Cinderella Evie

About a month ago I saw our newly married friend Paige "like" an event that her employer, Legacy Photography, was advertising - The Cinderella Sessions. They were partnering with a local wedding venue for a Cinderella tea party and photo session opportunity. I jumped on board right away since I had planned to take Evie to see the new Cinderella movie that weekend, and knew that she would be over the moon excited about the whole thing. She was. And by the way, the new movie is great. Not as wonderful as my favorite, Ever After, but very good nonetheless.

We had been visiting the ranch the day I took Evie to the movie. Since Shari was out there as well we combined resources in order to get back into town. I took Evie to the movie in our van and Shari took Terry, our three boys plus her girls home. It's nice living a half mile from them. Talk about a full van!

 Anyway, for the Cinderella tea two days later, I arranged to go with Shari and Grace and meet up with some friends once there. 

Since her birthday was only 16 days from that date, I got her an early birthday present to go along with the day's festivities. 

She dressed in this outfit for church that morning thinking it was Cinderella-y enough for the tea party. I could not wait for her to open her new dress, which she had tried on at Target and was hoping for. I bought it secretly as a surprise.

She was so happy. Therefore, I was so happy. It was seriously so fun planning and attending this event with her, like a golden memory that still makes me smile.

We got there later than I planned, just in time to see Evie's friends getting their picture taken at the Cinderella carriage. So we jumped in line and met up with them later. The wait wasn't as bad as it had been earlier in the afternoon, but we still waited 30-45 minutes. It was amusing watching all the really little girls having meltdown dramas because of the wait. True princesses! At least the weather was beautiful. It was 80 degrees on March 15th!

Here we are almost to the carriage. There was the Legacy photographer up front snapping all the girl's pictures. I love their photos. Some day we will bite the bullet and get some proper family photos taken by them. Soon I will get Evie's carriage photo and share it here as well. 

As soon as we had their pictures completed we headed in to the reception tent for the Tea portion of the afternoon. Unfortunately they were all out of all the food! Evie and I grabbed some tea/pink lemonade but once Evie saw her friends on the dance floor, all disappointment about missing cupcakes vanished from her mind. I drank her tea, chatted with my friends and took a ton of photos, grinning like an idiot the entire time. It was just too great for me to watch her elation. It was amazing. Evie danced a lot with Abigail and Aly there in the back.

"Let it go! Let it go!" She can't hold it back anymore. Evie's dance moves that is. 

Girls in action. 

There was a Prince Charming there as well. I think earlier in the afternoon you could have your photo taken with him. By this point he was on the dance floor, asking little girls if they would like to dance. A couple of Evie's friends went first before she summoned the courage to go with him herself. She did pretty well too! 

There's me in the background of one of Legacy's photos (oh, and of course a friend's daughter dancing with the Prince)! Ha!

The girls were tearing around the place like a tornado. They ran up the hill and I only just caught them sitting together so I could take a photo before they ran off to the Fairy Godmother's. 

While the girls got in the (gratefully much shorter) line, someone offered to take a picture of Shari and I. 

Once they went inside the Fairy Godmother's house, they were sprinkled with sparkly fairy dust (glitter) and they posed with a much younger version of the fairy. It was quite cute.

Alas, just like Cinderella, all the time we had available was gone too quickly and we had to leave. She ran up to this last photo op and said good bye to her friends. 

And I took the two cousin's photo. 

On our way back down the hill, Evie spotted the wishing well and of course had to see it. I was hoping Evie's blue dress would be unique but boy was I wrong. Look at all that blue! 

Stepmother Baroness Rodmilla DeGent,"But Henry loves blue!" 

Marguerite, "And fifty other girls will be wearing the exact same color!"

Turns out my sister was exactly right when she quoted those lines from Ever After to me... Sigh. I love that movie.

I arrived just in time to hear Evie's wish, "I wish there was no more sickness in the world." 

One more parting shot. It was truly a magical afternoon. We loved every moment. 

Here is a video someone made of the event.

And if this will work, here are some of Legacy's photos that they shared on facebook.