4th of July

Maggie was invited to march in the Woodstock 4th of July parade with her Upward Cheerleading Camp from FBCW.  The girls walked the parade route doing cheers and shaking their pom poms while the boys from the basketball camp threw candy and passed out Upward brochures.

Mommy walked the parade route with Maggie while Daddy, Grandma, and Gramps sat with our friends the Eliots to watch the parade.  It was lots of fun but very hot!!! We were extremely thankful that Daddy had dropped a car for us at the end of the parade route.
After the parade, Mags and Mommy went and got their swimming things.  After a quick stop at the 4th of July Festival in the Woodstock Square, they went over to the Eliots’ pool for some swimming.  Of course the 4th of July would not be complete without some watermelon.

Edisto Island

June 30 – July 3 2008

Maggie and Mommy headed back to Edisto for some time with Grandpa and Grandma Dot. Daddy had a retreat for work so he didn’t join us, but us girls had fun anyway.  Cousins Gray and Riley were supposed to make the trip with us but unfortunately they both got sick right before time to leave so Mags was without a built in playmate.
We spent lots of time at the beach where Maggie got pretty good at riding the waves in on her boogie board.  She made some new friends each day, but really did miss the cousins.  

We also went and checked out the snakes and gators at the island Serpentarium where Maggie even petted a snake!!
It was a fun trip, and Mags and Mommy were very happy to get some beach time and spend time with family.

Major Milestones This Weekend

No pictures of this – will have to get some later, but we had two major milestones this weekend.

1. Maggie actually jumped rope – like five jumps in a row.  This is a HUGE motor skill milestone. She actually swung the rope over her head, jumped (with both feet – no stepping), and kept the rope going to go over her head again.  HUGE!!!
2. Maggie is now reading silently.  This is a MAJOR cognitive milestone.  That means she doesn’t need to hear the sounds of the letters to know what the word is.  She can look at the word and just figure it out or know it on sight.  AMAZING.  She and Mommy were in bed tonight reading together – cuddling but reading their own books.  How COOL is that!
Had to share!  Happy Day!

Swimming with the Webers

June 29, 2008

The Weber girls came over to see Maggie and swim at the pool.  They hadn’t seen each other in over a month, so they were all very excited.  They had a great time, and Anna joined them later in the afternoon.

These girls LOVE to get together!

Fabulous Friends

June 25, 2008

Maggie’s friend, Kate, came over to play after Upward Cheerleading camp.  The girls had lunch, did a little dancing, and then decided to go to the pool.  
When we got Kate’s suit out of her bag, I had to giggle.  Maggie has the same one.  
When I complimented Kate on her cute hair cut, she told me she got it to be like Maggie’s.
When I put my swimming suit on, Kate looked at me in amazement.  Her mom has the same suit, different color.
When we found out who the girls are going to have for first grade, they’re both going to be in the same class.

Guess who Maggie sits with at Kidstuf at church – Kate.  
Obviously, these girls are destined to be FABULOUS FRIENDS!  Or, our families are just so similar it’s freaky.  🙂

Nestleroth Reunion – Day 2

June 22, 2008

The Nestleroth family fun continued the next day at Kathy’s cousin Stacy’s house.  Stacy is Kathy’s closest second cousin in age, and they used to spend some time together each summer when Kathy would visit her grandparents.  Stacy’s family has a pool in their

backyard so Mags was very anxious to hang out there.  Stacy also has a daughter who is a year or so older than Mags.  They were the only two younger girls there that day so they had tons of fun 
playing together.  The picture to the right is the girls sunning with Cousin Callie.  
We had a wonderful time visiting some more, eating more good food, and just hanging out together.  We agreed that the reunion is a wonderful thing, and we are so glad we do it.  Kathy’s mom suggested that the next reunion be in Atlanta so that folks can come see the South.  The idea was met with a great deal of enthusiasm, so it looks like that will happen in 2010.  Let the planning begin.  Seriously, we are already working on menus.  
One more note about the reunion.  We had many teenagers there, and I have to thank all of them for being so patient and loving with the littler kids.  Little kids (especially Maggie) want to be wherever teenagers are and do whatever teenagers are doing.  They are absolutely fascinated by these bigger people who aren’t adults, but aren’t really kids either.  Maggie just adored all the older kids, but has a special place in her heart for Meghan.  What Maggie doesn’t remember is how much she loved Meghan two years ago, and the adoration continued this year.  Meghan was fabulous with it, and I can’t thank her and the other teenagers enough.  So, a special thanks to my younger second cousins who truly understand family and sharing themselves with others.  It was such a pleasure to get to spend time with you at the reunion.

Nestleroth Reunion – Day 1

June 21, 2008

The Nestleroth family is Kathy’s maternal Grandfather’s family.  Kathy and her brother, Bill, used to spend several weeks up in Pennsylvania during the summers with their mom’s parents.  The annual Nestleroth family gathering almost always fell during that time, and Kathy and Bill enjoyed seeing their second cousins several times each summer while growing up.   Since the grandparents’ generation has passed on, the cousins have taken it up on themselves to gather with their families every other year in Pennsylvania.  Kathy’s Aunt Hazel and Uncle Mark (picture right) host the event, and do an amazing job.  Kathy’s family usually goes up a few days early to help out as much as possible and do some extra visiting.  The actual reunion celebrations are planned for Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday morning started with a pie crust making demonstration done by Aunt Hazel.  Maggie, Mommy, and Cousin Meghan were very interested in learning how Hazel makes her great crusts.  As you can see by the picture, Maggie had a wonderful time playing the flour and rolling
 the dough.

Once lunch was had, the third cousins had a wonderful time on the slip and slide.  They had the grown ups laughing from their lounging spot in the shade.  There is nothing better on a summer day than a slip and slide!!! While the younger cousins were sliding, the older cousins enjoyed bocci ball, badminton, croquet, and horseshoes.  The older ones were very patient with the younger guys when they wanted to play the other games too.  

The day ended with a Wii bowling tournament where Maggie Hill did some major domination with the Wii controller.  She won two rounds quite handily.  Cousin Michael (age 18) finally came in and beat her, but not by much. The funniest thing to watch was Michael’s fear that she actually might beat him as she was leading until half way through the game.  🙂 
It was a wonderful day, and Maggie sank into the bed with a smile on her face and was asleep in minutes.

I LOVE My Kid!

You know those days as a parent where you just love being with your kid.  You don’t have to fuss, finagle, or bribe.  You’re just able to enjoy them.  Today was one of those days.

I had an absolute blast with Maggie today.  She’s been amazing to be around for the last few days, but today was tears in the eyes fabulous.  I am just so blessed that God gave her to David and I to raise.  What an amazing gift.
She is funny, bright, loving, and just plain fun to be around.   I LOVE her.  
Just had to share the moment.  
Here she is exhausted after our day of travel yesterday and Chocolate World today.  Those are the two pillows I got her at Chocolate World – they’re the fun squishy kind.  One is a Hershey’s Kiss and the other is Bubble Yum.  She’s also got her “Beary” – doesn’t sleep without it.  
How cute is that kid!

Chocolate World


Maggie and Mommy are in Pennsylvania for the Nestleroth (Mommy’s Mommy’s side) family reunion.  The family is not far from Hershey so Maggie and Mommy went to Chocolate world today.  

Mommy was so excited – an entire building devoted to chocolate.  Absolute heaven!!  Mommy and Daddy had been there about eight years ago, but much has changed since then.  There is a new 3D show that made Maggie just squeal (literally) with delight.

We had a little glitch in the movie so they gave us free passes to see it again.  So, we got to experience it twice!

Then, we went on a fun trolley ride where we learned lots of neat things about Mr. Hershey, his factory, and the town.  The “conductors” were hilarious.  One of them kept “getting off” and reappearing as various historical characters.  It was a fun ride. Mags wanted to do it again, but we didn’t get a free do-over on that one so Mommy said no.  
Then we went back into the building where Maggie got to be a factory worker and package her own box of Hershey Kisses.  She actually will eat a Hershey’s kiss (not a big sweets fan) so Mommy thought this was a good one.  She of course loved it – got a cool hat, a name badge, and box of kisses plus some cute pics.
After lunch, we FINALLY got to go on the actual “factory tour” part of the building.  They’ve now made this into a ride where you sit down and travel through an explanation of how it all works with machines there to show you the different parts.  It was pretty neat.  Maggie thought it was awesome so we rode it THREE times!  Luckily, that part is free.  🙂
We of course traveled through the gift shop after every ride – amazing how everything ends at the gift shop.  We’re not talking a small gift shop.  This place was HUGE with the food court area attached.  We did a little shopping, but Mommy cut Maggie off when she wanted to buy something for everyone in the extended family.  
One more funny from the day.  It’s getting later in the afternoon, and Maggie says she’s hungry. I’m looking around wondering what to offer her.  I say “What kind of hungry – meal hungry or snack hungry?  There are cookies, cupcakes, ice cream…”  She comes back with “I’m strawberry hungry mama.  Do they have any good food – I want strawberries.”  Only my child.  She settled for a big container of milk – white milk not the chocolate kind that comes in the souvenir cup. I actually laughed at her for that one.