BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00547 Funko sent us a Marvel BattleWorld Mega Pack to play with and review. Opinions are our own. Funko has gotten into the tabletop gaming space and also on the toy aisle in Target. In Battleworld Mystery of the Thanostones Funko has partnered with Marvel to create a one of a kind tabletop gaming experience featuring micro-collectible figures the excitement of discovering blind bag surprises. The game is rather fun to play as well. So, Funko sent the BattleWorld Mega Pack which contains everything you need to play the game with 1-4 people. There are 6 micro figures included. Each one comes with the exclusive Negative Zone Spider-Man figure. Then there are 3 additional figures and two figures trapped in Thanostones. In order to rescue and open a Thanostone you have to win a special Thanostone battle. These can be a bit more difficult than regular battles. The reward, however is to crack open a Thanostone and reveal a brand new micro figure for your collection. Once you...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00546 My main goal today was to build Andy’s bed. We got him a bunk bed with a full sized bed below. We have not yet found the mattress for that bed. They were sold out of them at Big Lots. In a while we’ll find one. It was a challenging build. While it was easy enough to put together everything was done with an allen wrench. That is so tedious but when it was all put together it was so solid. Now, if we ever move that will be interesting to take apart. Andy is very excited to sleep in his new bedroom but that will be another day.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00545 Today it downpoured and that caused a few things that were already weird to get even weirder. Maybe weird is not the right word but things are different now at Church. Now we have Church in the parking lot at Saint Mary’s Church. Because of the impending downpour and the ominous clouds Mass was abbreviated. It went by so quickly and then Communion was handed out as we drove out. One of the strangest Masses ever. After dinner we got pizza from La Strada. We were going to try and get their broasted chicken but apparently they don’t start the broaster until 6pm. So pizza it was. I was standing in the shop waiting for my pizza when the sky just opened up and rain poured down. So it was a good thing that Mass was so quick.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00544 On the way home from the Cape today we stopped off at Confectionery Designs for four of their specialty donuts. We picked up a Chocolate Peanut Brittle, Key Lime, Strawberry Shortcake and a Maple Bacon. Then we cut each one into quarters and split enjoyed them. My favorite was the Key Lime. I just love that flavor and they make a fantastic one. Donuts were on the brain because I walked all over Falmouth looking for donuts yesterday. I wanted anything but Dunkin Donuts. Just not a fan.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00543 We were provided with four of the WOWmazingTM Giant Bubble Wands Kits for free to play with and review. Opinions are our own. While on the Cape today I brought out the WOWmazingTM Giant Bubble Wands Kits for the kids to play with. Dad had an empty joint compound bucket which we used to mix up the WOWmazing giant bubble concentrate. This bucket was large enough that each of the kids could use it to dip in their two handed wands. We had all the kids playing with this so from ages 5 to 12. They all got the concept pretty quickly and were making giant bubbles in the backyard. I was going to try this at the beach but it was way too windy. So, everyone played in the backyard. I even took out my drone to shoot some video from above. The WOWmazingTM Giant Bubble Wands Kit sells for $14.95 and you can pick it up on Amazon.com. The kit comes with the two handed wand and two packages of the WOWmazing giant bubble concentrate. You add that concentrate to 8 ounces of water an...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00542 This morning I decided to take my Mavic Mini drone out on my morning walk. I flew it all over the beach and went through all 3 of my batteries. I walked up over the hill and I went over to the stairs and I love the photo above because of how cool it looks. Only with a drone will you get a shot like that. Then I took my drone up as high as it would go and was able to take the shot below. When I got back from my walk Eva was entertaining my parents by singing along with the Hamilton soundtrack. She is so very excited to see the show on Disney+ next week. Eva was belting out the tunes and the music was coming from Mom and Dad’s new speakers that we got them for their anniversary. The sound is amazing in these things, too. We had dinner with the cousins again tonight and the kids had a lot of fun. I grilled dinner and everyone enjoyed it. I enjoyed being the one on the grill. It gives me something to do and I always know when dinner is ready because it is when I’m do...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00541 We drove to the Cape today to spend a few days with family. I’m also in a step challenge with folks from work and a larger challenge with even more folks from work. I’ve been taking longer and longer walks each day. Multiple walks and more movement. It has been a good challenge and because of it Allison and I have been walking around like crazy in addition to my long lone walks. When we arrived on the Cape we stopped by The Barking Claw so that we could get a lunch. Allison and I split a lobster roll and the kids had some hot dogs. The lobster roll was excellent. Allison snapped a family selfie at lunch. We got to the house and went over to the beach. The kids were able to enjoy playing with their cousins. They had a fun time together. It was nice to be on the beach. It wasn’t very busy there and so we had plenty of space to social distance from other people. I’m not sure how busy it will get as the Summer progresses, though. I hope it will be fairly quiet.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00540 As Andy’s new room move continues to progress he’s getting a new bed. We got him a bunk bed and today my Dad came by and helped me go and pick it up. It was so heavy that we took it out, part by part, from the box and then moved it upstairs. I did not get started building, though. That is coming.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00539 With the end of the school year Eva was given permission to dye the tips of her hair. She chose green based on a character from a book she read recently. I think that it is great that she is so into books and the characters become so alive for her. This was a series that she read and has not heard on audio yet. I had Audible credits so I bought that series s I can listen to them and learn more about the character. Andy also had his hair colored. He got red and a little trim from me. He was so excited for his red hair and even more excited that they noticed it at Karate.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00538 Before the pandemic hit Andy was supposed to make his First Communion this past May. It did not happen, obviously. So, when we started attending the outdoor Masses our Pastor, Fr. Rodney noticed that Andy still had not made his First Communion. Fr. Rodney reached out to Allison this past Monday and asked if Andy wanted to make his First Communion today. Andy could make his First Reconciliation on Friday and be ready to go on Sunday. So, it was all very last minute. The nice thing, however is that our Church has been streaming live Masses on Facebook and anyone who could not be there physically could attend virtually. You can watch that Mass here. Andy was so proud to wear his suit. He loved wearing it. It is funny, most kids would not like to get dressed up in a suit in 91 degree weather but he knew the importance of the day and was so happy to be dressed up. He does not get that from me. Andy has this funny way of standing in a suit. It is almost like he’s been ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00537 The folks from The Manly Man Company® sent me a free sample of their jerky in the form of The Best Jerky Gift Box. Opinions are my own. Now the reason I did not say Beef Jerky was that The Best Jerky Gift Box contains not only beef jerky but bacon and pepperoni jerky. I’ve never had the pleasure of trying either but I am very excited about it. The Best Jerky Gift Box retails for $65 and contains a bunch of different jerky in various flavors. Contained in the box I received there were eight packages of jerky. They were:1x Barbecue Mesquite Beef Jerky (3oz.) 1x Old Fashioned Maple Bacon Jerky (2oz.) 1x Pepperoni Jerky- Straight up Pepperoni (2oz.) 1x Draft Ale- Black Label Beef Jerky (3oz.) 1x Whiskey Straight- Black Label Beef Jerky (3oz.) 1x Manly Man Original Beef Jerky Flower Trimming (3oz.) 1x Manly Man Teriyaki Beef Jerky Flower Trimming (3oz.) 1x Manly Man Hot Beef Jerky Flower Trimming (3oz.) You might be thinking to yourself, as I was at first, what are Fl...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00536 Allison and I were taking a walk this morning and when we got behind Cumberland Farms we heard some splashing in the water and branches crashing. I thought it may be someone’s dog or cat had fallen into the water but Allison spotted some rather large fish all splashing and pushing together. I snapped this photo of them and that was a bit too far out so I zoomed in more and saw them much closer but the photo is a bit grainy. I posted the image to both Twitter and a page all about Attleboro. The overwhelming consensus was that these are some form of Carp. Whether or not they are the invasive Asian Carp remains to be seen. But it was pretty cool to see some fish in the river. I hardly ever see anything.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00535 I received a download code for Mario Kart 8 from Nintendo for Father’s Day. Opinions are my own. One of the games that I love playing most with the kids is Mario Kart. We’ve had several versions and the latest version is Mario Kart 8. I’ve had a copy of the game for a while and I think I got it specifically so that I could use it with the Nintendo Labo system that Nintendo sent to me. With the vehicle kit you can build a steering wheel and a gas pedal to play games but it also works with Mario Kart 8. Andy has been using that a lot recently. He’s practicing up to race against me. I’m the undefeated family champ. You don’t grow up with the NES and playing every day after school and lose that title willingly! Disclaimer: Those images on our Switch Screens are screen grabs from two different sets of races. Our first set I won and so should have a gold trophy. I did not snap a photo. Andy did nd he had come in second so he has Silver. My screen is showing the results...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00534 I started painting Andy’s new room yesterday. Gave it a day to dry and then went back through to see what I missed. I missed a lot. At least that is what it felt like. The nice thing, however is that this paint is amazing and will cover perfectly the next day or 5 years later. That is why I will always go for Benjamin Moore Aura paint even though the price of one gallon is insane. We’ve got enough left over that we may make another room this same color. Who knows.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00533 I got started painting Andy’s room today. This will be Andy’s new room. It is currently my office. Since we moved in the walls have been a light blue. Now they are a bright blue-ish teal. The color is called Aruba Blue and does feel pretty tropical. It certainly is a bold color for a bold kid. Here’s what it looked like one wall next to another.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00532 We’ve been doing all that we can these past couple of weeks to get out and walk. Allison and I have been doing morning walks together and I’ve been doing walks on my own. Tonight we took the kids down to the Riverwalk and bike path so that Andy could get some more practice. We’ll be heading to the Cape soon and he’s going to want to ride his bike without training wheels like his friends and his cousins. So, when we can we get him out and riding. I’ll move his training wheels up higher so that he doesn’t depend on them as much.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00531 We received a copy of The Way to Rio Luna for free to read and review. Opinions are our own. I am a fan of fantasy books. I’ve read all of the Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter and the like. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that approaches magic quite like this one. Our main character, Danny Monteverde appears to have read these books as well and he believes that magic is real. It is his belief in magic that gets him through some very difficult times in his life. Danny is a foster kid who has been kicking around from home to home. His older sister is placed in separate foster care but she goes missing. It is up to Danny to find her and he believes that she has found a way to Rio Luna. Rio Luna is the land of some fairy tales that he and his sister loved and Danny is out to prove that it is real. His personal mission is to find this Rio Luna and his sister. I read it and enjoyed it. I gave it to Andy to read and found him crying. The beginning of the book i...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00530 In my office I have a pin board. It is mostly empty because I have many, many pins in a container in the garage. My entire Harley Davidson pin collection is there. I used to collect pins from all over the country. I also used to have them pushed into the walls of my cubicle. I removed them a few years ago and put them in a container. I’ll take them out once I get the new office set up and add them to the board. Speaking of the new office, we’ll be getting that ready this week and next. I took Andy to Triboro paint earlier this week and let him pick out whatever color he wanted for his room. I had been steering him towards a blue but Andy is his own person and he’s got his own ideas on colors. So…. This is what he picked. We’ll show you what it looks like once I’ve painted the room.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00529 We received a selection of My Audio Pet products for free to play with and review. I also purchased some additional products as gifts for my niece and nephew. Opinions are my own. Back at Toy Fair I visited the My Audio Pet booth and was blown away by their products. They not only had the cutest tiny bluetooth speakers but they had huge sound coming out of those speakers. Each of the My Audio Pets speakers has a name and personality. There is Slow Jam the sloth, Scales the dragon, Unichord the unicorn and so many more. What really caught my eye was Narmony the Narwhal that was part of the My audio Pet Splash line. This is a line of products that are larger than the rest of the pets and also waterproof. They have 5 watts of sound per speaker and a rechargeable battery. We received Narmony as part of our review products and started using it in Andy’s room right away. What is nice is that because it is bluetooth we can play something from another room and Andy can l...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00528 Andy came into our room this morning to let us know that he intended to make a special breakfast for the last day of school. At least he let us know first, sometimes he does not do that, he just mixes up pancake or crepes mix. He doesn’t make the pancakes or crepes but he can mix everything up. We got him to hold off until after Allison and I could go for a morning walk. However, once we got home Andy put Allison to work getting a nice big breakfast together. She made special pancakes, sausage AND bacon, strawberries and more. We had a nice breakfast and then the kids finished up their last day of school. It was also a big day because Eva has been doing an Outschool class, she started on Tuesday. She had that and she also hosted a dance party for her school friends. I helped her set up my office with the green screen so that she could play DJ and dance around with a cool background. The girls loved this event so much they decided that they want to do one each wee...

I was invited to take a look at a very special movie by Bryce Dallas Howard called Dads. I also took part in a virtual roundtable with Bryce and several Dad Bloggers and a few Moms, too. The film will be available starting June 19th on Apple TV+. I think it would be a great one to watch on your own or with your own dad. It is funny, touching and full of great stories from dads all over the world. I was excited to see that several of my friends were also on the call. My pal Adam from Dada Rocks was there and so was Andrew from Mommy’s Busy Go Ask Daddy, Chris from Dad of Divas and Fathering Together was there and so was Art Eddy of The Art of Fatherhood. We were each able to ask one question of Bryce about the film. You can see my question and her answer in the video below. One of the coolest things I saw in the film was how Bryce’s grandfather, Rance Howard, influenced the writers of The Andy Griffith Show. His objection to how Ron Howard’s character of Opie was written was spot on and...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00527 I’m in a step competition at work and after recently getting a Fitbit I’ve been trying to up my walking numbers each day. My goal is 10,000 steps and this morning I did 11,000 before 9:30am. I got up and walked to the park and discovered that once around the loop is about 950 steps. So I would move to the outside and try to get more steps on each lap around the park. I did five of them and then walked the reverse route that I normally take and added two bridges to finish things off. That got me to 11,000 before I got home. Can’t do it that way every day but when I get a chance I will try. In the afternoon we went over to America’s Best Defense to receive our brown belts. Andy and I earned these and as the dojo is preparing to open they did a drive up belt ceremony and testing. Andy had to run through his forms for Sensei Wilson before he could get his belt. He did a great job. I am so proud of all of his hard work. After we got our belts it was time to take the f...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00526 The room mom for Andy’s class asked that each kid take a photo with a Thank You sign that they created and then she put all of them together to present to Andy’s teacher. She even made a special one for Allison as the classroom’s aide. There is a lot to say thank you for with regards to the school year. Andy’s teacher had a very difficult year with a classroom of big personalities. She always did a phenomenal job with Andy. Today Andy’s teacher came over to drop off a gift for Allison and me. she got us a beautiful rose bush that we will add to our yard. She came while I was cleaning up the sidewalk. It was beyond time for me to get that all cleaned up. So many little branches had fallen and other debris that should be cleaned up. I think that now that I am walking more I am paying more attention to how people maintain their sidewalks.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00525 We received the entire series of Explorer Academy from National Geographic Kids Books for free to read and review. Opinions are our own. When I was a kid my Aunt gave me a subscription to National Geographic Magazine. These amazing magazines with information from all over the world had eye popping photos and so much information. It was so cool to look at the photos. I can’t say that I read too much of the articles and that is too bad because the articles have such great information. Maybe if the amazing information was presented to me like that which is in the Explorer Academy series I would have gotten more excited about learning about things in nature. I love the Explorer Academy books because they aren’t just cool action adventure books but rather they are based in scientific facts. Sure there are things that are not possible right now like the CAVE (Computer Animated Virtual Experience) Missions that the students have but we are getting very close with virtua...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00524 We went to church today for the first time in several months. It was much different than it has ever been in the past. Our pastor has had a stage erected off the parking lot at one of the churches, the one with the largest parking lot. Cars come and everyone pulls in as directed by the ushers. We tune our radios to the proper station and we stay in our cars and watch the Mass. At the end of Mass we get out and line up for Communion. Everyone is masked and you only take your mask off to consume the host. It was all run pretty well. There were some technical and sound issues but that is to be expected. Otherwise pretty smooth. I do appreciate that our church has kept people in the loop with Facebook live masses and more. Then also grateful to America’s Best Defense not only for the Zoom classes but also the weekly message and Sensei connect sessions. They have been a lot of fun. It was a pretty quiet day around here. I slept most of the day but before that I played...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00523 I got the kids a new game for the Nintendo Switch. Andy and Eva have been enjoying building things in Minecraft since Christmas. A game called Minecraft Dungeons came out recently and in it you don’t go any building but rather you fight all the different mobs (monsters) and quest for armor, weapons and treasure. The game is fun because you can have up to four people playing at once to fight the mobs. It sort of makes me think of old school Gauntlet but the character distinctions are not as clear. In Gauntlet you had 4 separate hero types. In this every character looks almost the same and can do pretty much the same thing. Players may specialize in a certain weapon or magic but they can all do the same thing if they have the right equipment and weapons. I’ve been playing this with Andy a little bit and he’s been playing this with his sister whenever he can. I think he likes it because they can both play together and he gets to have time with her. I think that is w...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00522 I’ve been playing around with my new Mavic Mini and today I took a long walk and ended up at Highland Park. It was nice and early in the morning so I took my Mavic Mini to see what I could see around the old country club. This has been made into walking trails and it is large and wide open so it made for a good place to practice. I did pretty well but there was one crash and it happened steps away from where I was. I had gotten the drone too close to some arborvitaes. I think I went up instead of down and next thing you know, it crashed.Luckily it was not from very high and there was no permanent damage. I can’t wait to take this to the Cape and get some great images around there. I have more to explore here around home, too. Today was national doughnut day. I still can’t figure out the difference between a doughnut and a donut. Apparently it is just spelling. But I think there is also a national Donut day. Yesterday Allison told me that Allie’s Donuts would be a...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00521 Working hard at getting out and walking each day. Allison and I went for an early morning walk together. Along the way by the riverwalk we saw a couple and their child sitting near one of the plots that have flowers and bushes. As we approached the woman said that there was a snapping turtle laying eggs. sure enough, there was a fairly large snapping turtle there laying eggs. It is that time of year there they are leaving the lakes and going to lay eggs. I even saw one as I drove down a pretty busy road. I did not see it when I returned and that is a good sign. At least it was not hit.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00520 Yesterday I picked up a new drone. I bought the Mavic Mini. I had been thinking about this drone for some time and yesterday while I was out shopping I thought to stop by Best Buy. However, Best Buy is only open for curbside pickup. I placed the order for the drone on my phone and was able to pick it up within a half hour. It was a really efficient system. This morning Andy and I went over to Capron Park to fly the drone in the big field. We walked over and discovered that I had forgotten a crucial wire for the remote control to connect to my phone. So we walked back over and then the drone had to update the software and do a few pre-flight things and then we were off. I flew it around the park for a while and then Andy wanted to get home. So, we walked home and I flew around my backyard for a bit and took this photo below. I’m still figuring out all the controls for the camera as well as being able to fly the drone properly. I keep mixing some of the things up b...