!
Congratulations Ella!! We love you!!
5 comments:
She is too cute!!! What a brave girl you have.
P.S. Are you moving to Utah? :)
Oh my gosh, that was the cutest video! Yay Ella!!!
Yes! We are moving to Utah, when is another question. David has been living with his parents for over a month, and Ella is headed down with him this weekend so she can start school in a couple weeks. (She is going to school there so that she doesn't have to switch schools) When I sell the house, or go crazy being without my family, then I will move to Utah.
That is the cutest picture of Ella ever. Steph and I talked about it all last night. Tell Ella she was wonderful!
She did great! It was so much fun getting to judge her. I was so proud of her for following through with the horsemanship. That was scary!
During the interview we asked them something about starting school. She said she was going to be in kindergarten and was all excited. I think she thought I was crazy when I told her that her grandma was my kindergarten teacher!
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