BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01550 This afternoon we took Eva, Andy and Eva’s whole Dungeons and Dragons group to see the Dungeons and Dragons movie. I had suggested to Eva that we try and see it opening weekend and suggested that we bring her group to see it. I was surprised when Andy piped up that they wanted to see the movie as well. Andy has long shied away from action movies and the potential of seeing someone get stabbed and yet the Dungeons and Dragons movie appealed to them. So I got tickets for all of us and we took up the whole back row of the theater. The movie was a fun one. I certainly enjoyed myself and was pleasantly surprised to see a cameo of a certain Dungeons and Dragons group that I knew from my youth. There was a Saturday Morning cartoon of Dungeons and Dragons and I remember watching all of the episodes. A few years back there was a car commercial with people dressed as those characters and I guess they brought them back to have in the movie. It was a great Easter egg f...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01549 I was sent a box of fun stuff for the upcoming super Mario Bros. Movie. Mario and Luigi hats, t-shirts, stickers, buttons and bags. Lots of fun stuff. I made a video unboxing the swag. The movie hits theaters on April 5th.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01534 I ran down to the Cape today to see my grandmother and then to stay overnight with my parents. Grandma was in good spirits and very interested in how my kids were getting on in school and other activities. They sent along some cards and I brought her a few photos from Eva’s Confirmation. I stayed there for a few hours visiting, hanging out while she slept and visiting with her visitors. I drove back from Grandma’s house to my parent’s house. On the ride I had been listening to Ready Player One. I haven’t had much time in the car to do much Audible listening and it was good to get back into that book. I really enjoyed it the first few times I read it and it was nice to settle back in. We got back to my parent’s house and we picked up pizza for dinner from Supreme and from Paul’s. It was a nice meal and then we watched the movie The Banshees of Inisherin. This was an Oscar nominated movie and my parents have been watching the different Oscar nominated movies ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01513 Eva and Andy had their stripe test today. I had mine this morning, too. We all got our stripes. This rotation we are working on gun defense. Eva got to help out in the demonstration with Sensei Brochu. You can see Andy in the back holding pads for their partner. Andy partners with a girl named Axel whenever they can. They work very well together because they are both learning and she doesn’t blast Andy across the room with her kicks. Eva’s partner was Miss Sabrina, she’s intense. Eva likes that, though, she’d rather work with someone who is tough and challenges her than someone who offers no challenge. It is great watching both kids get stronger and more skilled in Jr. Krav. Eva will earn a 7th stripe and graduate at the graduation next month to the red/black belt. Andy will move up to orange belt at their next stripe test and both will graduate in the same class for the first time. With Eva earning her red/black next month that means that she’ll soon be in...

A Christmas Story is an annual tradition in this house. We watch the movie at least three times a holiday season. The story of Ralphie Parker and his pursuit of the Red Ryder BB Gun is iconic. The movie itself is so incredibly quotable and it is accessible to so many people. From Jean Shepherd’s narration to the imaginative daydreams to getting a tongue stuck to a freezing flag pole this movie has so many great moments. On Thursday November 17th HBO Max is releasing A Christmas Story Christmas which is a sequel to the iconic Christmas Movie. I was able to screen the movie early so that I could interview Ralphie Parker himself, Peter Billingsley. You can see the trailer below. As a fan of the original I went in wondering if I would like how they handle this sequel while also knowing that nothing could ever be better than the original. This movie, however, did an amazing job of being true to the original film and being its own unique story and did not lean on the original movie’s plot or...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01414 A Christmas Story Christmas comes out on Thursday on HBO Max. I am very excited about it and so many people I know are also excited. One of my Sensei’s at Krav is super excited. He’s a huge fan of the original movie and cannot wait for this sequel. To get me even more excited Warner Bros sent me this fantastic mailer with some great A Christmas Story and A Christmas Story Christmas items inside. They included a hat, a little cake, the leg lamp ornament, a copy of the original movie on DVD, sparkling cider with an ugly sweat covering, plus and ugly sweater cookie decorating set. Wow! And there was also a code to screen A Christmas Story Christmas and a $50 give card to a minibar site for some adult beverages for when the kids go to sleep and Santa takes care of the magic. One of the more fun mailers I’ve ever received. If you haven’t read it yet, my review of A Christmas Story Christmas is below this post. Give it a look over and I hope you watch the movie o...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01410 Allison and I went to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and it was a really good movie. There was an amazing tribute to Chadwick Boseman who portrayed The Black Panther in many Marvel movies and who passed away from Colon Cancer in 2020. Marvel’s decision to not replace the actor in subsequent movies was the right one. The story of his passing in life and his character’s passing in the movie moved the story along. The movie was very emotional in many parts all the way till the end. We both commented on the amazing costumes in this movie. It should get an Oscar for that alone. Costuming for everyone involved was incredible. I liked ow the story introduced some new heroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I unfortunately knew about a few things were going to happen in the movie because I had seen a spoiler ridden synopsis about a year ago. All those things did happen in the movie but I still enjoyed it. I loved the introduction of Ironheart. I could care les...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01364 A Few weeks ago I got an email from Disney + asking if I would like a Disney Drop. Apparently, they send out these special boxes to subscribers from time to time. At first I thought it was a scam email but then discovered that it was not so I signed up for it to see what would be sent. The box contained a whole bunch of things themed around, The Little Mermaid. There was Little Mermaid Bingo cards, a movie still with facts on the movie, some blank cards, a sarong, a Rubik’s cube, a pot holder and more. It was interesting but not really anything that anyone here in the house would use. Allison might use the sarong but that is about it. but, overall it was a nice thing to get. Had the kids been younger this would have been a fun box for activities.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01311 We received some free Fandango passes from Warner Bros. to see DC’s League of Super Pets. Today was super hot outside so a trip to a nice air conditioned theater in the hottest part of the day sounded like a lot of fun. We were delighted by the movie, it was very funny and cute. There were some emotional parts to the movie as well. I laughed out loud several times throughout the movie. It has a great cast of voices and there were even a few that caught me by surprise when I heard them and one when I actually saw who it was during the credits. After the movie I wanted to get a photo of us around the poster but they don’t really hang up movie posters anymore they have screens that show the poster. So we waited by this screen until the poster rotated through again.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01288 Today was by far the windiest day on the Cape our whole trip. so, what else would the kids like to do on a windy day then fly a kite. Yes, you need wind for kite flying but this was a lot of wind. The kids were not to be deterred so they took the turtle kite over to the beach and they did a nice job of taking turns with the kite. However, some things are just inevitable with kites. At some point the roll of string was let go and the kite went sailing off but not before the string got wrapped around the power lines. Allison and Eva and I went to see Thor: Love and Thunder at the Falmouth Cinema Pub and just before we left we saw the kite flying up over the houses while it was stuck on the power lines. It think this happened more often than not when I was a kid. I even think that is how we obtained that kite in the first place. Thor was a good movie and we enjoyed it very much. Not as good as Ragnarok but still entertaining overall.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01221 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness came out in theaters today. Marvel movies are finally coming back to theaters in a more timely and consistent manner. I’ve seen pretty much every one of the movies so far and am looking forward to all those that are upcoming. This one was pretty good and I’ll definitely see it again with Eva even though we are both looking more forward to Thor: Love and Thunder coming in a couple of months. I did love the cameos that were in the movie. We finally got to see someone portray a specific character and fans have been asking for that forever. Then there was an actor who reprised a little known role and I loved that, too. It was visually very, very cool.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01219 I received a free download code for the movie Uncharted. The movie came out on Digital on 4/26 and will be on Blu-ray 5/10. Opinions are my own. I have never played the Uncharted games but I am very sure that I would enjoy them. I love figuring out puzzles and clues and all sorts of fun things like that. So, when I was asked if I wanted to participate in a scavenger hunt as a promo for Uncharted I said yes. I was sent an envelope that contained four clues that would lead me to my own digital download code of the movie so that I could watch it. The movie stars Tom Holland and Mark Walhberg and looks like a wild ride. the envelope contained a few things. There were some maps, some postcards, a key, a pen, a flashlight and some bubble gum. I used the clues to solve the puzzles in order to find my download code and it was really fun figuring everything out. Eva helped me and we had everything figured within a could of minutes. The puzzle was a challenge but I h...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01136 I received a free mailer of promotional items for the movie American Underdog. Opinions are my own. Anyone who knows me knows that sports are not really my thing. Sports movies, however, are. I am a sucker for an underdog story centered around sports and Out on digital right now is the movie American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story. I was asked if I would like a special football themed mailer to help promote the movie. I had wanted to see it so I said sure and we received a really fun bunch of items. With The Big Game coming up on Sunday what better time to watch an amazing movie about a player who never gave up and went on to be an MVP. Here is the trailer and then the synopsis of the movie. American Underdog tells the inspirational true story of Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback. The film centers on Warner’s unique story and years of challenges a...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01131 I received this Ghostbusters: Afterlife themed promotional box for free from Sony. Opinions are my own. Last Friday night I participated in an live twitter party for Ghostbusters: Afterlife and this box from Sony was supposed to go along with it. However, it arrived late because of all the storms. Inside the box there were a couple of Ghostbusters jumpsuits and items with which to customize those jumpsuits. I let me kids have them because I could not fit into them and because they are much better at customizing them than I am. Eva customized one of the jumpsuits on her own and we still haven’t had a chance to watch the movie together. I know that she’s going to like the characters. You can see the unboxing of the promo ghost trap that Sony sent to me.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01101 The other day I put a bunch of Star Wars Funko Pops on the wall and they were in a large Star Wars box of a bunch of toys. I had received this box years ago and there were things in there like the BB8 remote control toy and the Chewbacca animatronic toy. I have not used either one of these toys in a while. I hope they are all set and still work right. They have their own internal batteries and I hope that they did not leak at any point. I’ll check them out soon. I am not sure if I planned it or not. I pretty much didn’t today the second episode of The Book of Boba Fett came out Disney +. It was an incredible episode and I cannot wait for more of them to come out.

  We received a free copy of THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES on Blu-Ray – the Katie Mitchell’s Special Edition version. Opinions are our own. Andy and I originally watched this movie when it came out on Netflix. We absolutely loved it and thought it was hilarious. I laughed out loud many, many times as we watched. Well, now there is a special edition dvd of the movie that just came out and it contains over 2 hours of additional content. The Katie Mitchell’s Special Edition – available on Blu-Ray and digital- features over 2 hours of new content including an all-new short (Dog Cop 7: The Final Chapter) and Katie’s Extended Cinematic Bonanza Cut. The Blu-Ray edition is made as if Katie Mitchell would have made it herself, down to the packaging, menus and even a “surprise and delight” insert booklet from Katie. Katie’s Extended Cinematic Bonanza Cut includes over 40 minutes of deleted scenes. In addition, the Blu-Ray, DVD and digital versions of the film include fun activities to enjoy...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01082 We received a free copy of The Ultimate Aang and Korra Blu-rayTM Collection from Nickelodeon. Opinions are our own. We have an interesting history with Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra in this house. I noticed that Avatar was on Netflix and suggested that the kids and I begin watching it together. After watching the first episode and the kids not being as enthused as I thought they would be we stopped watching. Then Eva watched the entire series on her own and loved it. She then dove into The Legend of Korra. Now she was the expert on both shows and I had to play catch up when I was the one who wanted to watch the shows in the first place… with the kids. Well, we can watch the shows from start to finish now with this new collection from Nickelodeon. The Ultimate Aang and Korra Blu-rayTM Collection came out on December 7th and it is filled with so many extras including 80 minutes of never before seen content. One of those bits of content is...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01079 I’ve been opening the Playmobil Back to the Future III Advent Calendar. Today the item inside was the modified Winchester Rifle that Doc Brown makes in order to take a sniper shot. Doc’s hat was also with the set. This goes well with Doc Brown in his true western wear for 1885. The set has been so much fun to open each day. I am enjoying it very much and also the LEGO Marvel Avengers Advent Calendar that I have been opening each day, too. The videos have been fairly well received, too. Here is the one from today.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01069 The other day I was in Target and I saw that there was a mini set of Shang-Chi and The Protector. I have the larger version of this set as you can see in the photo. I loved the movie and when the dragon shows up in the movie, it looks amazing. I like how LEGO put this dragon together. It looks very cool.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01061 I took Andy to the movies today. I recently took Eva to see a movie and he did not get to go. He had felt left out even though he wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie in the first place. Well, we have had a Thanksgiving tradition in years past to go to a Disney movie the night before Thanksgiving. We were not able to do that this year so instead I took Andy to see Encanto today. Encanto is a musical about a family that has some special magical gifts. Andy really enjoyed the movie, too.