BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00519 Today was supposed to be Field Day for the kids. It obviously did not happen because of the pandemic but at least the kids were able to get ice cream and popsicles from the teachers at school. Allison went over to help the teachers hand out the popsicles and ice cream. I brought the kids over later. We picked up their treats and then we went over to my parent’s house so the kids could eat them. It was warm enough that the treats began to melt pretty quickly. This morning Allison and I went for a nice long walk and then I ran out to the store. Got a few things that we needed and then picked up something that I’ve been deciding upon for a while. Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell you what that was.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00518 We have a very nice walking path near our house that we have been having fun walking together as a family. I just started a walking challenge with people at work and am trying to get at least 10,000 steps each day if I can. This walking path goes from paved parts through the city to the woods and a nice little waterfall. Along the route there is a little library, we have to remember to bring books with us on future walks.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00517 We cannot pick up our weekly grocery order until tomorrow so instead we decided to try curbside pick up at Mac and Walt’s. We love their burgers and were interested to see their curbside setup. Mac and Walt’s knows how to do curbside really well. They have all of their parking spots numbered and at each spot there is a sign that tells you the number to call upon arrival. I called, let them know that I would pop the trunk and the food was out and ready within two minutes. I was off and back home in less than 10 minutes, that means hot fries. I got the bacon cheeseburger and Allison the Walt burger. The kids got sliders and we split some fries and onion rings. We also split some of the desserts. Mac and Walt’s partners with a local bakery called Flaky Crust Pies and they put up on Instagram that tonight they were carrying a mixed berry crumble. We got that and an apple pie slice and a cream cheese brownie. It was all delicious. It was also nice to eat in the back y...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00516 I did not go for donuts yesterday for Donut Fridays with the family. I didn’t go because someone in the house decided that he was having a bowl of Nutella, fluff and peanuts for breakfast. So, I did not go for donuts yesterday morning. I went this morning to surprise Allison with a coffee and the kids with donuts. Our local Honey Dew was open for walk ins and so I went in to see what they had and they had these very cute smiley face donuts. I figured that with everything happening in the world right now we need a smile. I tried to sleep and made it till about 1:30pm. Then I was up. I went to Twitter and took a look to see if things were on track for the Space X Crew Dragon launch that had been rescheduled from earlier this week. It looked like a go so I tried to get back to sleep but ended up staying awake. So, we watched the launch all together in our bed. I held my breath watching because of memories of the Challenger and Columbia. I didn’t want to see anything...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00515 I’ve spent most of this past week cleaning up my office and moving many things up and into the attic. I have to get the room down to a few items so that I can paint the room for Andy. He’s going to have the office as his bedroom soon. The office is bigger than his current bedroom which was good for a baby but too small for a growing boy. We’ve been trying to decide upon colors for the rooms. I simply want something that is neutral because of the filming that I’ll be doing. I don’t want the colors of the walls to influence the colors on the videos. The swatch that I have on my wall has the official color for the New England Patriots. I may even go with that color because the room is smaller and darker so whatever I paint in that room will be darker. So, I will probably go with the pewter. Andy has a few paint swatches in his room. He’s leaning towards a red but we also have a blue option. Once he picks the color I’ll finish cleaning the office and then paint it. T...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00514 About a month ago we started a set of gems in our rock tumbler. This was our very first set of rocks and gems to try out. We picked up this National Geographic rock tumbler because the kids have a ton of rocks and gems from events. Every year my company picnic has a rock mining area and the kids have ton of those rocks from that. They also have some from going to Great Wolf Lodge. This past week when we were on the Cape I had each of the kids pick out three rocks that they liked and I will tumble them for the next month. Then when we return tot eh Cape we will bring the tumbled rocks and reveal them to the cousins. I think Eva will give a geology lesson for our home school Summer Science school.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00513 I was offered my own Celestial Buddy for free to check out and review. I choose Mars because that is where I hope to see us go next. It has been an out of this world ride for one plush little Earth from Celestial Buddies. Back in March a plush Earth toy from Celestial Buddies was launched with Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. It quickly captured the hearts and minds of children everywhere and also those young at heart. Now, Little Earth is coming home with the crew on today’s launch. Full details of the journey are in the press release below. We will watch the live feed of the launch with the kids in a couple of hours and I truly hope that they will feel a sense of wonder at the possibilities by watching this historic launch. This is the first time a space ship will launch Americans into Space from America. The next step would be to go back to The Moon but ultimately a journey to Mars. So that is why I choose the Mars Celestial Buddy, that and Arie...