Cecilia's Baptism

Cecilia was baptized today! We had to wait until Lent was over since our parish does not perform baptisms during that time, and Cecilia was only about a week old when Lent began... not really enough time to get her baptized then. So, we had her baptized at the first opportunity after Lent, which was March 30. Deacon Stu performed the baptism on sleeping Cecilia, while both sets of grandparents and all the uncles and aunt watched. Uncle Tim is the godfather - you can see him standing with us in this photo.

Cecilia didn't mind the water at all!

Here is our whole family after Mass with the newest member of the family of Christ!

Cecilia poses (as much as a two month old can pose) with Uncle Tim.

After the Mass, we headed back to our house for the baptism party! We had help from the grandparents in getting the food together. We had fruit salad, a raw veggie platter with dip, Chick-fil-A chicken salad on croissants, shrimp and grits, and a cake, of course! My mother in law made the veggie and fruit dishes, and my mom made the shrimp and grits (her idea!) and got the cake from Costco. Costco has *amazing* cakes!!

Caroline and I set up the table for the party the day before. We put out the white tablecloth on the table where we'd serve the food buffet-style. Then we made some tissue paper flowers together, also white. The use of white symbolizes purity - thus, white table, flowers, cake, gown... I thought it would be nice to put out both girls' baptismal candles... Caroline's is the one on the right, and we brought Cecilia's home from church and put it in the candle holder on the left. I also hung Cecilia's little cross (which isn't on a bedroom wall since she doesn't have a bedroom yet) on the vase - if you look closely in this photo you can see it. Uncle Tim got it for Cecilia from Mount Saint Mary's in Baltimore and had it blessed by a priest.


Caroline also colored this picture of a baptism and loaned us her pink cross from her bedroom. It added nicely to the decor for the occasion.


We had a wonderful Sunday welcoming Cecilia into the Catholic faith. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate with all our family. Welcome to the Church, Cecilia Clare! I pray that I will have the wisdom to share our beautiful faith with you as you grow.

Arts and Crafts with Caroline

This was my mom's idea, from her many years of working in preschools. She had Caroline help her dye eggs for Easter, and then she gave us the shells in a baggie to bring home. We crushed them up and then used a paintbrush to spread glue on a piece of paper. Then Caroline pressed the eggshells down onto the glue. A little messy, but the end product was very pretty.

Three year old drawings

Caroline drew these yesterday, just a few days after turning three. It is interesting how she's begun to draw things that actually look like something! The two of these look very similar, but as you can see, I labeled them so you can tell the difference. Cats are her favorite thing to draw. She does the face first, then eyes, nose, mouth, and whiskers. Sometimes there are extra lines for ears and sometimes not.

Dutch is my brother Stephen's dog. Apparently, he has whiskers too.

Easter 2008

We went to my parents' house for Easter. We attended Mass with them and then Caroline looked for Easter eggs hidden by Grampa and Daddy. Gramma bought Caroline's dress for her earlier this year. Easter was early again this year, just as it was the year Caroline was born. Supposedly, it will not be this early again for some number of decades!

Aside from hunting for eggs, Caroline's other favorite activity this year was making Resurrection Rolls. We made a basic bread dough recipe to start (I made a whole wheat dough although the recipe says use white - they turned out fine). We then took large marshmallows and dipped them in melted butter, then rolled them in a little cinnamon-sugar mixture. I explained to Caroline that the marshmallow is like Jesus, and the butter and cinnamon-sugar represent the oils and spices they used to anoint his body before they laid him in the tomb. Then we wrapped a piece of dough around each marshmallow, which represents the tomb. We baked them in the oven - we did this on Good Friday, the day before we went to my parents' house - and then we ate them on Easter morning with our breakfast. When we bit into the rolls, they were hollow - the tomb was empty! I thought it was a neat idea, and Caroline really seemed to "get" it.

Grampa hid the eggs in some of his old clever hiding places where he used to hide them for my brothers and me. They did several hunts, one where he hid all the eggs along the bushes in front of the house - all in plain view, one after another. The basket was not only my Easter basket when I was little, but it was also my mom's! I don't know what we'll use for Cecilia's basket...

Happy Easter!!

Caroline's 3rd Birthday

Wow - I can't believe she's already three years old! Caroline is growing up quickly. For her birthday this year, we had a modest family celebration at home with just Mommy, Daddy, and Cecilia. She will get to celebrate a little more next week when all the relatives come for Cecilia's baptism.

First, Caroline opened presents. She got a puzzle and a playsilk (pictured below), which she can use for anything from a baby blanket to a skirt to a cape.

The big gift from us was her new comforter for her bed. Her bedroom walls are blue, and we found this pretty comforter at Target... it is mostly purple with some blue in it. Here she is after going into her room to discover her new gift! Her Gran has made a matching valance and throw pillow for her, which she'll bring next week.

Caroline had been telling me that she wanted a cake with "pink sugar icing." She got this phrase from the Winnie-the-Pooh book. So I made strawberry frosting, using some frozen strawberries to get the pink color. Caroline had asked for a chocolate cake. The frosting ended up tasting really good on chocolate cake!

Wearing the birthday hat and getting ready to blow out her three candles... she was very excited! We all enjoyed eating the birthday cake (well, except for Cecilia).

Happy birthday, Caroline!