BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01441 Allison has this Ceramic Tree from her grandmother and we put it on our armoire for the Christmas season. It love the look of this thing. It is so fun to photograph. I had thought that it was in the attic but instead it was in a box right next to the armoire under some pillows. I guess that we have to attack our room like I did Andy’s room, soon. It feels very much like the Holidays when this tree is lit up.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01440 Here’s something interesting. There used to be Hallmark stores and that is where you could go to get the Hallmark Keepsake ornaments every year. Each year I would get the family ornament for our tree. This year and last I had to order them from the Hallmark website because there are no more Hallmark stores around and CVS doesn’t even carry a large selection or ornaments anymore. When I placed my order this year the ornament wasn’t one where you slide an image into a little window like every other one from years past.  This year you uploaded one of your photos to the website and it was printed right onto the ornament. I looked through our past year and looking for family photos was interesting. We didn’t have too may of the four of us together that would work. We did have a couple of nice ones form King Richard’s Faire from when we went for Eva’s birthday. That was the perfect photo because our trips to King Richard’s Faire are always filled with fun fa...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01439 I was putting out the trash tonight and the snow was coming down all around. It was enough to cover the cars and would stay on them overnight. It wasn’t a lot of snow and I did not have to snowblow or anything like that but it was a nice gentle snow to start the snowy season. I stayed home tonight because Andy was sick. He’s had a cough for a long while now and today Allison took him to the Urgent Care where they discovered Strep (again) and the flu. He was put on medication and the Tamiflu made his stomach upset. It was all hands on deck around here. To help the kid out I started the task of cleaning his room top to bottom. He fell asleep as I was working on it so he must have been very tired.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01438 Funko sent me this Marvel Pocket Pops Holiday 4-Pack. They sent this to me for free to unbox and review. Opinions are my own. These Funko Pocket Pops are adorable little figures that are great for decorations for Christmas. Each one is in a gingerbread style. The Thor figure is one of the Diamond series because it is all covered in a diamond glitter. Spider-Man is in a dynamic pose with a stand to keep him up. There is a second stand for Thor but he does not need it. There are two Groots in this set and I would have liked to have one different character over two of the same one, but they are both pretty cute. These are Walmart exclusives. I made an unboxing video about them.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01437 After Christmas last year and the disappointing trees to select from on the Christmas tree lots we decided to get an artificial tree to put up this year. We bought it right after last Christmas and we finally put it up today. We’re having Christmas early this year and so we’re getting things decorated earlier, too. the tree is 9 feet tall and I may have misjudged exactly how tall our ceilings are in the house. I thought that they were about 9 feet or higher, guess they are slightly less than 9 feet. I had tonight off so I spent the day getting the living room ready for us to decorate in the evening. We picked up pizzas and watched a little of Elf before we decorated. While we were going through all out decorations we did not have lights for the tree. So, I ran out to Lowe’s to find some warm yellow lights for the tree. That is what the package said but when I got it home the lights were high beam headlight bright white. We didn’t have much of an option so w...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01436 I received an advanced copy of the book Quest Kids and the Dragon Pants of Gold. I requested it for Andy because I figured that he would enjoy the silliness of it plus the tons of cartoon illustrations inside. The book is filled with cartoons that go along with the story. It is one of those combination books where much of the story is told through the cartoons on each page but then there are also pages of text. It is a great book for those kids who are not huge readers but they enjoy cartoons and will find having cartoons and text broken up throughout the book much easier to read. This is the type of reader that Andy is. He’s not one for a straight up book with text only. He enjoyed the cartoons and the story of this book because it was so absurdly silly. I also read the book and found it to be pretty funny. The simple drawings and the unique and funny characters made it an interesting read. You can pick up this book from out amazon.com affiliate link and g...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01435 I received the House of Sweets for free from Funwhole. Opinions are my own. I’m writing an article over on the Men Who Blog site regarding this House of Sweets building set from Funwhole. I spent much of today building the set and making the video of buildings the set. It took a me a few hours to build the 986 piece set but once it was done it was well worth it. I’ll link to the article once it is posted. In the meantime you can find the House of Sweets set on the FUNWHOLE website. You can also check out my review video.