Evalie Anaïs' Baptism

We finally got ourselves together and Baptized Evalie this weekend. Unlike with Arielle, we knew we would do it but we were just really slow to get to it. A few years ago, we Baptized Arie at the age of 2 1/2 which was strange but because we were not sure as parents what religion we would teach and how to go about it. We are now both pretty sure we will try to expose the kids to both ( as opposed to non, which was our original strategy) and hope they benefit from the ideals that religion can instill in a child but remain open to either or even to select a religion that fits their beliefs when they are older. The Catholic church does require its members to maintain "membership" by keeping up with ones Sacraments and Baptism is the first of them. Evalie did very well was very cranky really because the ceremony was at 11:30 which is her nap time. She cried and squeals throughout and screamed when the Priest poured water over her head. She batted his hand out of the way each time he tried to bless her and basically was not letting him (or anyone) near her. So I suppose in hindsight, doing this with a much older child is easier. Anyway, our families gathered and we celebrated with good food, treats and a beautiful cake made by my favorite patisserie (she's made cakes for us since Arielle's first birthday.

The ceremony was quick and some people were late and missed the entire thing but I was fine with it. When it was our turn to come to the basin, we all gathered and my sister held Evalie over it. Arielle was just tall enough to see over the rim and she stood there watching cautiously to see her sister get baptized. It was actually really cute to see how worried she looked when Evalie started screaming from being startled by the water streaming down her face. Once that was done, we sat down and my brother did the candle lighting and brought it over to Evalie, she starred at it and then tried to grab it. He gave her the box and she started eating that!...By the end, at 12:30 she was so hungry and tired I had to immediately feed her to calm her down and by the time we got home ( 5 minuted away, she was sleeping so I put her to bed.

The day before, I had taken off from work so I could shop and do some little things around the house to prepare. I cooked some food, made cupcakes and favors, Austin and Arie cleaned the house and we were ready to have a great party. I really liked the idea of a white dessert table so I set that up basically with a centerpiece of spray painted branches. The cake, cupcakes and favors were also on that table along with white chocolate covered pretzels, almonds, cream puffs, Sfogliatelle and powdered donuts. 

We had some antipasto platters, chicken wings, sushi platter, chips and dip, dried fruit etc for appetizers while everyone settled in.