Photo-A-Day #2499

He totally started crying seconds after this shot.

It was a good day for photos of Andrew today. Allison took some amazing ones of him alone as well as one with him with Allison. Today was also Pajama Party Day. Eva decided that today would be a Pajama Party day. So, since I was going to end up going back to bed at 1:00pm I got into the spirit of it and put on some PJs. We played some Skylanders and played with stickers, had some breakfast and enjoyed a nice lunch. All in our PJs. It was something fun that Eva wanted to do so we indulged her a bit. It certainly had nothing to do with being a little lazy on a Friday before a work weekend.

We continue to play Skylanders and have so much fun with it. Even though I have beaten the game I continue to play because the characters can be upgraded further. There are Heroic Challenges that each character can do and then they can can upgrade things like: Armor, Speed, Critical Hit, Elemental power and more. So once I get each character fully upgraded then we should be ready for Skylanders Giants coming this fall. I can’t wait for that. I am so excited. Check out the video. Eva loves the video.

I’m pretty excited about this game. There will be 20 new Skylanders and 8 giants. I believe that the giants will most likely be one to an element. Since there are 8 elements in the game it makes sense that the 8 giants will be aligned to the elements. I also finished the game again today and I wonder if Kaos will end up as one of the new Skylanders. It would be cool if he did and that way you could play as a bad guy messing things up. Eva would not approve but I think it would be fun.

We had a nice dinner of a roasted Chicken. Had to put Duncan in the Basement. Thank you for the Cat Door Dad! I’m so glad it locks. Of course he tried is damnedest to get out too. He was scratching and banging on the door. But there was no way that little scavenger was getting out. He’s trying to eat everything now. You cannot leave anything out for a second or he’ll be sniffing around. The one thing he doesn’t go for is popcorn, that is Oliver’s territory.

On the way to work I grabbed the mail and inside was my Blu-Ray copy of Transformers Prime: Season 1 Limited Edition!!

I cannot wait to watch this, check out all the commentary and more. It is not coming out until March 6th and I’ll have a full review of all the features a few days before the release.

We are only a week away from the premiere of Season 2 of Transformers Prime too. Can’t wait!

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

The Appearance of Calm

Photo-A-Day #2498

Allison and I have realized something. We need to get out of the house to accomplish things together. We had to bring my car to get an oil change so we all went to drop Eva at school. We went to Target after that and we were going to go to Stop & Shop too but I went later on my own. Anyway, while at Target we put together the shopping list and talked about things that we have to get done at the house. For some reason while in the house we just find things to do or clear out on the DVR. Mostly the DVR thing.

Andrew, for his part slept very well while we shopped. We’re looking for a new TV. We took a look at the selection at the store and I think we might end up with a decent sized one if we can find it for a decent price. Each February I get a bonus from work. We think of all that we want to use it for all year long and when we get it in our account it is pretty much already spent. We slashed the amount of credit card debt that we have plus a few more things including the new computer but there is more that we’re interested in doing.

Things to do would be mostly in our living room. We need new couches. Our love seat is still in decent shape but that is because it becomes a place for the laundry and is seldom sat upon by company. I’m not complaining but it has been long enough with these couches. That is why we went over to Bob’s Store the other day, Eva is going to get a job there. She went and showed us all around the building. All the sales associates were so impressed with her too. We just let her go around and show us what she wanted to show us. She had fun doing it and it sort of tired her out, which we liked.

The only sofa that we are interested in has pull out drawers under the sofa. Great for storage. It will most likely be another thing for me to obsessively organize only to have it turn to chaos again

I think of that because tonight I organized Eva’s toys. I also got rid of some things. Early on we bought her some cheap plastic food. Since that time she’s gotten some really great Melissa & Doug sets with wooden play food. We also have two sets to send back to the store and get some more. So, because we are upgrading her toys to higher quality stuff we just wanted to clean out the garbage. I hope that she doesn’t notice tomorrow.

I also organized a whole bunch of other things so that we had some space for Andrew’s toys as well. We’ve got a few of them so far and there are many of Eva’s toys that we put away for him to play with later. We’ve got some time before his toys invade the space as well.

Today around 4am I finally finished reading the entire Sword of Truth Series. I’m not even sure how many years that this epic story has been a part of my life but finishing it sort of left a hole. I’m not even sure how many years the story covered but it felt like a hundred years. Reading it a few pages at a time before I went to sleep for work made the progress very slow going. But when I got down to the last 60 pages I was fully awake, at 4:30am and tearing through the pages. The end was in sight and then when it was over it was like saying goodbye to friends who had been with you for years. You know that they are going to be okay, finally and now everyone needs to move on.

So now I have a choice, what to read next. I am going to review a book about blogging and I probably should read that as a palette cleanser before I start on Game of Thrones, Inheritance or Neptune’s Son. Neptune’s son is on my night table. Game of Thrones is on my Kindle and I don’t own Inheritance yet. So maybe before an epic I will read one of the other books first.

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

Elfin Slumber

Photo-A-Day #2497

Today we went our for lunch and it only cost us $0.80. That included free refillable cups, face (hand) painting, balloons and lots of coupons. A new 7-11 opened down the road from us and they offered 7 cent hot dogs and 11 cent Slurpees. I was alerted to this grand opening by a friend on Facebook. Since the new 7-11 was on the way to the Comic Book store I figured it would work well to go pick up the books and catch some lunch. Eva had a great time and loved her little butterfly painting on her hand. She also liked the balloon sword that she got, however, it did not survive the ride home.

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

Lunch for Eighty Cents

Photo-A-Day #2496

If you are attending Toy Fair next week you should stop by the Peaceable Kingdom Booth to see their newest games including the one that we got to play called Feed The Woozle. Feed the Woozle is a cooperative board game that also helps children develop gross motor skills as well as basic counting. The game is fun to play and entertaining in the silly, slightly gross snacks that the Woozle likes to eat. Eva was laughing at those snacks and having fun feednig the Woozle over and over.

Eva and I played through each level of the game. She’s more advanced than level one, not quite ready for level three but level two is just right for her. I’d like to get her playing this with friends and see how much fun they have together. This is a definitely a fun cooperative game that kids will have fun playing. Level two incorporates gross body movement through fun things like spinning around, doing a hula and even going crazy. However,t he kids need to be aware that they are holding a spoonful of Woozle snacks that need to be fed to the Woozle. So, they have to take care not to drop the snacks.

Here is the official statement from the Peaceable Kingdom’s Toy Fair Press Release.

Feed The Woozle • Ages 3-6 • $20
Woozle is hungry and his mouth is wide open and ready to catch some silly snacks like chocolate covered flies or hairy pickles. Can you feed him 12 silly snacks without dropping them from the spoon? Two to 5 players start the game with a roll of the die to learn how many snacks to put in his big open mouth. With a spin of the colorful spinner they then determine which goofy gross motor movement they will do while walking across the room to feed him. Maybe it’s a Bunny Hop, maybe walk backwards! Be careful, kids, and don’t drop those snacks. If everyone together can feed the Woozle 12 snacks, everyone wins! And giggles are guaranteed.

Level 1 introduces basic counting.
Level 2 adds a gross motor movement a child must perform while making his way to the Woozle.
In Level 3, players rely on guidance from teammates to find the Woozle because they must close their eyes!

Disclosure: We received a copy of Feed the Woozle to review and play with. Our opinions are 100% our own.

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

Review: Peaceable Kingdom’s Feed the Woozle

Photo-A-Day #2495

A beautiful and warm day today let us go out and have fun over at the park. Eva and I ran all over the place. Actually, Eva ran all over the place I walked quickly and followed her. She was all about dancing in the gazebo, playing hide and seek and generally leading me around all over the place.

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

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