Refund Please

We've spent a couple of hundred dollars on "dance lessons" for Virginia this Spring so I think I have a right to expect some results by now.

Like perhaps some good dance moves to show off at the rehearsal dinner for her Uncle Ash. Is that too much to ask?

Here is the pre-rehearsal dinner routine she came up with. Let's call it "Elaine's Return"

And then, her big break arrives. As the only little girl at the wedding she has a big opportunity to strut her stuff on the stage. And she comes up with this...

Sigh, I guess it'll take a few more years for our "investment" in dance lessons to pay off.

Garden Tour with V

We've got quite the back porch garden growing this year. I allowed Virginia to pick out the plants and as a result we have all kind of things that likely should be planted in the ground in pots on our back deck instead. It looks something like this:

(oooh, ahhh panoramic pics are the cool new option on our cool new camera)

This is Virginia in front of the potatoes that threatened to eat North Carolina.

And here is your very own personal tour of what we have planted, given by V herself:

Did you catch a glimpse at those pink high heel dress up shoes? Those were her bribe for sleeping through night last night! When in doubt...bribe.

Swimming Lessons - for Virginia and her Mother

Meet Virginia Bruce, a little girl who still fights her parents almost every time they tell her it is bath night. A little girl that runs away from a sprinkler. A little girl who is NOT in love with water.

Virginia's mom, at the suggestion of Virginia's grandmother Kiki, decided Virginia needed to take some swim lessons now that she is 3. So Mama Bruce signed her up to go learn to swim.

With a bunch of little boys. Boys who splashed a lot. Boys her mother considered yelling at or otherwise reprimanding because their parents just let them splash her daughter.

See Virginia exceed all expectations and do every single activity with the teacher. With no screaming. With no crying. With no whining. Including jumping from the side of the pool into the water to a woman she'd only known 20 minutes!


Virginia learns to swim. Her mother learns to have more faith in her child. Amazing what swimming lessons can teach you.