Columbus, OH 7/20-- My daughter's birthday present

First off, a HUGE thank you to rlmama for organizing our get together/meet up place/ gift basket/ et al. You absolutely RULE!!! And to all the girls in the group I was with... Thank you for making my and Maggie's experience absolutely fanTABulous!

And now, to the story:

When I initially bought my tickets, I was supposed to be going with someone else. They backed out, and it couldn't have been more perfect. My daughter had actually cried when she found out I was going because she wanted to. So.... I put the extra ticket in her birthday card, and VOILA! I was on my way to hopefully trumping Dad as number one. (I call him my husbrat for a reason- I'm the disciplinarian, he's the "fun one"... hmph).

Maggie's a Brooke girl, but to stay semi neutral she wore a dress that had both yellow and red flowers on it, and brought her "Cozy" (a small stuffed yellow bear with a red bow). So she was a Brooke n Cook girl. She's also insanely painfully shy, so I promised her it was her day and I'd help her whenever she needed it.

I didn't... exactly tell her what we were doing beforehand, so she had no idea until we got there that she might meet some of them. While it wasn't all ten, we still hit the jackpot:



Syesha came by first, very sweet, signed for Maggie no problem!



Ramiele (forgive me if I butcher spellings!) was soooooo little and so cute! After her, Mags put her pen down and told me I was silly for giving it to her because they all had pens of their own. I had to giggle.



Kristy Lee seemed a bit rushed, but she still came out and signed. Mags loved her hair.

And then... Maggie was speechless for the first time.



Oh yeah, I was definitely on my way to trumping Daddy then... HA! The girls had come by fairly close together, and once Brooke had signed and gone a little further down, I got my first HUGE hug.

Next thing I knew, here comes Archie down the aisle.



Funny, people all day assumed he was her favorite... including...



Oh, yeah.






At this point I was very thankful to be in Mommy mode, as I actually may have been a bit starstruck otherwise.

He took his time going on down the line, chatting with everyone, signing whatever people asked him to. He was extremely personable, LOVE his sense of humor. And I also have to say... pictures do him NO justice!!! Yeah, you read that right.

When he got to Maggie, I swear it was as if she froze, it was so cute how shy she was! He asked her what her name was, and when she didn't speak (or if she did it was so light I definitely couldn't hear her) I told him it was Maggie, and he personalized her autograph. She was acting as if she wanted to say something, and he said "Aww, sweetheart, do you want a picture?" and she nodded. He put his arm around her and smiled, which just melted my heart. My camera decided to take it's merry sweet time coming back up, but he waited patiently, making that little girl feel like an absolute princess.



Then he says "You were probably more of an Archie fan, though." And she finally says her first word.

"No."


But was her day done? Nooooo, along comes Jason Castro:



And when he signed her book and did his smilie with the dreadlocks, out pops MY Maggie and she says "Oh, it looks like you!" to which he laughed.

So... right afterwards, she grabs my hand and tells me she needs to go to the washroom. I walked her over, and she would NOT shut up!! We get to the venue, and she says she wants a Cook shirt, she hasn't taken it off yet, and while she had fun during the show, the absolute CLINCHER was when she saw David Cook perform. She actually stood right in front of me, on top of my feet, to see because she didn't want to stare at the screens for him.

I didn't get any good pics from the show, but I had much fun just enjoying it. I was floored how much of a difference each of them sounded live, and I mean that in a very good and positive way. And the finale, Cook breakin it down? *fans self* After the show, Mags was exhausted so we made our way back to the vehicle and on our way back to the Dayton area.

Maggie was asleep before we ever hit the 315.

And that was it.

Maggie went to Columbus a true Brooke n Cook -er

She is now Cook n Brooke.


oh, and... I have trumped Dad

Hello from OH-IO

Just found this today and I'm perusing around to get a feel and take a look at everything. Just wanted to say hello and not be just a lurker!