BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02709 We went to IKEA today after school to get a few things for Eva and Collega nd Andy and their room. Andy wants to put a workspace into their closet. So we picked up up a desktop that we will have to cut down by an inch. The closet has molding on the inside and the desktop is a shade too large for the space. Andy is holding a pegboard that we'll be putting up on the wall of the closet. With that andy can organize items for their crafting projects. Let's hope this works out.

Photo-A-Day #02707 We went to the Food Truck night over at Capron Park for dinner. This is an activity that we enjoy going to each time it comes to the park. So many great food trucks to choose from. I went with some Birria Tacos and Allison had a Birria burrito bowl. Andy went with meatball sliders and some fries from Friskies. Eva went with the standing order of General's chicken on Fries from Friskies. We ran into Eva's theater teacher, Mrs. Strunin and her family. Andy saw a friend from school, too. After dinner we got some desserts. Allison and I split the Fluffernutter churro and ice cream. Eva was full and Andy got some Dell's.   Later on we called cousin Dylan to wish him a Happy Birthday! Another teen in the family!

Photo-A-Day #02702 Tonight we went to see Andy's play: Shrek Jr. : The Musical. Andy ran the sound for the play and did a great job. Andy even had to play the slide whistle every time Pinocchio's nose grew. I think that was Andy's favorite part. Before the play Eva and I had a movie afternoon. We watched The Lost Boys because Eva is now obsessed with the new Broadway musical, The Lost Boys. So we had to watch the original so that Eva would see where the musical got the inspiration. I'd love to get own down to New York at some point and take the family to see the show. Don't know if we'll get a chance before Eva heads to college but that would be fun. After the play we went to Wetherlaines for dinner with Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim and Aunt Donna both went to see the play, too. Aunt Donna had to do some errand so she did not join us for dinner. It was a nice night and good meal. As we were there someone came screaming around with an electric bike as Uncle Jim was telli...

Photo-A-Day #02692 Today we celebrated Eva and their graduation from High School. We got food from Chub's Blue Pig BBQ as well as some burgers from Chartley Country Store. I have a ton of them left over and frozen, too. I bought 20, cooked 4 and two were eaten. W weren't sure if people would rather have that than the amazing BBQ of Chubb's. I also picked up a Crowd Pleaser of pretzels from Phill Pretzel Factory and a couple of their sweet dips. Allison made a salad and got a treat platter form BJ's as well as a half sheet cake. We had Eva's aunts Tara and Shelby there along with Uncle Erik and cousin Kylie. Great-aunt Donna came and so did Great-Uncle Richard. Our neighbor Joannie came over and so did Great-Aunt Corrine. Mem and Grandfather came to the party and so did Eva's friends Aviva and Ollie. Eva's theater director, Mrs. Strunin came to visit as well. Andy invited their girlfriend, Jazzy over to meet everyone too.  Before the party a package arrived f...

Photo-A-Day #02691 For the past 12 years Eva has had to follow a dress code and has had to have natural colored hair. Well, they graduated yesterday and today they were finally able to color their hair. Eva went with purple under their natural hair color. Overall it is pretty subtle and looks great on them. Time to live your authentic life, Eva! 

Photo-A-Day #02690 Today was Eva's High School Graduation. It was a wonderful celebration. We started off with the Baccalaureate Mass. That was from about 10:00 - 1:00 or so. Very long celebration but was really nice. Eva got to see many of her teachers afterwards and each one said some wonderful things to her. Her first year chem teacher is actually a woman who was a year ahead of me at Feehan.  After the Mass we went to the Doran Center for Eva's Senior Art show. Eva had some lovely peicves up to show. There was one piece missing and it was dead center of her display. We are not sure what happened to it either. Hopefully it will turn up. After the art show Mem and Grandfather went back to the Blackinton and we headed to SMSH so Eva would do a walk through to visit with her grade school teachers. We went home and I crashed out with a nap. For the graduation we had purchased a bunch of plastic ponchos because there was a chance of rain and we did not want to take the chance of ...

Photo-A-Day #02689 Tonight we went to The Blackinton Inn for dinner with Mem and Grandfather to celebrate Eva's upcoming graduation. I met up with everyone after work at the Pretzel Factory. I was there to work the closing. It was a good night at work.  Earlier in the day Eva had Grandparents day with Mem and Grandfather. They came up last night to stay at The Blackinton so that they were ready for this morning. Eva had a nice time with her grandparents showing them the school and enjoying the activities that the school had set up for them. While they were at their event I went to work (the full time job) to pick up my old laptop. They cleared it and reset it to that I could have it back to use personally. On the way back from there so that I could go to work I went and got my comics and I also stopped by target and while there I found some gifts for Eva for Graduation and I also went to Lowes and got her a tool kit. My dad had done that for Tara when Tara went off to college....

Photo-A-Day #02678 Our family was featured in the Bishop Feehan magazine called Cornerstone. They interviewed me, my mom, my sister Shelby and Eva. They interviewed a few other families as well about multi generational Feehan families. We each talked about our experiences at the school and the things that linked us to our time there like the theater. Eva and I did the most in theater except for my Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim, Aunt Luann and Uncle Richard were all mentioned in the article, too. I like how they put little family trees on each of the articles. There was also an article about the arts at Feehan and how the Choir, Band and Theater all had great events in March and Eva was mentioned by name.

Photo-A-Day #02676 Tonight was the induction ceremony for the National Junior Honor Society. Andy was inducted. We are very proud of how well Andy has done in school and he's excited for High School.  We've all been reading The Outsiders in the house. Eva read it first and then Andy and then me. Allison is reading it now and once she is done we have the movie from 1983 to watch. Andy's ELA class is now working on the Outsiders and from Andy it seems like his teacher didn't quite read it or get it. It was funny listening to Andy and Eva talking about the book and how major things about the book were being presented to Andy incorrectly but he knows the score so he's gonna do well with this book in school.

Photo-A-Day #02675 Today was Eva's last day at high school. She does have one more exam tomorrow but otherwise she is finished. I can't believe how quickly this all went. We're only a couple months out from college, too. She's been doing a bunch of things all on her own like planning trips with her friends. She even bought a couple tickets to a show near her college for October in plans to go with someone she makes friend with in college. That is great for her. She's also making a couple of online purchases and has finally started using a bit of her Summer Job money to enjoy it. I'm really proud about the concert ticket purchase that she made.

Photo-A-Day #02672 Today was Mother's Day. I had to sleep but the kids took care of Allison. Andy went to Church in the morning with Allison. We celebrated with a nice meal of swordfish and steak that I grilled for dinner.

Photo-A-Day #02641 I turned 52 today. When I came downstairs Allison showed me the fridge. Overnight one of the bottles of milk froze and exploded. I'm glad that I did not have work today because the whole morning was taken up with taking everything out of the fridge and cleaning up the spilled milk. Quite the metaphor for growing up Gen X. Not to cry over spilled milk because it can always be worse. Once the fridge was fully cleaned and everything was put back in I was able to get a little time to myself to relax. Played some Styx and some Fortnite and got to enjoy my new office chair. It had been far too long in replacing that one.  I headed over to have lunch with Mom and Dad. We ate at The Tavern. I had short ribs and mashed potatoes. They were excellent. Then I hung out in the Shaw's parking lot until it was time to pick up Eva. Running home would not have made much sense. So I picked up Eva and we headed home. Mom and Dad finished all their errands and then met us at the ...

Photo-A-Day #02637 We spent our Easter on Cape Cod with Mem and Grandfather. I finished work today at 7am and went right to bed thinking that I would wake up around 11 like I normally do but I slept until everyone got back from church. I heard the alarm on the door go off and that woke me. I was so zonked out that once my head hit the pillow I was out plus it is The Cape so the air makes me sleep all the longer. When I woke up we hung out a bit and then had a very tasty Easter lunch with the ham that I got from work. That is our Christmas gift from the company. I've gotten many things like that over the years for Christmas and this year decided on ham because we never need the turkey after Christmas and I'd rather not have it take up space in the freezer for a long time. This way we get a really good ham for our Easter and the freezer gets some space. Later in the afternoon my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne came by to visit. We enjoyed visiting with them and then we headed home in ...

Photo-A-Day #02636 We are on the Cape for the Easter holiday. We got down and had lunch then I took a nap before work. Got up and we had pizza from Paul's for dinner. Andy had everyone watching Atlantis: The Lost Empire after dinner. Andy has been watching lots of old Disney animated movies. I like that Andy has been exploring these old movies. After dinner I set up for work. When I am anywhere but home I have to set up a ton of stuff including an additional screen. I completely overtook the sun porch table. I have it all down to a science. My parent's got a new router and that has caused a few things to stop working. Mainly the Sonos speaker. I figured that out and got that working again so now they can play whatever music they like from Spotify. Then there was the general updates for my dad's computer and also trying to figure out why Quicken accounts were looking all sorts of strange with charges showing as credits and vice versa. I think I got that figured as well.

Photo-A-Day #02630 This afternoon we had lunch with Tar and Erik at Morins. We went for the meal and the advice on college funding. We're working on how to fund Eva's first year of college. We're in that "No need" level of college funding and that means taking out plenty of loans. So we are working on how to best do that. So I've got a lot of research to do to get the best rates I can for loans and we are also looking at scholarships. while we were there Erik told us about how much he has fond memories of the Charlie Burger and how he and his grandparents used to split them whenever they went there. They liked the renovations that were made to the place. I told them that they had to see the sign on the side of the building, it really gives the place a great look. Before we went to lunch Mem and Grandfather stopped over to congratulate Eva on her award at the METG Festival.

Photo-A-Day #02629 Tonight we celebrated my sister Tara for her 50th birthday. Erik hosted the event at The Blackinton Inn's carriage house. We had an excellent meal, appetizers and good conversations. Many of Tara's friends came for the party. A few I have not seen in years and it was so nice to see them.  We sat with Mem and Grandfather as well as their friends Heather and Brian Johnson. I spent time chatting with my cousin Matt, Brian, Tim and a few other people. It was full of Tara's good friends that have been friends of hers for so many years. Great to see most of them had come to see and celebrate her. And speaking of Celebrating, we are celebrating a big win for Eva. She won an award for Technical Excellence in Costume Design from the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild tonight. We were watching along with the livestream but couldn't really see much of anything. We did see Eva go up to present an award for Weymouth High School. Later in the video she receive...

Photo-A-Day #02616 Today was the sixth performance of The Winter Wolf and I have to say it was probably my best one so far. I didn't mess up a single line (too badly). I did not freeze and forget a line either. Before each show I listen and speak my lines based on the read through that we did. I took the read through and cut it down to just my lines and the lines before mine so that I could practice. I listen to and use that almost every day. Before each performance I put my headphones in and go off somewhere (usually behind the stage) and practice them to make sure that they are fresh in my head before each show.  Today my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne came to see the show. Allison came again to see it and so did my sister Shelby and my niece Kylie. Emma who plays Cora is near Kylie's aga, a little older but she teases me very much like my own niece. I tell her that.  After the performance we went to House of Fortune for an early dinner. Thank you to my Aunt and Uncle for a grea...

Photo-A-Day #02572 The other day when we had a snow day and spent the evening watching The Lord of The Rings Eva and Andy really enjoyed the movie and wanted to continue watching the rest of the movies in the trilogy. Allison was out for the night and the kids decided to have a movie night, just the two of them. they watched The Two Towers, the second movie in the trilogy and plan to watch the third movie tomorrow night. It was really nice to see the two of them enjoying each other's company and a movie together. This afternoon we had a Zoom birthday party for Mem. She and Grandfather are down in Florida and Tara set up the Zoom so we could all get together to wish her a happy birthday.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02568 Today we enjoyed a snow day. We got a about 15 inches of snow overnight and through the day. I finished work and slept for a couple of hours and when I got hup Andy, Allison and Eva had all gone out to shovel to the driveway and try to get over to Joanie's driveway to shovel her out. Luckily her other neighbor had already gone ahead and shoveled her out. I got up around 10:30 and went out and did the snowblower on the sidewalks and our driveway and back patio.  After the snow we had lunch and then played Andy's new board game. It is called Hues and Cues. The point is to describe a color in one or two words and that allows the players to guess which color you are trying to describe. Then players can score points by guessing the correct color or by being close. Andy is great at being able to put color hues together but they did not end up winning the game. That went to me. After the game we decided to watch a movie. At first we were going to watch Spaceball...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02552 Today was Allison's birthday. We celebrated by going to the Colonel Blackinton Inn for dinner. Dinner was taken care of by a Christmas gift card and another gift card that Allison received from school. We had an excellent meal. Andy got adventurous and then realized that they really did not like spinach. Allison got her favorite which was butternut squash ravioli. Eva went with chicken parm and I went with the Wedge salad and short ribs and asparagus. Both Allison and Andy also had French Onion soup. We were seated in one of the small rooms in the back and hard it mostly to ourselves. It was a lovely dinner with good conversation and a chance to celebrate Allison. When we came home we had some cake that was left over from Allison's birthday celebration last night with friend and also some cupcakes that Andy baked last night. It was a nice time.