La Familia Sutton

The holidays

Of course there are many wonderful things to enjoy about the holidays…time with family, seeing the kids get excited about the smallest things, cool presents, vacation from school and work, trips, amazing food you eat only once a year…and we musn’t forget it’s also a perfect time to catch up on updating all our family and friends on what’s going on with the kids.

My apologies for these past months. Things get busy, mom forgets her camera when she leaves the house, dad hates taking pictures, etc, etc. But these past weeks we’ve actually done pretty good and now mom has her new awesome phone with a great camera (better than the actual camera made for taking pictures LOL). Really, there shouldn’t be any reason not to do a better job now. However, we all know that we’re going to slip up a bit so hopefully you’ll do a little forgiving during this time of year and I’ll try to make up for it with these beautiful pictures we recently took of the kiddos.

Lucky, lucky us…we were able to slip in a trip to Great Wolf Lodge up in Grapevine, TX (just outside Dallas). It was sort of last minute since I had to leave town for California and wouldn’t be returning until Christmas Eve. We decided since I would be gone a few days, why not just take a trip with the kids as well.

Alright, so I’m going to say it right now and you’ll get it…indoor water park. Yep, loads of fun. I know, it’s Texas and it’s not THAT cold, but it’s still cold to us Texans. LOL But the indoor park was amazingly fun. We also made sure to sign up the kids for the other activities at the lodge even if they were a bit “older” than the intended age group. LOL You have to cut mom a bit of slack here, though. I was trying to make up for all the photos I haven’t been taking and I really just wanted the kids to come away with some cool stuff (and mom wanted fun memories and pictures, too). I even made Collin a deal. He did everything with a smile on his face and no complaints and on our last night there he and Clara could hit up the teen center and hang out there sans the parents for as long they wanted. It worked. (PS: When you look through our pictures see if you can pick out all the forced smiles. LOL)

To check out all the Great Wolf Lodge family pics, click here to go to our Flickr Page.

Choose your own Great Wolf animal to stuff at the stuffing station. Ah, I can already hear the stories being shared 10, 15 years down the road of how Mom forced the kids to choose a stuffed animal. LOL

Color your own tee! Collin chose a pillowcase instead. And he survived.

Dad and the girls coming out of the water slide. Collin had ridden some a few times already with Dad and this was actually Cam’s first time.

I slayed the dragon!! Now this is one all the kids actually enjoyed. These wands are given to you when you check in and you play this “adventure game” where you wave your wand at various points, objects, etc throughout the lodge. You’re collecting points, completed quests, etc and it’s really a lot of fun…kind of like a scavenger hunt. There are a few books you can complete and this is Cam after completing the one where she slayed the dragon.

After the fun time at the Lodge and mom was off in California, the kids headed over to visit Kenny’s parents for some more fun. The Fuzzies (as they’re affectionately called by the kids due to Grandpa’s beard) had prepared an early Christmas/Grandparents’ wedding anniversary celebration. The kiddos were treated to yummy treats, fun stocking stuffers and of course a great time with their grandparents.

To check out all the “Visiting the Fuzzies” pics, click here to go to our Flickr page.

A trip to the Fuzzies is not complete without the obligatory measuring at the height chart. All of the grandkids get measured here on the door frame.

Fun family trip concludes with a lovely breakfast spread laid out for the kids to enjoy. Fuzzy Grandma and the kids eat, chat, and chill.

Sorry so long…

…with no update. We’ve let the year take over and haven’t done much of photo taking of the kiddos so far this school year. This mom promises to get better. Collin is doing well in soccer and is enjoying it immensely. He was so funny when we took him to buy his cleats, like a kid in a candy store. LOL

Clara and Camille are doing great, and both have experienced some sort of growth spurt. Clara is of course taller than me now (but who isn’t?) and Cam while not the tallest in her class is noticeably longer.

As I mentioned, not much to update everyone on but just wanted to let you know we’re still trucking along and the kids are definitely keeping busy this school year. Mom and Dad promise to take more pictures (or any pictures LOL) to share with you all. Hugs and kisses to everyone!

New School Year

Sorry I haven’t updated you all lately. We started the new school year with Clara heading back on the 11th of August. She heads back a little earlier than the other kiddos and she was completely ready to head back and see all her friends. Clara, unfortunately, was not able to visit with her friends over the summer so even if at school, she was ready. She loves her new school schedule and is for the most part happy about her classes. She was lucky enough to get her two top choices…dance and French I. Clara plans to try out for the dance team next year and wants to be able to talk back to me in French so she’s well on her way.

Clara excited to head back & see friends with her bento lunch

Collin & Camille were able to enjoy their summer a little while longer. They started back 22 August. While they enjoyed their summer, they were also ready to head back and see all their friends.

Camille was chosen for A Band this year and she was over the moon happy. We saw last year with a little practice Cam was a natural at the flute. Collin’s plans for the year include basketball in the spring, running in the evening with his dad when the weather gets cooler and we are excited to say…he will be joining Civil Air Patrol when he turns 12 this year. Collin wants to either go to ROTC in college or hopefully be accepted into one of the military academies and become an officer in the military. I love that he knows what he wants to do already and willing to work now toward his goal.

Picture taken while rushing out door

I promise as the year progresses and we find our groove in this new school year again, I will post more updates and pictures of the kids. We love and miss all of our family and friends and wish we could see more of everyone.

VACATION!!!!

We finally made it out of San Antonio to enjoy our summer vacation.  Yay…and we had a blast.  We started out by heading down to the Valley and spending time with the cousins.  For a few months all the kiddos could talk about is seeing their cousins.  So we headed down and spent a week with the family.  The kids enjoyed pool time at my sister’s, played Wii, had an awesome waterballoon fight, and basically just enjoyed hanging with their family. 

Even Clara chilled with the little ones on occasion.  This one afternoon they all just sat around the table and played with playdough, ages 2 through 13.  How cool is that?

Next stop for our vacation was New Orleans.  Now I know that New Orleans isn’t normally thought of as a family friendly vacation spot, but we found quite a few fun things to do.  The city is absolutely gorgeous, too, so how could we pass up visiting?  In addition to taking in the French Quarter and the lovely Riverwalk, we also visited the WWII Museum (a must visit for Collin) and the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas.  The kids fell in love with New Orleans.  They had so much fun exploring the city with Grandma and their cousins and were sad to leave. 

I put together a video of the kids’ summer vacation.  It’s a collection of pictures and video clips that either I or the kiddos themselves took.  If you’d like to see more pictures of the kids’ vacation visit our Flickr Page.  Enjoy!

A break from vacation :-)

Sorry for being silent on the updates. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get started on our vacation as quickly as we’d originally planned. Therefore no fun updates and pictures for y’all. Sorry. Luckily, though, we will finally get our summer plans started this coming Saturday. We will be headed down to the Valley for some fun family time with the cousins. The kids are super excited about meeting up with them again and looking forward to the sleepovers.

In the meantime we’ve just been trying to occupy our days with games, haircoloring, reading, and catching up and discovering some new shows and movies on Netflix. Camille is absolutely addicted to horror flicks (just like her mama), Collin loves his XBox and Clara loves playing dress up in her mama’s closet. It’s a sad, sad day for me when my own daughter fits into my clothes.

So you all know how much I (Dalia) love my Manic Panic and this little addiction has rubbed off on Cam.  Camille absolutely loves to color her hair for the summer. We’ve done MP on her hair now for a couple of summers now. Collin only did it once a couple of summers ago & discovered it’s not his thing. Camille’s done red before, Rock n Roll Red that is, and enjoyed it very much but wanted to try something different. This year she chose Electric Lizard. Now, I warned her ahead of time Electric Lizard is one of those colors that only shows up on bleached hair or super blonde locks.  But she insisted, she understood, and didn’t care. She loved the green. So ahead we went with the color.

CamCam with her Manic Panic Electric Lizard. She’s so excited.

Wearing the color and cap for about 6 hours. She’d just woken from a 4 hour nap, LOL. She’d been up until 7am the night prior at a friend’s sleepover.

The finished product. The camera doesn’t pick up the subtleties of this color very well at all. As I expected it was just a tint, but a very intersting one. The camera flash picks it up amazingly but the color seems non-existant inside the house. Outside, however, the color is very noticeable. Anyway, she is very happy with it. The girl just wanted green hair and she got it.

Here’s a picture of Clara with her new blonde ‘do. She would have murdered me if I took any “in the process” pictures so you’ll just have to settle for the finished look. It’s a bad cell phone pic, but she looks stunning with the new color.

School’s Out…and Origami

The summer is finally here. Clara’s school let out last week, a full week before Collin and Camille. Of course her school DID start a week earlier so it’s only a trick of dates to make her feel she’s got a longer break. LOL Already the kids have plunged straight into the summer. The second we got home today the kiddos threw off their uniforms and flew in their civies. The doorbell has already been rung by the neighborhood kids and the little ones are out playing in the hot Texas heat. Their promotions ceremony earlier today was so precious, as always. David Robinson gave another amazing speech and Mrs. Castillo (the kids’ math teacher) surprised everyone by taking a break from her maternity leave and announcing her class’s promotion into 4th grade…yes, Camille. Camille, of course, was over the moon excited to see Mr. & Mrs. Castillo’s brand new little baby, Olivia.

The mayhem of all the hugs, goodbyes, pictures, and last minute phone number exchanges afterward was chaotic as usual. But so cute. Camille was already invited to two summer birthday parties and Collin has plans with his bros.

Clara…ahhhh, the life of a teenager. Even though she has only been out one week she already has one swim party under her belt and a mall date with her girlfriends this weekend. A break from uniforms and the fun of wearing her “fun” clothes and hair…what more could a 13 year old girl ask for?

And of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t share Camille’s newfound fascination with origami. Started out with a little class assignment and now she’s looking up different patterns and decorating paper so she can make her pretty little creations. I think her plan is to have an origami zoo. We shall see, I guess.

Collin & Camille outside their school

A sample of Camille’s origami

Recitals, End of School Year, Summertime…

It’s almost here, the end of the school year. The kids are ready for it all to be done, just a few more weeks. The past few months have definitely been crazy busy for the children. Collin’s basketball season wrapped up well, Camille is getting better everyday on the flute and piano and Clara has found a new passion…dance. So the school year is coming to a close and we were lucky enough to have two recitals to enjoy in the month of May.

Mother’s Day at the Carver is always just the sweetest thing. This year I was lucky to have both Collin and Camille performing in the presentations. Now I would like to apologize off the bat as I don’t have videos to share. I know, bad mom…LOL. Collin was performing with the dance class and I was briefed beforehand and I had to do a whole pinkie swear, cross my heart and all that jazz and promise NOT to take pictures or videotape. It makes me sad but Collin doesn’t like special attention so I didn’t want to make him nervous. But let me just say he was amazing. He danced with a beautiful little girl in his class and he looked so handsome in his outfit. I know, I know…a picture would help. But perhaps next year he’ll be more comfortable. I do want to say, though, I thought it was very cute that all the boys in dance were also on the basketball team.

Camille…as I mentioned before, she has grown tremendously in music this year. She was worried in the beginnning of the year that taking on both flute and piano was going to be difficult. But her band teachers assured her she could handle it. Well, she has. The girl is amazing. It’s always so adorable watching her little 3rd grade arms holding her flute. Mother’s Day at the Carver was a chance for Cam to show off her mad piano skills. I DID get video but sadly I can’t find it. It’s somewhere on my computer and I cannot figure out how I saved it. I know, I know…bad mommy again. I will find it, though, and when I do I will share it with you all immediately.

Clara…she has LOVED dance class this term. She loves it so much she has decided when she’s a freshman she wants to join the Progressions, the Providence dance team. I think we all can agree Clara will do very well. She is an amazing dancer just here around the house and class has only helped her improve on her her natural skill. Last night was the dance recital for all of the dance classes at Providence. Clara was so nervous but she performed magnificently. Clara’s class danced to Ray Charles’ “Mess Around”. I got video, and I didn’t lose it.

I’m also sharing the last dance of the night. All of the dance classes participated in the recital finale “Born this Way”. Kenny and I were just completely blown away by the message these girls were conveying. I absolutely LOVED that a Catholic private school will shove prejudices, stereotypes, etc aside to tell and to teach all these beautiful young ladies that they need to love and embrace everyone for their differences. The girls looked like they had so much fun with the song, too. They were encouraged to dress silly, in loud colors and to just have fun. And they definitely did.

So enjoy the videos, everyone. Clara had lots of fun.

Clara’s Class performs to “Mess Around”

Providence Dance Classes perform to “Born This Way”

My EuroTrip Video

So this page I set up as the main family website to be mostly about the kids and Kenny. I tend to not be as interesting, but I started a page just for me (Dalia) anyways. I’m keeping this page for the kids and Kenny and you can hop on over to My Page over @ http://dalia.lafamiliasutton.com. Just a place for me to discuss whatever it is going on in my life that’s not necessarily family updates and so as not to muddy up the cool family stuff with my silliness, etc. So why am I telling you this? Well, I was going to put up my EuroTrip video on that site but Kenny has asked me repeatedly to please put it up on this page. Well, of course I’m biased, had an amazing experience in Europe and had fun putting together the video and watching it. But guess what…Kenny really enjoyed it, too. And he wishes me to share it here as well, so VOILA!

Here’s the video for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy! And if you want details on the trip, hop on over to My Page. Thanks, everyone.

Collin as the Spurs “Ball Kid”

Collin was able to experience one of the coolest things ever for a boy his age. This past Saturday he was asked to be the offical “Ball Kid” for the Spurs game. Of course it goes without saying the boy was beside himself.

What did he get to do? At first they waited for their official escort and Collin was given a shirt that stated his title of “Ball Kid on it”. I’m sure that shirt will work its way into rotation several times a week. :-D  They were then taken to the court where he was able to watch the Spurs practice. One of the coaches then gave Collin a ball and instructed Collin to start passing balls to another coach who would in turn pass to Matt Bonner for practice. He was able to practice this way for awhile. After practice Collin & Kenny were then shown to their seats which were front row seats by the basket. They were completely stoked about that. They were only seated for awhile when the whole team came out onto the court and Collin continued on with his “Ball Kid” duties of catching rebounds and passing balls.

And to make the experience even cooler for Collin, he was then taken over to the Spurs cheerleaders courtside for the National Anthem. After the anthem he was brought out onto the court and introduced to the crowd. After his introduction he was able to high five the starters of the game. During halftime he was led back to a waiting area then led back onto the court to help with catching the rebounds and passing balls again. And of course Collin would like me to add that the Spurs won that game 109-98.

He still has the sweetest grin on his face and will explain in awesome detail the entire experience. So next time you see him, ask him to tell you about it. I’m sure it’s a story he’s going to tell over and over again.

I put together a little highlight video of Collin’s experience.  You can also go to our flickr page and look at some more pictures of Collin’s night. Enjoy!

Click here to view pictures.