So Proud...And So Adorable!

We're So Proud...

Evan was SOOOO excited to show off his 100 on his Social Studies States Test when he got home from school today! Memorizing is not the easiest thing for him, but we worked on coming up with mnemonic devices to help him remember the capital, abbreviation, and state for his 5 states this week. And they worked! One that he came up with by himself was about a little boy at our church. Evan thought of "Trenton has a New Jersey!" Pretty creative, Evan! We're so proud of him!

And Ethan is just...So Adorable!

At Evan's Upward basketball games, Ethan isn't really interested in watching Evan play. Instead, he tries to entertain himself with whatever is around him. He likes "crawling through the tunnel" (that's his explanation for crawling under the whole row of chairs), watching himself on the video camera that I'm trying to use to tape Evan,

sitting on basketballs (Thanks, Jeff Jones for teaching Ethan this trick),

and wearing my sunglasses.

McCarty Clan Visits Malakoff

Last weekend, we had a wonderful time with my family. First, we had Evan’s first Upward Basketball game at a church in Athens. Evan did a great job and made 2 baskets! He is getting much better at basketball this year!

Then, we met PawPaw, Grammy, Kevin (my brother), and Caleb (my nephew) in Tyler to eat lunch at Daniel Boone’s and to shop. The rest of the Sparks family came about 10 pm after Mauri’s marching contest in Dallas. Yea, Queen City Band…they came in first in their division!

We set a record at our house that night…we had 11 people and 1 rowdy puppy spend the night! We had people sleeping every where! Ethan woke up most of the house around 12:30 am when he woke up in my bedroom and I wasn’t in there. He was very confused! I put him in Evan’s twin bed with me for a little while to try to get him to calm down and not wake up anyone else. Well, that didn’t work! Finally, he decided he was tired of being there too, and said, “I want to go back to my mat!” That was about 2:30 am! Needless to say, I was pretty tired at church on Sunday morning! :)

We had a wonderful church service and then got to enjoy our big Sunday family dinner together. That’s one of the things that I miss the most about not living in Texarkana anymore. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, and a yummy cake that Evan helped me make. MMMM GOOD!!!

We really loved having the whole family (minus Ami--she's in Maryland right now) come to visit us! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Go Evan! He made 2 baskets for his first game of the season!

We only had 5 of our 9 players show up for the game, so they had to all play the entire game! The were hot and tired by the end but they played so well!

Ethan had more fun playing at Evan's game than watching Evan play.

Evan helped me make this yummy Halloween cake...it was an orange & chocolate swirl bundt cake with white icing and black bats & orange sprinkles.

Wow! We're full after our yummy Sunday dinner.

The guys just wanted to watch football all weekend.

Ethan likes the cake...well, he really likes the icing!

Evan is always smiling when PawPaw & Grammy are around!

Evan is proud of his creation! It matches their clothes too! :)

I cannot believe that Mauri & Caleb are both taller than me already! How can this be??

Random Thoughts by Ethan Beechem, Age 3

Tue, Oct 13
Ethan built a bridge between the couch and the ottoman with an upside down laundry basket. On top of the basket, he placed a little trash can. Then, he put a big piece of paper in it. He said, “This is my paper bin. I am going to recycle it.”

( I don’t know where he heard about recycling or the words “paper bin” but it was really cute!)

Wed, Oct 14
As we were getting in the van after church, he said, “There’s Miss Flo’s car. We’re not going in Miss Flo’s car tonight. We’re not going to Miss Flo’s house. We’re just going home.” (I think he was remembering the time we rode with Flo to see her house being remodeled this summer. It truly upset him to have to ride in another car, especially in a different car seat! He did NOT want to do that again!)

Thur, Oct 15
Although the last 2 days showed Ethan’s creativity and excellent memory, today was monumental in the potty training category! He went to Kids First day care with big boy underwear & did not have an accident all day long! We even went to Walmart & McDonald’s after school and he still didn’t have an accident! Yippee! Maybe we’ve finally crossed a HUGE hurdle! However, he keeps saying that he does NOT want to “grow up!” We think he thinks we’re saying “throw up” because he was sick a few weeks ago and did NOT like “throwing up!” L

It never ceases to amaze us how blessed we are with both of our children. It’s just amazing the things that Ethan thinks to say each & every day! He has such a sense of humor and quick wit!

Our Disney Vacation Continued...

Hollywood Studios

On Wednesday, August 5, we woke up really early to head to Hollywood Studios for our 8:30 am reservation at Hollywood's Play 'n Dine Character Breakfast. We left really early because we didn't know how long it would take. Well, we were the ONLY ones on the bus ride over to Hollywood Studios! That was fun for Ethan & Evan! We also didn't realize that the entire park wasn't even open yet, but we got to go in because we made breakfast reservations!

The breakfast buffet was DELICIOUS! I think Ethan was pretty tired (we really ran him ragged all week) but he really enjoyed meeting the characters from Little Einsteins and from JoJo's Circus. Because it was so early and not crowded at all, the characters came around to our tables quite a bit. Every once in a while, they would stop and sing a song from their shows. Ethan didn't really want to dance with them...he just wanted to watch from a distance.

June & Ethan

Leo the Lion and Evan & Ethan

Leo & Ethan

JoJo & Ethan (Ethan LOVED meeting all of the characters--wherever we went. It was so cute to see him give them HUGE hugs and he was always so proud when they would sign his book!)

After breakfast, the crowds were already piling in the park! It was a hot, muggy, rainy day, but we had a blast anyway!

One of the first things we found was the American Idol Experience. They had 3 park visitors that tried out and 3 judges that had similar personalities to the real judges (Paula, Simon, & Randy) that critiqued them. Then, the audience got to vote on the best one. There were several tryouts throughout the day and each winner came back for the final tryout at night. The winner for the day won a pass to the real tryouts for American Idol. We thought it was really neat to see the tv simulation and be a part of the audience. It was really neat! Ethan even enjoyed getting to vote on the arm panels!

We discovered a meet 'n greet for the characters in an air-conditioned building! That was great and not really crowded! We had just seen the movie "Up," so it was fun to meet the characters!

Doug, Carl, & Russell were very friendly--Doug, the dog, was teasing Eric the whole time. Do you notice the space between Russell & us? I think he could smell Ethan! When it was our turn to meet them, Ethan kept backing up and saying he didn't want to. When I bent down to pick him up, I could tell why! He was not smelling to pretty! I noticed Russell talking to the photographer, and then he stood way far away from us...so what else could it have been? :) What we won't do for a picture! :)

One of our favorite places was the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" playground. Ethan really enjoyed playing there while Eric & Evan rode the Tower of Terror. When they got back to us, it started raining and we had to leave. They closed down the slides because of the rain and Ethan started throwing a fit!

Evan & Eric loved the Tower of Terror...someone even gave them some fast passes, so they got to ride it twice...right in a row!

We enjoyed the backlot tour and the "Lights, Motors, & Action" stunt show. It was neat to learn the tricks they do to make movie magic!

One of the rides that we all enjoyed was Toy Story Mania. Then, we waited in line to meet Buzz LightYear & Woody.

We planned to go to Downtown Disney for the evening but it ended up being a disappointment. We had reservations for Planet Hollywood and that was a mistake! It was LOUD! I would NOT recommend that to anyone! We didn't get to shop around because we got there so late (we got really confused about which bus to get on to get down there & that wasted about an hour!). But we did find the Lego store...a major highlight for Evan! We were there until it closed picking out just the right Lego pieces!

Look at all of these Legos!!!! Evan was in Lego Heaven! :)

Because we got home SO late that night (I think most nights that it was around midnight or later), we decided to let the boys sleep in and Eric would go to Epcot to enjoy a little time alone and we'd meet up with him at noon. When Evan got up, he couldn't wait to put his new Lego Miner kit together! It only took him a little over an hour!

Oh, one more highlight of the day...we went to see the Beauty & the Beast show around 2 pm and got to the huge pavilion just in time for the rain! It wasn't just a little rainstorm that afternoon--it was a lightning storm! We were thankful for the shelter! They even had to postpone the show for a little while.

OK, more to come soon...

Our Day at the Magic Kingdom

This was a long, magical day! We started out by heading toward the TomorrowLand because we knew that ToonTown was close by. Evan found a Stitch ride that he wanted to ride, so he and Eric stood in line while Ethan and I walked around. We quickly found Buzz Light Year signing autographs and there wasn’t even a long line! Ethan LOVED meeting the characters and getting their autographs! He would run up to them and give them a big hug. He kept saying, “He signed my book!” We also found Stitch, so he got another autograph! Then, we found some air-conditioned shops to hang out in while we waited on Eric & Evan. Ethan had a blast just playing with all the toys in the shops!

We soon found the Tea Cups and just had to ride it! Can you tell Ethan enjoys being dizzy! I started feeling a little woozy because I kept trying to take pictures while we were spinning out of control!

We spent most of our day in Mickey’s ToonTown Fair! This was Ethan’s absolute favorite! They had a kiddy roller coaster called Goofy’s Barnstormer. Ethan would have ridden that over and over had the line not been long!

Then, we discovered Mickey’s & Minnie’s houses! I almost didn’t get Ethan out of Minnie’s kitchen! She had an oven that has a birthday cake that rises and falls and plays music…the place was SO CROWDED but Ethan had his nose plastered to that oven for at least 10 minutes! I had to pry him away and he started BAWLING! He still talks about Minnie’s birthday cake! Luckily, Evan videotaped it, so we have watched that over and over since we’ve been home!

We also found a store there that had a build-your-own Mr. Potato Head…kinda like Build-A-Bear. You could fill your box with as many pieces for a set price…so Daddy helped the boys stuff those boxes until they were overflowing…this was serious business! Ethan didn’t really care about much except the umbrella piece! I guess he’s pretty easy to please! Evan wanted all of the Star Wars pieces. After we made our purchase, we met Chip & Dale and then took a ride on the train around the entire park (a few times). It was nice to sit and ride for a while.

When we got off the train, Eric decided we better find those ponchos because the afternoon rain was coming! He was on a mission! So we found a shop and sure enough, the rain came! We bought the ponchos but not before we tried on every hat in the store!

We then headed to FrontierLand and took the boat over to Tom Sawyer’s Island. The boys enjoyed playing on the fort and walking through the caves. We stayed there for quite awhile until the afternoon rain caused them to close the island for a little while. So we headed back to the mainland.

Next, we rode the monorail over to the Contemporary Hotel to eat at Chef Mickey’s for a late dinner—the only reservations I could get were for 8:45 pm! We got there a little early and enjoyed walking around the hotel. It was so cool—they had their own little beach and a huge dock to walk out to the water. Dinner at Chef Mickey’s was one of our many highlights of the week! Besides a fabulous dinner buffet, we got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. Each one of them came by our table and took pictures with us. This was a perfect ending to a magical day!

Mickey helped Ethan put his straw in his apple juice and then he tried to drink it himself!

I think Minnie was flirting with my husband!

Don't these desserts look delightful?

Ethan was so excited to see Donald!

The boys loved playing with Goofy & Pluto!