One thing is for sure: Wichita has a gold mine of cute kids. Each holiday season we at SPLURGE! are faced with the seemingly impossible task of choosing a winner for the Our Cover, Your Kid contest from the many, many entries we receive. Sometimes we wonder if we should toss all of the photos into the air and see which one lands at our feet — it would ease our sleepless nights and still give us those cherubic cheeks and sparkling eyes we’re all longing to see on our December issue.

Even narrowing the competition to our five finalists is painstaking. We helped ourselves out a bit in recent years by staggering the age groups. This year’s contestants had to be between the ages of 1 and 5. Next year, it will be ages 6 to 12.

So those of us behind the scenes who have been flipping between countless cuties want you to know that we are smitten: Whether they made the finals or not, your children and grandchildren are beautiful, and we wish we could give each of them their own magazine cover. However, then we’d have to call our longstanding contest “Our Covers, Your Kids,” and that would bring a logistical challenge all its own.

So here, we announce in alphabetical order, the five finalists of the 2021 Our Cover, Your Kid contest:

The winner: Knox Ngo

When 2-year-old Knox Ngo heard the news from his mom that he had won the SPLURGE! Our Cover, Your Kid contest, he shouted, “I am the champion!” Mom Rachelle Ngo said that with three older siblings, Knox is competitive, fearless and catches on to everything.

“He gets away with a lot and is taught a lot more than he probably should be,” she said with a laugh. Knox has a special fondness for his oldest sibling, Ashton, who plays football at Hutchinson Community College. “He wants to wrestle and play football just like Ashton,” she said.

Knox won the judges’ hearts with his darling face, sharp haircut, and the twinkle in his eye. His myriad of poses during the photo shoot made for some adorable shots, but definitely had Mom worried. “He was sticking out his tongue, trying to throw peace signs,” she said, laughing. “Welcome to being the youngest.”

Knox was dressed to kill in a chambray shirt, red pants, red bowtie, and Christmas tree suspenders. The icing on the cake was his white penny loafers. “On the day he got them, his grandma was telling him how they used to put a penny in the slot, and he insisted on putting a penny in there,” she said. “So those pennies have been in there since the first day he got the shoes.”

Rachelle said her other kids — Ashton, 18; Kali, 16; and Lakkyn, 11 — keep their little brother looking sharp. “With him being the youngest, the other kids are always grabbing things for him and keeping him in style,” she said. “Knox will wear anything.”

Knox is very lovey and a snuggler, Rachelle said. He’s intelligent and likes to learn new information on YouTube. These days he’s into Spider-Man and cooking. “He has a new play kitchen and we ordered him the little chef outfit,” she said. “Out of all of our kids, he’s probably the only one who has ever played by himself and can keep himself entertained.”

No doubt he’s busy keeping everyone else entertained, too.

Knox is the son of Rachelle and Chris Ngo of Andover. Grandparents are Lisa Brichalli, Scott Yoxall, Cindy Dunlap and the late Thinh Ngo.