Can somebody please explain for me the meaning of ばかり in とばかり思って, as far as I can guess through the examples it means something like "そう思ったんだけど、実際に・・・・・・".
僕たちはずっと、彼らは一生安泰だとばかり思っていたんだけど、君の話によると、見た目より大変だな。
We always thought they had it made, but from what you say, it's harder than it looks.彼はつい最近入った新人だとばかり思っていた。
I thought of him as being a fairly recent newcomer.「いえ、ただ、こちらの晩餐会で振る舞われた料理のことは、皆が絶賛していたものですから。 だからあなたも真剣に取り組んでいるものだとばかりーー」
Well, it's just that, everyone highly prised the food which was on this banquet. And that is why I thought that you're putting all your efforts into it, but--
Incidentally, I found one more sentence with some sort of interesting (at least for me) ばかり usage -「あたしは、形とばかり並べられた陶器のティーセットに手を伸ばす。」, I understand that the meaning would be something like "the teacups was lined up just for show", but what is the point of putting と before ばかり in this case?