The prettiest little flower girl (who just couldn't cooperate)

Sooo....three-year-olds as flower girls. They look so very, very adorable! But expect them to hold it together and actually make it down the aisle after two very long, long days of rehearsal, dinners, photos, and holding still for curling irons?

Not so much.

I'd say she did remarkably well, actually, when you stop to think that she was scheduled to participate in a 5:00 wedding that followed a late night at the rehearsal dinner, an early morning wake up (of course, because why sleep in?), driving all over creation to collect shoes (for Mommy), have Kelly curl her hair, pick up Daddy from work, eat McDonalds in the car (because we are NOT GETTING OUT IN THE RAIN AND RUINING YOUR HAIR), arriving 2 1/2 hours early for pictures, etc etc etc. I honestly thought she'd be able to hold it together, because she practiced so well at the rehearsal and seemed to be very proud of her role in helping Lila (one of the 18-month-old flower girls) down the aisle.

But when it came to go-time, she just couldn't do it. At 4:45, right before the scheduled 5 p.m. ceremony, we had a collective flower girl meltdown in the girls dressing room. Zoey, if you will remember, was the oldest of three flower girls in this wedding--the "lead flower girl" in charge of getting Lila and Catalina (both tiny toddlers) safely down the aisle. You have to figure that a bride who picks such young cast members for her wedding party has to be pretty okay with the idea that it just might not work out. So, there was crying. Those pretty pink sparkly shoes Zoey just had to have ended up giving her painful blisters. She was having no part in Mommy leaving her downstairs and going to find her seat. Lila and Catalina were both squirming and wailing. There was a brief moment of bridal panic. It was decided that the flower girls could all go sit with their parents for the ceremony.

GOOD CALL, JULIE.

So, in the end, Zoey sat on my lap for the wedding ceremony and only mentioned loudly a few times that she was hungry and would like a snack.

She had a blast at the reception, danced the night away (in her more comfy Dora shoes), and conked out the minute her tiny little bottom hit the car seat.

Lesson learned: if you want your flower girl to actually make it down the aisle, take a mental inventory of all the grade-school children you know. Zoey will make a kick-ass flower girl someday. Like, after she hits kindergarten.

This picture? Right here? Tell me that's not her mother's face.
It's how I know she's really my child.