BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #0700 Crayola sent us a free review unit of the Paint and Pour Washable Art Set for us to review. Opinions are our own. The Paint and Pour Washable Art Set is a great way for kids to enjoy the art of pouring paint and not make a giant mess. The kit gives you everything you need to get started. The set includes (10) 2 Oz Paints (5 Colors), (3) 6 x 6 Canvases, Paint Tray, Beaker, Pouring Base, Strainer, and 3 Stir Sticks. To start off you have to mix the paints with a little water to make them flow smoothly. The instructions give you the details on how to do this. I had Andy mix up each of the five colors (red, yellow, blue, purple and white) in the beaker. I cleaned it between each color mixing. Once he was done he put the colors into the beaker to get it ready for pouring. Andy then poured the mixture through the strainer onto the canvas and tilted it this way and that to cover the whole canvas. We did cover the table but the paint was mostly contained by the pain...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00699 Today I helped my Dad and sisters do some more cleaning out of our old house. I thought that I had everything of my own out of the house but I decided that there was one thing more that I would like. My mother calls it a “Hall Tree” and it has stood in our hall all my life. My dad explained to me that it was something that he wanted from his grandfather. He ended up having to buy it through an auction but it stayed in the family. Now it will stand in our hallway. It is almost a perfect fit.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00698 We returned home from the Cape today and as with all years our Elf on the Shelf, Fitzy is waiting for us. This year is different, though. Fitzy is quarantined for 14 days as his note explains. Therefore, he cannot move about the house until the 14 days are up. Once they are I bet he’ll have some interesting things in store for the kids.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00697 When we went to the Cape this Summer we would take a daily walk. This morning we took our walk and it was such a nice and calm morning. The water was so calm and flat. There was this one wooden boat that was blue and the reflection was almost perfect. I snapped a few extra photos of it. I love the look of this photo and the framing. It was nearly the last boat in the water. The way it was reflecting was really amazing to me. I try and frame things naturally with little cropping but I did upload this photo to Instagram and gave it a little boost with filters. It is also cropped and zoomed a bit. What do you think? I also took a photo from the opposite viewpoint. This one captures the sun and the clouds overheard And then you can see two boats. We had a nice day on the Cape. Hung out and relaxed and then tonight we watched Jingle All The Way and had a visit from Auntie Tara and uncle Erik. The kids were thrilled.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00696 It certainly was a different sort of Thanksgiving this year. While we did go down to the Cape to visit with my parents, which we do yearly, it was a more distanced sort of event. Everyone was keenly aware of the pandemic and we spent much of the time inside. Allison and I did go for daily walks along Great Bay but we had our masks at the ready all through the walk. We had a great meal together. Mom was able to secure a turkey for us from The Windfall along with all the fixins and this was one of the better turkeys that we have had. I ate so much more than I have in the past few years. Not sure why but I enjoyed it more, I guess. It was a nice day all around. We watched the parade and the highlights of parades past. We watched the movie The Christmas Chronicles 2 on Netflix and it was a fun movie. We watched Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey last night and that was really nice. Great music and dancing. In order to fully appreciate the holiday season we trie...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00695 Chronicle Books provided us with a free LEGO Minifig puzzle to check out and review. Opinions are my own. One of the big things around Thanksgiving for us is going to Cape Cod to visit my parents. We have seen them many times during the pandemic and we live in the same state so we stayed safe and were able to visit. Putting together a puzzle during the Thanksgiving weekend is one thing that we enjoy doing together. I will mention that I ended up putting most of the puzzle together because it was sort of my own Zen Time. Once I got into the zone of making the puzzle I just kept at it. The puzzle itself was very good quality and the pieces fit easily and were or decent size and shape. I liked how the box included a resealable bag for the pieces. I also liked that there was a picture of the completed puzzle inside the box and on both the back and the front. This makes it very helpful when several people are working on the puzzle at once. As always, when doing ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00694 Super Impulse sent me one of their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Micro action figures for free. Opinions are my own. Back at Toy far I saw tons of different toys but the 80’s kid in me was drawn to the Micro Action figures that Super Impulse was producing. they’ve already sent me several of these toys but the recently helped nearly complete my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collection by sending me the Michelangelo figure. He joins his brothers Donatello and Leonardo. I am now only missing Raphael. This is a great little figure of Mikey from the 80’s cartoon. He comes with a pair of nunchucks and a little clear stand to so that the figure can be posed. There are 3 points of articulation on the figure. Arms and head can move. Great detail on a figure so small, too. The packaging is great and the mini blister card keychain is great, too. I would advise that if you are going to carry this around as a keychain that you secure the back of the package with a little ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00693 Earlier this year Playmobil release the Back to the Future DeLorean with Marty and Doc Brown and a ton of great accessories. They even released a two pack of Marty and Doc brown in 1955. These were fantastic sets and as a huge fan of the movie I was excited when they sent these to me. Well, this year for Advent Playmobil produced a Back to the Future Advent Calendar. I bought it for myself because it has so many fun things inside.  I decided that I wanted to make an unboxing video of the set and so I created this video below that goes through the entire unboxing. You do not have to watch the whole thing and get spoiled. You can go back each day through the Advent season and see what I reveal. I added timestamps for each day’s unboxing.

  We received a free review copy of Playin’ Possum from Amigo Games to play with and review. Opinions are our own. Simple games are fun for quick play. When I was at Toy Fair I learned how to play Playing Possum and it was a quick and simple game. Essentially you are playing a Rock, Paper Scissors type of game but you are also trying to fake out the people that you ae paying with and trying to grab as much trash as you can. You can play this with up to 10 people and so it is good for social interaction. You can also play the game with two people, there are many possibilities. The entire game arrives in a little plastic trash bin with working rolling wheels. I think that that is what attracted me immediately to the game, the unique way in which it was packaged. It was so different. Then I played and really enjoyed it. I played with Andy and Eva a couple of times at home and the kids liked it, too. You can learn more about the game on the Amigo Games website.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00692 Andy turned 9 today. Yesterday on my Facebook memories a post came up of the day before Andy was born 9 years ago. At that time I wasn’t sure how I was going to adjust to being a father of two. I took that day to take Eva out and do some special things with her. I won’t say that adjusting to having Andy in our lives was completely smooth. It wasn’t. I was adjusting to a new job, new house and the new baby. He wasn’t a sleeper and not a cuddler. He was constantly moving and screaming. So much screaming on both of our parts. He was tough to bathe and I dreaded bath time because there was always the screaming. But, we adjusted and settled into our new lives together. I was very fortunate to be able to spend as much time as I did with Andy when he was little. Taking him to play group and then school and spending all week with him while Allison went to work and Eva to school. we watched movies and had lots of time playing with toys. Now he is nine and he loves t...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00691 This pandemic certainly has put a damper on my toy collecting. Sure I still collect some toys but I am not in the stores nearly enough to catch things when they come out. I was lucky enough to be in Walmart the other day and I caught these awesome new Marvel Themed Hot Wheels. These are not character cars but rather cars with a MArvel theme and the theme is Maximum Venom. This theme takes Marvel super heroes and “venomizes” them. So we have Spider-Man, Iron Man, Groot, Captain America and Doctor Strange. I love it when I am there and all of the series is available. It drives me nuts when I miss out on one from a set. So, while I was able to get each of these I am having a hard time completing the Disney character cars that came out recently. There are actually two sets in this photo, There are two cars from Series 6 and four from Series 7. So I figure that series 6 got released early on in the pandemic and series 7 was released recently. I’m missing 4 cars ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00690 Funko Games sent us two of their upcoming additions to the Marvel BattleWorld game series for free to play with and review. Opinions are our own. This Summer Andy and I got into playing a lot of Marvel BattleWorld from Funko Games. I loved it for the cool collectible characters that you can get in the battle balls and he loved the strategy of the game and just getting to play over and over. Well, since the game has a lot to do with Thanos and there are special Thanos Stones that are part of the game it is no wonder that Thanos has shown up in collectible figure form. He’s even got his own ship that doubles as a dice tower! We also see another Marvel villain with a special travel portal. Ultron is already in the game but this new Ultron with special travel portal gives us a repainted Ultron that is gold and a special travel portal that kids can clip to their school bags to take their Marvel BattleWorld figures along with them. The new travel portal is cool a...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00689 I picked up Andy’s cookies today from dp cookeez. We’ve got a birthday parade scheduled for this Sunday and he’ll be handing out cookies to friends as they drive past. When we discussed the cookies that he wanted he had all sorts of ideas that were way out there but I showed him a narwhal that had been made previously and suggested that we get narwhals too but with bowties. He agreed and this is how they came out. They are adorable and some of the best tasting cookies ever. I cannot wait to have one.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00688 Playmobil provided us with a free review unit of their Jumbo Advent Calendar. Opinions are our own. The kids love Advent calendars and are so excited to open them every year. This year Andy has a special Advent calendar from Playmobil. The Stunt Show Jumbo Advent Calendar is packed with great pieces, vehicles and figures to play with. The set arrives as one big box but as a parent I want Andy to have the full experience of the Advent Calendar and so I don’t want any of the days spoiled so I opened the set so that there were two boxes. One box contains the truck and trailer and the other box is the advent calendar itself. You see the larger box actually shows you the items that are inside and what days your child gets each item. I don’t want Andy to know that until he opens each day’s window. You can see more about this awesome advent calendar in the video below and if you are looking to get one for yourself then you can do so through the Playmobil website.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00687 Bloxels sent us a free review unit of their Game Studio Kit. Opinions Are Our Own. Back when I was 10 years old I had a TI 994A computer which was basically a keyboard that I attached to a TV and used a tape recorder to save anything I created. It took thousands of lines of code to make an 8 pixel X 8 Pixel character dance. I would have lost my mind if I had access to Bloxels as a kid. If I was able to use this I would have been creating all sorts of video games! Now I have the chance to do this with my son, Andy. With Bloxels you have access to creating characters, game levels, storylines, backgrounds and more. It all depends upon your imagination and how long you want to put in the work. For a kid who enjoys making things on games like Minecraft they will easily pick up how to create games and levels with Bloxels. With the Game Studio Kit you get a Bloxels account so that you can build your own video games, save them and share them so that other people ca...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00686 Super Impulse sent me a free Battle Cat from their Micro Action Figures Line. Opinions are my own. Growing up I did not own any Masters of the Universe toys. My best friend had the whole line and so I would go to his house and play He-Man with him. He had everything there could possibly be for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and I really enjoyed playing with those toys with my friend. Now that I am older I find myself thinking back on how much fun I had with tose toys and I am glad that super Impulse has made the Micro Action Figures line. Because of that I have some sweet He-Man and Teela figures in their own little mini boxes and I now have Battle Cat! Battle Cat arrived in a larger box because this is a figure that He-Man can ride on. Battle Cat has removable armor and a removable helmet. he legs and tail move and so does the head. Now I need to find Skeletor!

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00685 We received this t-shirt for free. Opinions are our own. A little while back I received an email detailing a ton of great Dungeons and Dragons gear including a t-shirt that had the classic cartoon cast on it. I loved that show when I was younger and want to introduce Eva to it now because she has such an interest in DMing games herself. We’ve played several games that are close to Dungeons and Dragons and are put out by Wizards of the Coast like Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins and Dungeon Mayhem: Monsters and Mayhem and also Tiny Dungeon but we have yet to do a real D&D campaign. Eva did some this Summer with friends and she wants to do more. When she does she’ll be wearing this shirt.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00684 Our morning walk was pretty chilly today. There was a slick layer of frost on the wooden bridge that is pat of the Riverwalk. We penguin walked down that bridge to prevent falls. While we were walking along the river the mist was rising and the sun was coming through the trees. A Pair of ducks floated along down the river and it looked really nice. so I stopped and snapped the photo above. that serene moment was quite a contrast with last night. Crazy night at work which also included a capture of a live mouse in the house. Our cats are useless when it comes to mousing. James brought the mouse up to Eva’s room. She thought it was dead but it was just pretending. I trapped it and then it got out and went right under the bed. Thank goodness we have Eva’s bed propped up on risers. I cleared things out from under the bed and was able to capture the mouse in a container and bring it outside. Once I got back in the house and to my computer and back to work Facebo...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00683 STEM Lab Kids sent us a free review unit for Walter the Walking Robot to assemble and review. Opinions are our own. Today was a home day for the kids in their hybrid schooling. Usually this means that Andy completes all his work quickly and spends lots of time in front of screens. For the most part I let him because I have my own work to do and can’t be entertaining him 24/7. Today was a little different because we had an activity to do together that did not involve screens at all. Together we assembled Walter the Walking Robot from STEM Lab Kids. You may remember that this Summer Andy and I worked on the Copper Tape Circuits activity from STEM Lab Kids. This is a new product from the same folks. Walter the Walking Robot is a kit that kids can assemble on their own and then decorate. The materials included in the kit are a motor, screws, laser cut wooden pieces and stickers to decorate Walter. He even has googly eyes! The product is for ages 12 and up but a...

Super Impulse sent me a free review copy of their Micro Arcade game The Oregon Trail. Back in the 80’s computer class consisted of playing The Oregon Trail. That was it. We’d do computers like once a month and we would be able to play The Oregon Trail. In this game you have the task of taking your family of 5 from Independence Missouri to Oregon. It was near impossible to do. You had to keep track of supplies, clothing, oxen, ammunition and the ever present dysentery. Most 80’s kids know the sting of suddenly dying of dysentery along The Oregon Trail. It happened to me often enough. Now you do not need a big honking Tandy 80 from Radio Shack to experience that pain, you can carry it in your pocket. As you can see. But in all seriousness it is a great little piece of nostalgia that you can take along with you and play whenever you’d like. Who knows, you might be able to cross a river and not lose half your supplies, your wife and some oxen. You may be able to survive harsh Winters and m...