These girlies are living every little girls’ dream with this Enchanting Fairy Garden session. Their mama had such a vision for this from finding the sweetest fairy outfits to securing a backyard in the middle of town that looked exactly like a fairy garden from the playhouse adorned with stained glass windows to the lily pad pond and Secret Garden gate. Does it get any more magical?

I was culling through this session when my Bradlee came in and saw Raylee on my monitor. “MAMA! That’s my friend I play with at Nana’s! I really like her, can I see her again?” I had to laugh because that’s the same way I feel when I see Raylee’s mama, Lauren.

I spent most of my “growing up” life in my hometown- but I didn’t actually live there the entire time. So friendships were spotty and as soon as my Enneagram 4 self would start to feel secure and put down roots, we would pull them up and go somewhere else for a few years. But my anchor was having so many cousins that doubled as my best friends and Lauren is one of those.

We’ve spent summer days riding 4 wheelers on dusty roads, picking strawberries from Nana’s garden and dipping them in powdered sugar for snack, slipping across trampolines coated with dish soap and a water hose, and swinging on the tire swing. We’d come in after dark, sweaty and dusty, and pick up a bowl of peas to shell and a paper bag for the hulls.

We’ve Christmas caroled in horse-drawn wagons, laid on mattresses in the back of my grandparents’s Suburban and played cards during road trips, told ghost stories late into the night in the camper parked in my grandparents’ yard, and spent Sunday mornings shoulder to shoulder listening to our Papa preach.

The memories roll one after another and the reel hasn’t reached middle school yet. For 34 years I’ve made memories with Lauren, our brothers, and the rest of our cousins. My grandparents house is still one of my favorite destinations!

Now we gather the 11 OG grandchildren + our spouses a few times a year. We are the ones pushing the trampoline swing now. Golf carts and Gators have replaced the 4-wheelers. Our kids pick oranges from Papa’s trees and crack pecans and dig out the meat on the back of the truck. We sing carols on a trailer pulled by a tractor because there are too many for a horse to carry.

We watch our kids run barefoot on dusty ground playing tag, swim in an ACTUAL swimming pool, and jump on trampolines a whole lot safer than the ones we used. But the nostalgia is great and it’s amazing to see our girls’ side by side. The 2 oldest are our mini-me’s and it’s like peering through a looking glass watching them play.

LaLa! You did such an amazing job creating an enchanted fairy garden for your girls. These portraits bring me such joy- you can almost hear the flutter of their wings and feel the whimsy of a little girl’s dreams when you look through them. Thank you for inviting me into these moments! Love you!

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If you loved this session you may enjoy Elyana’s Smash Cake session and Bradlee’s BeeDay Party.