Photo-A-Day #2468

Today was Allison’s birthday. She started her day with one of the best presents, Andrew smiled a huge smile at her. That was precious. Then she had hugs from Eva. I sorted out our bills, I’m such a romantic. But wait I’ll make up for that later.

I took Eva to school and on the way home picked up some ice cream, a tiny cake (perfect for a small family) had it personalized and also got a sweet card. But that is not all I didn’t just wake up and realize it was Allison’s birthday, nope I got her a pretty sweet gift for her car. She’s been asking for a hands free Bluetooth speakerphone for the car and that is just what I got her. And I even got her a model better than mine. This one can sync with two BlueTooth devices simultaneously. Amazing.

So when it was time to pick up Eva from school Allison and Andrew and I went to do that. Then we drove to Dedham to Legacy place to walk around, but also to take a look at an iMac. Yea, I think we are going to make the switch to a fully Apple family. We’ve got the iPads and the iPhones I think the next logical step for us is the iMac. We’ve been on borrowed time with our current PC and it crashed again yesterday. It was an easy fix this time but again, borrowed time.

LEgacy place was nice I had not been through there before and there are some nice stores. It was also very nice to walk around and get out of the house. We went into a candy store and Eva tugged at my shirt, she wanted me to duck down so she could tell me that she wanted to buy a birthday gift for mommy. She was wandering around the store and while I tried to steer her towards candy that Allison would like Eva wanted to pick her very own thing. Luckily a girl working in the store offered Eva a sample of Cinnamon yogurt pretzels and Eva was sold.

After Legacy Place we went to Patriot Place for the traditional (what has become our tradition) birthday meal at Red Robin. We had some fun there and I took a photo of Allison for WeReward and tweeted that it was her birthday and the Red Robin Twitter account even said happy birthday. Eva emphatically told our waiter that it was mommy’s birthday and that he should tell all the staff. He was very good with her too and she kept telling him every time he came back over, it was a riot. So yes, she did get the Red Robin birthday song sung by the staff and a sundae.

We came home stuffed to the gills and gave Allison her present a Jabra journey, window mount and some new Zagg iPhone protection sleeves. We also served the mini cake. I put a single candle on it and Eva helped me by turning off the lights so we could surprise Allison and sing Happy Birthday to her.

I’ll charge up her new toy so that she can be safe and hands free in the car.

Night rounded out with some DVR catch up and then off to sleep (after I wrote the last few day’s blog posts of course)

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Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Happy Birthday Allison

Photo-A-Day #2458

Eva and I goofing around with the Front Facing Camera on my iPhone. We had a very nice day today. Our annual Family Christmas party with my Dad’s side was this morning. I worked last night but took a quick nap and was refreshed and ready to get over to my Aunt Corrine’s house. We had a very nice time there and Eva had so much fun playing with her cousins.

Then we went back to my parent’s house and took a photo of the four generations of Andrew Bennett.

We wound down our year with some bacon wrapped scallops and jalapeno poppers while cleaning out the DVR. We are exciting people.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Goofing out the Old Year, Goofing In The New

Photo-A-Day #2436

The sleep schedule around her has been a little crazy, after waking up at five of nine on Thursday morning and tearing on over to Eva’s school was a new experience. she always sleeps late on School days or days when we need to be somewhere early. On days when we ca sleep in She is up and bouncing all over the room. It figures.

Eva and Allison got haircuts today. Eva’s hair was down to her lower back and now it is slightly below her shoulders. She even got it curled and is loving how that looks. She loves curls. We just have no time to do it that often.

We had a small moment today when Andrew was quiet and Eva was willing to sit with him and when I went to take the photo he started crying. Eva handled it pretty well. She looks so proud in this photo. She is such a good big sister.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Proud Big Sister

Photo-A-Day #2296

Today was a pretty awesome day. At 9am the Chevy Camaro Convertible arrived. It is bright yellow! I was so excited because I could drive BumbleBee around for the better part of the next week (more on that later). I signed my paperwork and got the keys. The guy dropping it off asked if he wanted me to have him pull it into the driveway. I said no thanks and took off up the road. I drove the car up by the farms on Ellis road with the wind flying by, it was Awesome!

I got back to the house, and tweeted that I’d bee driving BumbleBee for the week, I put the carseat in the back. There is a latch system in the car and even though there is barely a back seat in the car there was enough room for Eva’s seat and for her to sit comfortably.

It is crazy hot in the Northeast today and I was sweating big time after installing the seat. I went upstairs and showered and changed, collected Allison and Eva and we hopped into the car.

I used my TeleNav app on my DROID to get directions to Evelyn’s Drive-In in Tiverton, RI. I liked using the app because I could get an approximate ETA at any time. I could then tell Eva how much longer it would be before we got to our destination.

Stopped for a potty break, there is my TeleNav app running.

She enjoyed the convertible for a while and then wanted the roof up because she doesn’t like the wind too much. We put up the roof when we got to Evelyn’s and we were pretty early for lunch so we took the car for a ride around the area.

I used the TeleNav app to search for places around where we were. I wasn’t sure if we were close to Buttonwood Park Zoo so I typed in Zoo and I discovered a place that I’d really love to get to on another family trip, The Butterfly Zoo. If we decide to go there I’m going to need my DSLR. Also it was so hot that a zoo might not have been the best place to go. So we just drove.

Our driving took us to Courtyards. This collection of shops had some very interesting finds. There was a beautiful children’s clothing shop and another shop with a bunch of outdoor statues and these flowers made out of old china and glass place settings that were mounted on rebar. Those were pretty cool.

Today was about discovery and fun and being together as a family. It is always hard on Fridays because that is the day that daddy goes back to work. Even though I’m home so much more than before it is still hard when Friday rolls around and I have to go back to work. So when we can do some fun stuff on Friday morning and early afternoon that is good, it sort of eases Eva into the weekend.

After we were done at the shops we drove back to Evelyn’s and the place was hopping. we were lucky to get a seat inside but we did. You see, I chose Evelyn’s because I wanted to eat by the water, but with temps in the 100′s I did not want my 3 1/2 year old daughter, my pregnant wife and my chunky butt getting blasted with heat exhaustion. So we were lucky to get inside.

Allison and I went to Evelyn’s a number of years ago (in 2004!) and I remember the giant seafood platter. I secretly wanted to get that again but I wasn’t sure if Allison could eat much of it. Well, she wanted to get it too and we split that and Eva enjoyed some as well (and chicken fingers, the staple of the toddler). Eva also wanted clam chowder. She does not like the clams or potatoes in it, just the broth. So funny. She was excited to have a big menu too.

She told our server that she must have thought that Eva was older because she gave her an adult menu. Eva did get a kids one too and crayons. We colored a bit as we waited for the food. It came very quickly too and it was well worth it!

With butter on the scallops, perfectly light and buttery, the best I’ve ever had.

This platter was a monster. We didn’t go for the lobster addition this time. I thought it was pretty small last time and not worth the extra $6 for it. Besides the Company picnic is coming up and I’ll have my yearly lobster there. But the scallops, Shrimp, Calamari, Whole Belly Clams, Fish, Clamcakes, Fries and Cole Slaw were so delicious! We brought some home too. We couldn’t eat it all but man we tried.

This thing was seriously HUGE!

When our lunch was done we headed out to the parking lot to get back into the Camaro, now with the top up, and headed home. We stopped and took the family photo but it was insanely hot out so we didn’t take a bunch of photos as I had intended. But I took this one.

We had a fantastic family adventure. It was too much for Eva because she was zonked out asleep before we left the Eveyln’s parking lot.

Here is a video that I made of our adventure.

Disclosure: I am a member of the TeleNav Navigator in Chief dad panel and was provided compensation to participate. While I have received compensation to participate in the program as with anything that I review the opinions are 100% mine.

You can find out more about TeleNav through these different outlets.

• Navigating Life (blog): http://blog.telenav.com/blog/
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/telenav
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/telenav
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/telenav
• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23382466@N03/

Disclosure 2: I am testing out a Chevy Camaro Convertible for the week. I have some contacts at Chevy and I asked them for the car. I’ll be blogging about it and my adventures as well as those of my Dad, Allison and my friend Rob Merlino (We’re doing a Hot Dog Adventure on Wednesday). The opinions that we will share about the car are 100% ours.
You can learn more about the Chevy Camaro.

Disclosure 3: I combined two things in this one post, there is no official association between Chevy and TeleNav. I just used both on the trip. I also used my Kodak Cameras and my XShot. I use what I have, what I’ve been given and it becomes part of my daily life.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Family Road Trip to Evelyn’s Drive-In

Photo-A-Day #2248

Today was one of those milestone days that comes along only once when you’re a parent of a little girl. The first dance recital.

I got home from work and tried to get some sleep. I got about 2 hours of sleep broken up into two one hour stints over a four hour period. It was a tough sleep day.

I got up around 2pm, took a shower and then helped Allison a bit getting Eva ready. It was a hectic day because Allison was confirmation sponsor to my cousin Maddie. Maddie was also in 8 dance numbers at the recital. So having a the confirmation right before the recital it was up to me to bring Eva and my cousin Amanda to the recital. I also had to feed the kiddos so we had a special dinner at McDonald’s. That gave me a taste of what having two kids would be like. And I thought I was exhausted for not sleeping. Spend an hour with two cute little kiddos who were super excited and hyped up.

After dinner we went right over to the Woonsocket High School. I dropped the girls off with the dance staff and they took care of getting them changed and ready for the dance recital. I went off and read a little while I waited for Allison, Mom & Dad, Tara & Erik and Shelby to arrive.

Mom & Dad made it to the seats and so did Allison but Tara, Erik and Shelby were a bit late and had to sit in the back. They missed the Ballet number but luckily I caught it on my Kodak PlayTouch. Eva was so very cute. Kids at the age of three are hilarious at dance recitals because there is no telling that they are going to do. So cute.

There were a bunch of dance numbers and my cousin Maddie was in a bunch of them. she was awesome. She had presence, personality and some great dance skills. I think that we were all really proud and impressed by her dancing.

There was a brief intermission and we caught up with Aunt Corrine, Tara, Erik, Shelby and Aunt Millie. Tara brought me some earplugs so that I could enjoy the recital without being slammed by the really loud music. They were very helpful.

Eva’s second number was a tap number. She had a little farmer girl outfit on and the dance was something called six little piggies. She was so cute, mugging a bit and doing her own thing once or twice. For the most part she kept to the routine and did such a great job.

The finale was funny because for some reason Eva came out and then decided to stand up while everyone else was sitting. It was at the same time when the top sales for the ads in the program was happening. So it was a little funny. She really looked like she wanted what was in the bags that the little girls who had high ticket or ad sales. She loves stuff, I think that is my fault for being such a collector.

After the finale we came over to Eva and Allison and I presented her with a bouquet of flowers. My Mom & Dad got her a bouquet too and I got her a tiny one of small pink roses. Even though we had bought her a bouquet through the dance program I felt like getting her something from me as well because I was so proud of her hard work.

Eva was so cute walking around with 3 crinkly bouquets of flowers that were almost as big as her.

We took a few photos with Eva

And then one of Eva and Auntie Shelby

, Eva with Auntie Tara

and Eva with Maddie and Amanda.

We also went over to the Ice Cream Machine to have some celebratory ice cream cones. We stayed till their septic tank stunk us out of the place. Luckily I had finished my cone before that odoriferous assault. Other than the stinky air we had a wonderful night.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Eva’s First Recital