God Save the Queen - August 2010

The biggest thing in August was the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival. Last year, if you recall, Emily was entered into the Ypsilanti Jaycee's Beautiful Baby contest and received Honorable Mention (it must have been close because there usually isn't an honorable mention). You basically submit a picture and collect votes.
I decided to step up our game a bit this year. I collected "votes" from people at work - each vote is $0.25 :) as well as promoted the hell out of it on Facebook (you could submit PayPal votes online). So basically, it's whatever child has the most money donated. It goes to a great cause, the Jaycees are a great local organization that do a lot for the community.
She once again got to ride in her decorated wagon for the parade. This year we went with Red, White and Black as a theme. It was raining unfortunately and we had balloons but they didn't want to float :(
After the parade, myself, Kurin, Emily, Mom and Dad, Gay, C and Edwin all had lunch at the Campfire restaurant in Milan. It was damp and gross outside but we had fun at lunch.
The following day, the winners were going to be announced down in Frog Island. My mom, Emily and I went down to the park to hear the winners announced. There is a King, Queen, Prince and Princess.
After the announcing of the Prince and Princess, the King and Queen were announced. I am pleased to say that my Bebe' was named Queen of the Beautiful Babies of Ypsilanti, Michigan! She was so cute in her little crown. She received a lot of gifts, full size Johnson and Johnson bath products, gift certificates to local businesses like Haab's, a crown, a bouquet of flowers and a $100 US savings bond (which I might add she JUST received about 2 weeks ago LOL). It was a very exciting day :)

The Envelope Please.....

Bebe' got honorable mention! They name a king, queen, prince and princess but they also named Emily as an honorable mention - my thought is that she was super-close to the princess spot. Thank you all who voted. We appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and support and your votes ($) go to a great organization that does wonderful charitable works.
From the Ypsilanti Jaycees website Funny thing, my hairdresser's daughter was princess! Pretty cool! Thanks again to all of you for your faith in Emily. She will uphold her honorable mention...honorably ;)

Heritage Festival Weekend

I think the song goes "...you must have been a beautiful baby..." and that is what we believe in Emily. Don't get me wrong. I am not a stage mom, nor a pageant mom (Lord, those women need help) but I did enter Emily into the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival's Beautiful Baby Contest sponsored by the Jaycees. This is the picture we submitted.

The contest is based on votes purchased ($0.25/vote). There are prizes of savings bonds for a king, queen, prince and princess. The best part of the contest is that all contestants can walk in the Heritage Festival parade in a decorated stroller or wagon. I went on a mission to find a wagon which I did thanks to Heather M.! It was brand new in the box and a perfect little red wagon to decorate!

I was a nervous wreck the night before the parade and didn't sleep well. I was afraid I would over sleep and miss the being in the parade. It was fun that Kurin came to record it on our camcorder, grandma and Cedo came to see, Aunt Brenda and cousin Karen watched us and Gay and Ben came down too. I hadn't been in or to the parade since I was a senior in high school and marched in it with the LHS marching band. **Tangent: Ok, no offense to anyone who may have/know someone in the current band but boy did they look sloppy! No uniforms, just polos and shorts with tennis shoes. The lines were not straight. The sound was alright though. The band is huge now so that's a plus. They also have a trailer to carry equipment! WTH? I miss it but it's not the same if you didn't wear the cowboy hat with the white heeled orthopedic shoes :)**
The parade was a lot shorter than I remember, well, it always seemed to take hours to march it back in the day and walking at my own pace with a bunch of other families was a ton different than standing at attention or marching while playing the fight song ;)
The weather was phenomenal. It was actually CHILLY! Yes, CHILLY! I had on a long sleeved zip-up hoodie and we had to put bebe' in a sweater and jacket over her clothes. Unbelievable. At parade time, it was probably in the low-mid 60s! In August! Unheard of! Enough exclamation points! haha
It was a great experience and bebe' seemed to enjoy herself except near the end she seemed to get tired and kind of flopped over in the wagon. I'll definitely enter her again next year. It was a lot of fun and the Jaycees did a great job.
By the way, we are assuming that Emily did not win as we were not notified. That's ok though. We can't seem to find out who won. There is no longer a local newspaper and none of the related websites have listed the winners of any of the contests. Here are some pictures of our winner:


Emily and daddy before the parade and Emily yawning after waiting to get started
Here we come! As you can see in the second picture, she's just about had it by this point :)