Daddy's New Camera

Due to our slew of impending vacations we decided we needed a new camera- so after months of ad nauseum research, Patrick picked a camera...we now own the Panasonic DMC-ZS1. We have been borrowing my mom's really spiffy Canon Rebel but it is now time that we have our own camera. True it is not as spiffy as the big Digital SLR with lenses and flashes and the like but this will suit us just fine for playdates and vacations where we don't want to haul all of that camera paraphenalia. It does have really cool features like baby mode that you set the name of the baby in the picture and in any picture that you associate with that baby it will tell you how old he/she was based on the birthdate you input in setup. So it will say Madelyn is 13 months and 26 days when I took her picture today...pretty cool! You also can tell it the date of your trips and what time zone those are in so it knows when we leave for Maui to not tell us a picture was taken at 9pm when it is full sun outside and actually only 3pm local time...such small things amuse me! I guess it has other cool features too like good picture quality and good warranty but these are mundane details really...

In true Patrick format we had to immediately test our new camera so here are the Maddy action shots in the yard this morning playing with her bubble mower and garden tools-she is such a boy...we need more girls in playgroup, Mia and Madelyn are being turned into tomboys!!!

OK Dad, seriously....this is about enough...

Have a great week everyone!

At Home Fun

For the past week, Madelyn and I have been holed up in the house due to various reasons like Madelyn not sleeping, possible poison ivy, taking 23 lbs. of peaches (thanks Mom) and making every imaginable cannable peach recipe (tart filling, pie filling, preserves, cake filling for Jen's wedding cake, etc.) and getting ready for our numerous traveling expeditions. I leave for San Diego next week for Jen's shower/girls weekend festivities, we leave the day after I return for Mohican, we then leave for Maui 2 weeks after that and then back to San Diego for Jen's wedding 2 weeks after that! That is a lot of packing to do...my one guest room looks like a closet exploded in it due to the myriad of various piles of clothes and accessories dedicated to each of these trips!

Even though we have missed our friends the past few weeks, we have kept very busy in the house...


Playing in an awesome octopus sprinkler- thanks Uncle Travis and Aunt Sarah!


Relaxing with some juice and Disney Channel in our new Mohican Camping Chair-


Doing some light reading with Piggy in our new Maddy-sized chair from Grandma and Grandpa-

We even tried on last year's Halloween costume and would not take it off for a whole day...despite the 99 degree heat and the costume being velvet...peek a boo baby!

Hope everyone else is having a great summer too (but we are obvisouly looking forward to fall!)

~Kristin and Not-So-Spook Witch Madelyn

Happy Birthday to Maddy!

So this weekend our little Madelyn turned one (said with a smile and a sigh of sadness). We threw a big party to celebrate and all of our friends and Madelyn's friends were there (except Mr. Henry who had to go out of town). Here are a few of the highlights!

Great Grandma Geig surveying what was left of the food table (there were ribs, hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, pasta salad, macaroni salad and all the condiments you could imagine!) I assumed after buying 70 hot dogs, 22 lbs. of baby back ribs, 5 lbs. of pasta, 5.5 lbs. of potatoes and 6 cans of beans that we would have had many left overs....apparently we have very hungry family and friends because it was all nearly consumed (we only made 50 hot dogs but they were gone and I would say 20 of the 22 lbs. of ribs were eaten and ALL of the pasta and potato salads).

Here is Daddy eating one of the hot dogs before they were scarfed down. He is also standing next to the water/tea/punch table and the bourbon slush and cooler station. Like the cute pink and green decorations?? The balloons did not do so well in the 96 degree heat- they all popped (strangely all the green popped before the pink).



Here are the favors that my mom and I made. They are cupcake pops. It is cake (we had chocolate ones, white ones and lemon ones) that is crumbled up and mixed with cream cheese frosting and then formed into cupcake shapes and dipped into chocolate (milk for the bottom and colored white chocolate for the tops) and decorated with sprinkles and an M&M. For the inspiration see my new favorite blog- http://bakerella.blogspot.com/

These are the kids favors. The babies (even though they are all 1 now so they really aren't babies anymore) had the pails and purses- pink purses for Mia and Maddy and green buckets for Nick, Corbin and Henry. Each contained bubbles and sidewalk chalk and the boys got shovels for boy dirt digging and the girls got sticks that make noise and have pretty beads that roll around in them...much more lady like than dirt (although I am sure they would love the dirt too)!



This is Maddy's cake (before assembly and after)...it is really a cupcake tower with a base layer of homemade coconut cupcakes covered in coconut flavored cream cheese frosting and coconut flakes (my favorite ones), the second tier are white cupcakes frosted in lime green buttercream (mom's secret recipe), the third tier are chocolate cupcakes with a Reese's peanut butter cup hidden inside (yum!) and are frosted in hot pink buttercream, the crowning layer is a 6 inch white cake covered in hot pink, white and lime green fondant (made by mom since I can only make things out of fondant and not cover cakes in it yet). The links to the recipes for the coconut cake and chocolate peanut butter cupcakes are below:

Coconut Cupcakes

Hidden Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cupcakes (I just used the cake part)



Here is Maddy enjoying the above described confections...she had one of each...piggy baby!!! I guess you only turn one once!

Here are Maddy and "her" friends (as opposed to ours) who came to party- Nick, Mia, Corbin, Uncle Shaffey and soon to be playmates Cole Venus (born yesterday), Baby Kuehl and Lilly Gass (note that Uncle Shaffey is included here as he has the mentality of a newly minted one year old) :-)




Finally, Madelyn got the best gifts in the whole entire world. I truly have never seen so many presents in my life- we have the most generous friends and family! She got tons of books, clothes, a tea set, bath toys, stuffed animals, Handy Manny tools, Mickey Mouse toys, a car, a wagon, a baby stroller, a shopping cart, a penguin punching bag, a nifty octopus sprinkler, shovels, buckets, rakes, a wheel barrow, a bubble mower, a magnetic farm set, a purring kitten, and so much more that I can't even process right now! Here is Maddy in her sea of gifts and playing with the largest gift I have ever seen- the 5 foot waterslide from Grandma and Grandpa Barry.




Thanks again to everyone for making this a very special day for a very special one year old! Happy Birthday Madelyn!

Kristin

We Can Walk!

It has been quite a while since we posted last (as I am told by Holly and Kathy) but we thought we had to post that we took our first steps yesterday- on Mothers Day no less. It was the best Mothers day present! Maddy and Dad also made me a delicious mothers day brunch complete with french toast, breakfast casserole, corn beef hash (with homemade corn beef), smoked salmon bagels and mimosas- yum!

Here is a link to the video of Maddy's first steps (it is the video near the bottom):
http://www.buckeyebarrys.com/madelyn_videos.htm


Maddy also got a new tub toy this weekend- an inflatable duck to bathe in. We have graduated Maddy from bathing with me to taking a bath by herself. This is much more helpful to me since Patrick left for Belgium yesterday and I have to give the slippery monkey a bath by myself now. Anyways, Madelyn thinks that her duck is great. She doesnt have to be held and she can peruse all of her favorite tub books in a nice and squishy tub (much more comfy than the big tub). Here are a few photos:
Here are a few other recent pictures of what we have been up to:

Easter-


We went to the fire department to see Uncle Jeffrey-



Our new favorite toy, the diaper wipes box-


Watching Saturday morning cartoons with Daddy-
Grandma and Grandpa and Patrick's aunt Jean came to visit-



We got a new stuffed kitty (Boots) who is our favorite (next to Messy Piggy of course)-



And we did lots of playing with Maddy's best friends, Mia and Nick (we like to poke Nick's ears and steal his chair)-






That's the highlights of what we have been up to!

Talk to you soon- enjoy the warm weather!
Kristin and Madelyn

A Sad Day

It has been a sad day in the Barry house. This morning, Patrick's 93 year old Grandmother passed away. She lived a long and wonderful life. She was married to what I know was a wonderful man (although I never met Grandpa I can only assume he was great because he raised a wonderful family who have all gone on to raise wonderful families of their own) and they had 7 children, 15 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren to show for their long and happy marriage.

I feel so fortunate that Madelyn got to meet her Great Grandma and has pictures and videos of her holding her, kissing her, singing to her and loving her because I never had the chance to meet any of my Great Grandparents and I think these will be so special to her later in life (even though Madelyn will never remember those days).

Grandma Dulzer and Madelyn - 3 Weeks Old

Lots of Kisses

Four Generations of Dulzers

Grandma even made the trek all the way down to South Carolina to be at Patrick and my wedding.

Mark, David, Kristin, Patrick, Grandma, Mrs and Mr. Barry

July 17, 2004 ~ Daufuskie Island, SC

Grandma and her children

Grandma touched a lot of lives, even mine and Madelyn's, and although she didn't quite ever remember who we were in recent years, there will be many who will remember and miss her.