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.

Happy Valentines Day!

It's been a busy Valentine's day. I opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa...see my new drum?

I ate some blocks on my Incrediblock...

I played with Kaiya (I tricked her into my clutches skillfully using my tissue paper)...

I also got a Mickey and Minnie doll, some clothes, some books, an inflatable boat and HALLOWEEN LEGGINGS...HAPPY DAY!!!! Christmas must come twice a year...I like this Cupid guy.


Have a great Valentine's Day!!!

Bye for now...

XOXOXO-
Maddy

January Was a Month of Firsts!

So I was sitting and filling in Miss Madelyn's calendar this evening and I realized how many "first" stickers I was putting on and how much we learned to do this month. She was a busy little girl...here is a recap of our milestones:

~First big people food- we love everything we have tried...grapefruit, lunch meat, spaghetti, pickles, all kinds of cheese (brie, roquefort, Gouda, cheddar, goat, Parmesan...you name it, we love it) and especially pancakes! Madelyn has them every Sunday (it is now called pancake Sunday in our house)...this morning we went to Cracker Barrel to meet a family friend and we loved restaurant pancakes too! Here we are at the restaurant trying out the rocking chairs :-)


~First swimming pool (we posted this pic last post)

~First teeth (our bottom middle two teeth)..notice there is no picture of this because everytime you try to catch the wiley little suckers on camera, Madelyn puts her tongue over them...oh well...maybe next post!

~First diaper rash :-( It was ugly too...it took sitting in the oatmeal bath twice and a lot of hydrocortisone and diaper cream!

~First waving...sadly this is not usually practiced on her adoring parents but Grandma's, Uncles, friends and strangers at the grocery store. We are non-discriminatory...we wave to everyone...just not usually mom and dad!

~ First pulling up - Aunt Amanda was here to witness our first pulling up on the Incrediblock...now we want to do it all the time. We have tried furniture but it is too high and we tried our big wood block but it falls over on our head when we try that....we will just stick with the Incrediblock (weighted down with a free weight to prevent the falling over part).

~Standing on everything from the blocks to chairs to ottomans- we hate sitting, love to stand! Here we are standing on the nasty wood block that fell on us- notice Uncle Jeffrey acting as the counterbalance?



Here we are showing off our standing skills with our favorite accomplished standers- Mia and Nick (notice the love of the Incrediblock...it is like baby crack)


~Claps at her self when she is excited or proud of herself

~Puts little food bites in her mouth (aka Cheerios and Gerber Puffs)- we usually miss but once in a while it gets in there. We are an excellent graham cracker putter inner though and have mastered the sippy cup!





~Our last big first which came yesterday- which was February so I guess it really belongs in it's own post...not a post about the busy month of January firsts...but it is my blog so it goes here now- is our first puppy kiss. Our wonderful next door neighbors (Dan and Monique) have a little puppy named Oscar and we saw Oscar...like a Victorian romance...across the backyard and it was love at first sight...for Maddy anyway. Daddy took Madelyn down to see Oscar and he was so excited that he kissed her all up- most children would be quite panicked at this but not Madelyn. She is our own Dr. Doolittle- she loved it! Laughing so hard I could hear her in our yard. I am sad I did not get this on picture or video but to illustrate our future veterinarian's love of animals here is a picture of her favorite toy in all of Target...
Yes...you are seeing this right. It is the giant cardboard cat picture in the catfood aisle. We stand there for 15 minutes each time so we can kiss the kitty, pet the kitty, love the kitty, talk to the kitty and don't forget yelling at and smacking the kitty because it just sits there. That is our Madelyn- OSU Vet school here we come!

So that was my excitement for the evening- putting all those first in her first year calendar. She is just too big!

To end we will leave with a quote from one of Madelyn's favorite shows- Mickey's Clubhouse..."see ya real soon!"

Kristin & Madelyn