A beautiful Easter day

Easter in Maine can't get much more perfect than today. The sky is blue and the thermometer is currently reading 77 degrees. So it was a good day for white shoes and frilly skirts. We met up with Mom and Dad at church, then we came home for Cate's nap. We'll be heading over to their house for dinner when Cate wakes up.

Cate looked like a little princess in her dress today, and the hat and purse from Gr. Grandma Sprague really topped off the outfit!

Smelling the crocuses!

Outside after church, running around while eating a bread roll.

Backing up to this morning... here's Cate waiting to come downstairs to search for her Easter basket.

And here's a video of her finding her basket...

Getting ready for Easter

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few weeks. Not only have we been super busy (house is almost ready to go back on the market!!), but we were all pretty much out of commission last week when the stomach flu ran through our house. Rick fared the best, I didn't do so well, and poor Cate took a full week to get back to normal. I'll spare you all the gory details, but let's just say that by about day 5 I called up mom and said, "I'm just so tired of dealing with vomit!" I had a pair of slippers that went through the wash twice in 24 hours. It was awful. We had had a cookout with three other neighborhood families two nights prior to the start of the sickness, and five of us ended up with the flu. One of the families had been sick the week before, so we all blamed them for contaminating us. So now there may or may not be plans in the works to TP their house....

But Cate had never had the stomach flu like that before. It was so gross. And really sad. Poor thing! But we're all better now!

The following pics were taken only a matter of hours before "the sickness" began (with me first!). Cate has been getting packages galore for Easter- an Easter hat and purse from Great Grandma Sprague, goodie-filled eggs from Gr. Aunt Chris and Gr. Uncle Charlie, an Easter cookie decorating kit (which has been a hit with the play-doh) from Gr. Aunt Tish and Gr. Uncle Tom, an assortment of clothes and Easter treats from Nana and Papa, and an Easter plate and bunny cup from Gr. Aunt Kathy and Gr. Uncle Larry. I happened to have the camera handy when she was opening that particular package, so here she is...

Plus I got a couple of little videos....

Cate in her kitchen

While I was cutting up veggies for dinner recently, Cate decided that she was going to cut the onion. She took her Santa knife (which is really just a spreader) and the onion to her kitchen and did her best to "cut" it in the saute pan.

Then the onion went into the oven to cook! She does love her kitchen! :)

Cate and Nola

Cate's friend, Nola, came over and spent the evening with us a couple of weeks ago. Nola's parents, our friends/neighbors, Jenny and James watched Cate while we went and had our taxes done. We said we'd repay the favor, so they cashed in on their anniversary, so that they could go out for dinner. Cate had a good time playing with Nola, and Cate spent part of the night reading to Nola, who seemed content to sit with her thumb and blankie and listen!



I couldn't resist the picture below! I made the girls ravioli for dinner, hoping that Nola liked pasta. She sure did!! She and Cate were both asking for seconds!

Sheila, Bedrooms, and Cate's bib on her head

Today was ship out day for Sheila, our "adoptive daughter." She has joined the Coast Guard and will be on a 3:42 plane to Philly, then riding a bus down to Cape May, NJ for 8 weeks of boot camp. We went down to Portland this morning for her swearing in and then went over to the airport, where we were able to get guest passes to go into the terminal with her. They all had to be at the airport at 11, and Cate wasn't able to last that long, so we left around 1 to come back home. Sheila was pretty nervous, but we're hoping this will be the start of a real career for her. We're really excited for her!

Changing gears, we've been working really hard the last couple of months trying to get the house ready to go back on the market. The closets are all cleaned out and organized, curtains have been washed, excess has been donated or put into Mom and Dad's new basement, workwork has been Murphy's-Oil-soaped, paint has been touched up, etc. You get the idea! One fun thing we did do was give our bedroom a little update. We bought a queen-sized mattress three years ago but have never had a queen headboard. Also, we've never had two matching nightstands. So we bought this headboard and nightstands unfinished at the Mill Stores, and I painted them. The style is "Cottage" and the color I picked was "Cottage White" by Behr. I love them!!! The lamps I found at Target, and the bedding ensemble was a Christmas present from Mom and Dad. Even Rick said, "Wow, it looks like a real bedroom!" We feel so grown up. :)

And finally, just for fun- Cate with a bib on her head.

A walk on the beach

Today was about as good of a day as one can have in Maine in early March. It was 55 degrees, bright blue sky, and not much of the white stuff left, except for a few small, dirty piles at the edges of driveways or northern sides of houses. Rick was working so I spent most of the day laundering and ironing curtains and cleaning all of the windows (plus window sills and surrounding workwork). After Cate got up from her afternoon nap, however, we decided to head down to Popham Beach. We were only there for about 45 minutes before it started getting too dark (and the gates close at sunset), but we had a great time. And though Cate was a little afraid of the water (which is probably a good thing), she loved filling up her bucket with rocks and shells, and she enjoyed scooping and throwing sand.






Popham is having some major issues with beach erosion these days. I can remember when we were little and would spend a day at Popham, and the beach seemed to go on forever. Today, there is significantly less beach between the dunes and the water, and this picture of Cate in front of an eroded dune seems to show that quite nicely.

Self-taken shot.

The sun is setting, and we're headed back down the beach toward the parking lot.

Trip to Ohio

Last week the schools were on February vacation, so Mom, Cate, and I drove out to Ohio from Sunday to Friday and surprised Grandma. And boy, was she surprised! :) Cate went right to Grandma and gave her a big hug. They were immediately pals.

Four generations. So lucky to have this picture.

Hanging with Uncle Jim, who Cate loved to pieces. He played with her and teased her, and "stole" her Taggie blanket and Nuk, and she just kept coming back for more! So cute.

Cousin Jamie came up from Columbus for our last night in Ashland. Cate and I had talked about him and looked at pictures at Aunt Diane's house. When Jamie walked in the door, Cate yelled, "Cousin Jamie!!!" and proceeded to jump up and down the whole way to the front door. Who wouldn't love that kind of reception?

Hugs and kisses from Aunt Diane.

Cate's new pal, Chloe. They developed a very funny but playful relationship.

This picture probably also describes their relationship. Cate enjoyed hiding in Chloe's crate while Chloe was on the outside. So funny!

Dressed up

Cate and I went outside yesterday before church to try and take some nice pictures. I managed to get her to smile nicely for a few pictures!

Such a cute little outfit! Thanks to Aunt Christine for this one- Cate is really into polka dots, so it's a hit.

Serious face

Lately we've been doing "faces." As in, make a happy face, scared face, and above, my favorite, the "serious face." Below, Cate and Zoe pose in the kitchen. Cate was at her school Valentine's party, hence the heart painted on her cheek.

Rick and I are continuing to work on cleaning up and cleaning out the house, as we prepare to put it back on the market this spring. I brought down a bunch of totes full of Cate's baby stuff and clothes, which is going to go to Mom and Dad's new big basement for storage! I guess Cate, however, felt the need to reminisce, and dragged her play mat out onto the living room floor, trying it out for the first time in a long time.

Funny things she says (I keep adding to this...)

I am amazed everyday at how Cate strings more and more words together into sentences. It's so much fun to hear what she's going to say next and how she's going to verbally respond to situations. A couple of particularly amusing examples....

1. On Saturday, Cate was in the bathroom with me while I was about to get in the shower. She had a blanket on the floor and was reading to her two dollies. I then noticed she took the one doll by the leg and kicked the other doll in the stomach. Then she said in a stern voice, "No kick dolly. Time out!"

2. Last night we were at Mom and Dad's for dinner, and Mom offered up ice cream for dessert. Cate plowed through her small bowl and said, "Gramma, more ice cream." Since she didn't have a lot, I told her she could have one more little scoop and got up to get it. Dad looked at Cate and said, "It is good, isn't it, even if it's not that good for you." Quick as can be, Cate turned to him, pointed her finger at him, and went, "Shhhh!" haha!!

Oh, and here's one more I remembered... I was vacuuming the rugs upstairs, and she does not like the vacuum. She's finally stopped screaming and clinging to me, but now she's taken to hiding. So she went into a bedroom with a dolly and closed the door while I vacuumed the bathroom rug. When I finished, she came out and walked down to the bathroom and said, "Dolly cry. Vacuum scare dolly." Oh, so DOLLY was afraid. Too cute.

Wait, I'm back with one more that Rick really liked. Yesterday, our neighbor Steve stopped over to return something he had borrowed, and he came in to sit and chat. Steve works down at the shipyard, so he always comes home from work pretty dirty, and we caught him right after work. Cate, who loves Steve, went up to him and said, "Steve. Shirt dirty." I guess now that she's talking, we need to work on manners, but luckily Steve found it pretty funny!!