Green pancakes for St. Patrick’s Day were on the stove inside Heather and Ryan Demeny’s Ready Point Road, Wiscasset home March 17.

A sign over the kitchen window said to live well, love much and laugh often.

The couple, Heather Demeny’s four children and Lexi, her black lab-springer mix that she also brought to the marriage, and Ryan Demeny’s toy poodle Emma, were having family time. That’s a priority, Heather Demeny said.

So is setting an example for the children, which is part of the reason she recently decided to enter the Mrs. Maine pageant, she said. It’s way out of her comfort zone, she said.

“I’m always telling my children to, ‘Do your best, and reach for your goals. Anything’s attainable,’” she said.

She also wanted to try it for her own sake, so she wouldn’t look back later in life and wonder, what if she had, she said. “So I thought about it and I said, ‘Why not?’ This’ll be a great experience for me.”

The Woolwich native did not watch Miss America on television growing up and never aspired to be a pageant queen. “I was always the really quiet girl who never wanted to stand out at all, and I definitely never imagined doing something like this.”

Now the 37-year-old vegan has picked out a two-piece, royal blue evening gown and expects to opt for a two-piece swimsuit for the fitness round of the pageant, May 6 and 7 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in South Portland. The gown and fitness rounds each count for 25 percent of the score, and judges’ interviews, 50 percent, she said. “But I was told (the interviews are) really laid-back.”

Demeny, a visitation supervisor for Home Counselors, is a little nervous about wearing a swimsuit in front of an audience. That will really be pushing herself, she said. It will also take her to a new height: During that portion of the competition, she’ll be in four-and-a-half-inch heels.

“I need to vacuum and dust in these,” to get comfortable walking in them, she said, holding the shoes. She planned to attend a workshop with fellow contestants on how to walk with confidence.

Demeny has her family’s support in challenging herself with the pageant. “It’s something she wants to do, and I think this would be a great opportunity,” her husband said.

He and the other husbands will don tuxedos and join their wives onstage for the evening gown competition. “Piece of cake,” he said about the prospect, thanks to the experience he racked up appearing before a group when he was master of the Masons’ Lincoln Lodge in Wiscasset, he said.

Tyler Peaslee, 17, said he think’s it’s cool that his mother is Mrs. Wiscasset; Olivia Peaslee, 13, said her mother has always inspired her and is inspiring her now, with the pageant.

Noah Peaslee 15, said about his mother: “She’s always been a very beautiful woman.”

Preparing for the pageant has been a whirlwind, with a lot of paperwork and planning, their mother said. However, unlike some pageants, there is no talent competition. “Thank God, no,” she said. She doesn’t have a talent act. “I told them, I only make talented people, incredibly talented,” she said, looking at her children around the table.

Ryan Demeny said his wife could win the crown, and with it a prize package including a trip to Las Vegas to compete for the Mrs. America title. Heather Demeny is unsure of her chances. Some contestants have pageant experience and have been preparing since last fall, and they all are beautiful, strong women, she said.

“I’ve already told myself that if I do this with confidence, I’ll be winning in my head. I’ll be very proud of myself.”

Demeny is looking for sponsors to help cover her pageant expenses. Find out more at gofundme.com-w6tmdmvg, or call Demeny at 844-3071.