We’ve had a really fun weekend. Yesterday, Cate and I met up with Cat, Tony and e-baby for the Raleigh airport’s “open house” for their new terminal. I know, it’s kind of weird to go to the airport just for fun, but there was free food! And a guy wearing a Curious George costume! And… uh, I don’t remember what else, but the girls had lots of fun running around.

That afternoon, I chatted with my next-door neighbor while Cate played with some of the neighborhood kids. The older kids asked if they could rake the leaves in my yard. Um, YEAH! They only wanted to do it so they could jump in the leaf pile, but hey whatever, free labor, right? Cate kind of stayed out of their way to avoid getting trampled during all of the action, but after they were done, they raked the leaves out to the street for me, which was nice. And as soon as they all left to go home for dinner, Cate plopped herself down in the pile of leaves and then pulled them onto her lap in order to thoroughly bury herself.

She had a great time and threw a huge fit when I dragged her inside twenty minutes later. (It was getting dark!)

Oh also, my next-door neighbor loaned me a couple of Halloween costumes that her kids have worn in the past, so I wouldn’t have to go buy Cate one. It was really sweet of her. I love this “101 Dalmatians” costume, but Cate seems to feel otherwise about it.

Luckily the other costume is totally adorable and she doesn’t seem to mind it, so I think that’s the one we’re going with. And I’m not telling you what it is or taking pictures yet, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Then the absolute best, best, BEST part of this weekend: today we went to our local Down’s Syndrome Association’s “Buddy Walk” fundraiser, and we got to meet Rachel, Alex and Leah from Signing Time!

I don’t think Cate recognized them from the DVD’s at all. At the next booth over, she saw the Signing Time DVD’s on display and she got all excited, saying “sign, sign.” I said, I know, see? I pointed back over to the actual Signing Time people (who were taking pics with other people and totally ignoring us) and I sang the theme song from the DVD to try to get her to put the two together. She looked sort of confused, I honestly don’t know if she got it or not.

Anyway, Rachel was super-nice, and I told her she’s basically the Mick Jagger of our house, like the ultimate rock star. She clapped and said, “woo! I love it!” It was pretty awesome, my hands even shook because I was so excited to meet her. I know, I am a total geek. But it was a great day.