You Can Practice Too Hard

** Pictures to follow later **

Nick, one of my employees, got married on Saturday. He and his wife Emily asked Emma to be their flower girl. So, Emma took her second jaunt down the aisle in just under two short years. By all accounts, Emma was beautiful and perfect. You don’t need to take my word for it. Still, you will have to believe my hearsay… :)

Saturday morning I had Emma practice spreading shredded pieces of paper down the hallway. I showed her how to sprinkle multiple “petals” at one time. She did very well. After each time, I said, “Now let’s pick them up so we can try again.” Fast forward to the time of the actual ceremony. Emma and Thomas, the ring bearer, held hands until they reached the chairs set up on the lawn. At that point, they let go and Emma started to sprinkle the rose petals on the ground. Because Danny wasn’t sitting in the chairs (a guest had a service dog with her and Ally freaked out – but that’s another story), Emma wouldn’t go any further than past the first row of chairs. After she spread out the entire basket of flowers, I tried to get her into the aisle to sit down with me. She wouldn’t budge. Instead, she went back into the aisle and started to pick the petals back up! I had to grab her and bring her into the aisle with me because she almost got in the bride’s way. I should have thought to tell her that she needed to leave the actual rose petals on the ground for Emily to walk on. Funny how children only follow the letter of the law at the most inopportune times…