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A baptism is a tricky celebration to plan. The ceremony itself is traditionally a pretty low-key affair—solemn even. But “solemn” isn’t a word most people want associated with the party following the church service. You don’t want the party to be some sort of over-the-top family blowout, but you don’t necessarily want church hymns. You want something tasteful and, of course, celebratory.

Decorations can help you strike the right balance. SimplyBabyStuff.com offers many beautiful baptism decorations to help you achieve a festive, yet tasteful look for your reception. There’s no need to go over-the-top with your décor, but a few well-placed items will help your reception feel suitably festive—and help ensure a joyous celebration for your little one’s milestone.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

This salad is a favorite in my family, and it’s always a crowd-pleaser. There are many variations on this salad floating around out there, and it’s likely your family has it’s own version. However, for us it’s such a staple—at showers, picnics, dinners, you name it!—that I thought I’d share it with you all, on the off-chance that you’ve never had the pleasure of tasting it!

Bok Choy Salad

This salad calls for full heads of both Bok Choy and leaf lettuce—it makes a LOT of salad. If you’re short on time (or just don’t feel like chopping), or wish to make a half-batch of this salad, you can substitute bags of classic salad mix (with lettuce, carrots, and cabbage) for the Bok Choy and lettuce. Use 32oz of mix for a half-batch of salad, or 64oz for the full recipe.

1 head Bok Choy, washed and chopped

1 head Lettuce, washed and chopped

8-10 scallions, washed and chopped

2 pkgs ramen noodles

2 oz sesame seeds

2 cups slivered almonds

4 T butter

Dressing:

¼ cup red wine vinegar

½ cup sugar

¾ cup oil (your favorite for dressings)

2 T soy sauce

In a LARGE bowl, combine the Bok Choy, lettuce, and scallions, set aside, or store covered in the refrigerator. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Break apart the ramen noodles into small pieces, leaving some larger hunks (about the size of a lima bean), save the flavor packet for another use. Add the ramen noodles, sesame seeds, and slivered almonds to the skillet, and sauté them in the melted butter until they’re golden brown. Set them aside on a paper towel to cool, and then store them in an air-tight container until you’re ready to use them. While the ramen topping is cooking, combine the dressing ingredients in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and cook until the sugar dissolves. Cool the dressing and then store it in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. 

When you are ready to serve the salad, combine the lettuces, the ramen topping, and the dressing in a LARGE bowl. Toss the salad until everything is coated well in dressing. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

Bring fun to any baby shower with the
Who Has The Milk? Baby shower game! Fun and easy, these little scratch offs of baby bottles will amuse all your guests! The person who has the milk wins! Simple, fun and easy baby shower games like this are so fun to play! We have a ton of new baby shower games that will make your baby shower a hit!

Our family spent this past weekend at my parents’ house, and when we arrived, their grammy had a very special surprise for our kids…a monarch caterpillar in an aquarium! Eva (my daughter) spent the weekend carefully feeding the caterpillar fresh milkweed leaves, and checking regularly to see whether it was eating or not. She gave it a name (Crocodile Flower), and we got to take the baby caterpillar home with us to observe.

Right now, Crocodile Flower is only a teeny tiny caterpillar, but as long as we take good care of her, and offer plenty of fresh milkweed, we’ll be able to watch as she grows and grows and then creates her chrysalis. In about three weeks or so, Eva and I will be able release our beautiful monarch butterfly into the wild.

The other day, she and I were discussing a veterinarian office we’d seen, and she asked me whether the animal doctor took care of caterpillars too. I told her I didn’t know, but that I thought most vets cared for pets like dogs and cats and bunnies and things. Eva thought for a minute, and then she announced “I am going to be a caterpillar doctor when I grow up.”

A noble profession, indeed.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

A baptism is an important moment in many new children’s lives. In most cases, families and friends will gather after the service for a reception—often this is the very first of many celebrations to come in the child’s life, and many parents don’t know where to begin.

Luckily, there’s a very simple answer to that question…begin with the invitations! The right baptism invitation can help honor this very special occasion in your child’s life, so be sure to take the time to choose just the right baptism invitation to suit your tastes and set the mood for celebrating such an important milestone.

SimplyBabyStuff.com offers a large selection of baptism invitations to choose from. They offer many styles from quirky and cute to classically understated, and each one can be personalized with your child’s name and ceremony information, which makes them keepsake-quality invitations. Your friends and family members will be honored to be a part of this important moment in your child’s life—be sure they’re aware of all the details of the day by sending the perfect baptism invitations!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

I’ve shared many delicious food recipes with you, but I’ve just realized I’ve yet to offer you something to drink! Let’s rectify that, shall we?

Here’s a good, old-fashioned, standard punch recipe—no frills, no frou-frou ingredients, just a straight-up delicious party beverage. It will do your punch bowl proud.

Party Punch

1 (12 oz) can frozen Orange Juice concentrate, thawed
1 (12 oz) can frozen Fruit Punch concentrate, thawed
1 (12 oz) can frozen Lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 (12 oz) can frozen Raspberry Juice concentrate, thawed
1 (2-liter) bottle ginger ale (or club soda)

In a large container (or two pitchers, divided) combine the juices with 8 cans of water. This mixture can be refrigerated until you’re ready to serve your punch. To serve, fill your punch bowl half-way full with the juice mixture, and fill the remaining half with ginger ale. Stir to combine, and add ice or an ice ring if you’d like.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

Celebrate the new arrival with any of our themed diaper cakes that is an incredible center display for baby showers! Offered in your choice of theme and size the diaper cake is one of the most popular choices in baby gifts and baby shower decor.
One of our favorites is the 5 tier diaper cake that is constructed of 200 diposable diapers and decorated with choice of themed artowork and satin photo paper. These diaper cakes are a wonderful addition to throwing an amazing baby shower! Check out all diaper sizes and themes that we at SimplyBabyStuff.com have to offer you!

We braced ourselves for some major “new baby’ fallout when our second child was born. For three years we’d been a threesome—just myself, my husband, and our daughter. She was, most certainly, the center of our worlds, and we were convinced we’d have a long hard adjustment period ahead of us as soon as she realized that our new cute little baby boy was actually going to live with us. Forever.

But then we brought him home, and things were…pleasant! Sure she had some moments of regression, and there were definitely days when she needed a little extra reassurance that we still loved her just as much as we always had. But for the most part, our girl seemed to accept her new brother—in fact, oftentimes she even seemed happy he was around.

And then he learned to walk. A lot. Very quickly.

Suddenly, our daughter’s world was turned upside down (often literally!) as her brother discovered entire new spaces he’d never been aware of before. I spent so much of my day chasing him around—many times having to leave my daughter mid-story, mid-game, or even mid-sentence to save my son from certain death (or at least from certain injury.)

One day, about a month ago, she hit her limit. Our daughter had taken all she was going to take, and she let us know it by screaming, at the top of her lungs, for a very long time. This was extremely out of character for her, and we were caught completely off-guard. For weeks, we dealt with long, drawn-out, dramatic tantrums—sometimes many times per day—while I frantically scoured parenting websites and brought home armloads of books from the library: searching, searching for the answer. Trying desperately to help her feel better.

We explored dietary causes and environmental triggers. I read about developmental changes in almost-four-year-olds. We wracked our brains for anything that had changed in her life that could have possibly brought on such dramatic tantrums practically overnight.

And then finally, FINALLY I realized that her tantrums coincided perfectly with her brother’s learning to walk. As he grew more mobile, she grew more anxious. As he watched his world grow, she was watching her own spin out of control. He was into everything—messing with her stuff, knocking things over—and, worst of all, taking up so much more of our time. No wonder she was screaming. I would have been too. Here, finally, was the fallout we’d been bracing for way-back-when…the adjustment period we’d long-since written off as Not Happening. It had arrived—ten months later, but it had arrived.

And so, we’ve launched into a campaign to help our daughter reclaim her security in our family. We’ve spent lots of extra time with her—our big girl—and focused on the  very special place she’ll always hold in our hearts and our lives. And slowly, slowly we’re seeing her security return. Little by little, we’ve begun to have more calm days than stormy ones.

Just the other night, she leaned over and told me her brother is her best friend…I think we’re going to be ok.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger