How to Win a Baby Costume Contest

I know my title sounds a little bit arrogant. Sorry. Hopefully the post won't be unbearable while I talk about how cute my baby is and how smart I am . . .blah blah blah. Okay, seriously, I like entering baby costume contests.  I admit it! There isn't much in life that is cuter than babies in costumes.  Why else would Anne Geddes be making such a hauling with her photos?
Anyway, when Reuben was a baby I entered him in the Provo Freedom Festival baby contest in the costume category.  He won 2nd or 3rd place and I was hooked.  I entered him again the next year and he won a medal again.  I can't remember which place which year. It was just so much fun to come up with creative costumes and try to come up with a cheap way to pull off my vision. 

Here's a rundown of our participation over the last 12 years:

The first year the theme was "The Decades".  Reuben was a baby hippie, complete with flower covered bell bottoms, round orange glasses, and brown braided (yarn) hair.  I even made him a special tye dyed onesie and converted a double stroller into a pretend VW bus.  He was so cute.  He won a medal and some other little prizes.

The 2nd year the theme was something about " When I Grow Up..." My mom sewed Reuben this really cool futuristic spaceman costume with a sparkly blue cape.  He was the Ambassador to the Moon.  We made up business cards for him to hand to the judges. He arrived in style in a baby walker converted into a spaceship.  It was rockin!

Well, we moved to Baltimore but happened to come back and visit at just the right time when Timothy was 8 or 9 months old. The theme was "It's a Small World"  Timothy was a really fat kiddo at the time and I decided it would be adorable to make him a little Samoan, adding humor to the costume by his pasty white skin and ultra blond hair.  My mom sewed him a blue flowered lava lava and I made him some handmade sandals, an arm band to look like a tatoo, a flower for his ear, and a sequin covered earth ball for him to hold.  He sat inside of a sparkly cardboard canoe.  He won 2nd or 3rd place.  I don't really remember that far back too clearly.

Fast forward a few years. We were back from Baltimore.  I had ingored the baby contest for quite some time and was living in Holladay.  Amy was just barely 2 and I was pregnant with Clara and decided I was ready for the contest again.  This time I wanted to be really creative.  The theme was "Sweet Land of Liberty" I decided Amy was going to BE the Liberty Bell.  I started with a baby swing, the older kind that is symetrical.  Then I made a paper mache Liberty bell that fit over the swing seat and fastened with velcro.  There was a hole for her face, which we painted gold.  The bell was spray painted gold and looked pretty cool.  When Amy sat in the swing with the bell on, we could swing it just like a real bell.  We even had the top part covered to look like the top wooden part of the bell. That was the year that we didn't win for the costume.  I still think we were jipped.  Amy won a special award that year- 3rd place for the happiest baby.  I think there was arguing among the judges and they wanted to give her something, but felt that her costume wasn't a real costume because it was cardboard, so they gave her happiest baby as a consolation prize. The reason I think that is that Amy was very antisocial as a baby and wasn't particularly happy for the judges. I can't find any pictures of this, but it was so cool!

After not winning in the costume category with Amy, I swore off of the baby contest.  I had entered so many times and never managed a first place win.  I just couldn't figure out what they wanted.  Then I met my friend April.  April can sew.  April can sew really well and she lived right upstairs from me and she was willing to make a ridiculously difficult outfit for my next baby Clara.  Clara was 11 months old and the theme was "Let Freedom Ring".  I dressed her up as an ancestor- Alice Bracken, a pioneer who came to America because of joining the LDS church and traveled to Utah with the pioneers to avoid religious persecution.  This dress was amazing, and turned out to be, yes, you guessed it, the key to WINNING to baby contest.  She had matching bloomers and a precious pioneer bonnet that my mother sewed.  My mom also made a cover for our wagon to make it look like a real pioneer wagon and we packed it with supplies she might have taken with her.  She was so stinking cute and she won first place!

After that I decided that the dress was the key.  I entered Audrey two years later.  I used the same dress. My mom made a different shirt to go under it. The theme had become a more general one and has stayed that way- America- Freedom, Family, and Country.  Audrey was Martha Washington.  I got her a white curly wig and a hat like Martha would have worn.  I made her a little hand fan and a bag with a famous quote of Martha's hand embroidered on the front.  We had no vehicle that year.  Audrey won 1st place! She got to be in the Freedom Festival parade.

And now, finally, this year.  Enter the dress again.  Emmeline didn't need the wig and I didn't want to do the exact same thing, so I decided to have her be Betsy Ross.  She wore her own hair with hair bows that matched her dress, made from leftover material I had saved.  I got some felt and hand sewed a Betsy Ross flag.  Then I decorated the wagon so she would have some awesome transportation. Because, really, I knew that this time we were going to make it.  I knew she would win a medal and we'd get to be in the parade and I planned ahead. Okay, I didn't really know, but I hoped a whole lot.  And SHE WON 1st place! That dress is so awesome! 

And now that every one of my children has a medal from the baby contest- I CAN STOP ENTERING.  There is a chance that I won't be able to resist.  It could happen, but it might not.  Anyway, back to the title. The secret to winning the baby contest is as follows:
1. Be obsessed
2. Be friends with April
3. Have a baby with cute hair or cover up a lack of hair
4. Pay attention to little details
5. Know my Mom
6. Don't forget about April and my mom.

The end!