BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00731 In many ways 2020 was the worst year ever. However, if I look closer at the year and what it has given us It hasn’t been without good points. Allison and I are both working and because of our jobs we have been able to care for the kids as they have their hybrid learning schedule. This year brought many challenges to our fitness. When the pandemic shut down gyms and our dojo we were able to continue to train via Zoom. Slowly we were able to go back to the mats and continue our training. This year Eva started training in Jr. Krav Maga and she has embraced it with such joy. She loves training and is having a good time with her friends. Andy is continuing to make strides in the right direction, too. While he is not as enthusiastic about training he goes and does the best he can. I have gotten very serious about working on the next level. Within this coming year I may even be eligible to test for my Black Belt. I have a very long road ahead and have to get my fi...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00730 Doodlematic sent me a free Mobile Game Maker kit to try out and review. Opinions are my own. Finding creative things for kids to do on their iPads and other devices can be tricky. There are so many mindless video games out there for them to play over and over. But what if kids as young as 6 years old can create their own games? With Doodlematic they aren’t just doing the simple mindless things, but rather they are engaging their minds and creativity to turn their hand drawn creations to digital life. Doodlematic was one of the most innovative and interesting things I saw at Toy Fair last February. When I walked by the booth they were handing out playable cookies. What are playable cookies you ask? they were cookies with an image on them that you could scan into the Doodlematic game and then play that image as a video game. They also handed out small Doodlematic kits that allowed you to play a mini version of the game and create your own games. Here’s how it...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00729 Today we were finally able to go to Cape Cod and visit with my parents and my sister and her husband. We couldn’t go down the day after Christmas as we had planned, nor stay the night. although, with our bedroom covered in things from my parent’s old house I don’t think we could have even slept there if we wanted to. We got going early and made it down by 10:15 or so. We hung out in our masks just in case 14 days was not long enough. We enjoyed seeing all of the decorations and finding those that we used to put up on the giant tree at my parent’s old house. This year was going to be a different one anyway, without the virus lurking. This would be the first year where Christmas would be at The Cape. Well, it did not happen as we had hoped but it makes for a better transition for next year where the new traditions will begin. I do hope that we are able to stay for a day or two and enjoy more down time and Christmas fun together. I’ve got the perfect puzzle to...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00728 I found all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Monster Trucks at Target today. Now there are Character cars, Character themed cars and now Monster Trucks that are themed like the turtles. The only ones I have not gotten yet are the Monster trucks that look more like the turtles or a character car as a Monster Truck. I did find a Hot Wheels of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s van, the Party Wagon. It looks really cool!

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00727 Andy made even more clay things today and one of them is a clay ninja that he made for our Karate Dojo.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00726 Andy and Eva got modeling clay for Christmas and all Christmas day Andy asked over and over if he could use it. We wanted him to take a moment and think out exactly what he wanted to make with the clay. He has a tendency to ear through new things and then lose interest plus we were doing other things on Christmas day so we wanted him to have something else to do later in the vacation. Later came today. Andy was so excited about the clay and all the things that he was going to make that he had a hard time sleeping last night so we suggested that he write out ideas in a journal so that the ideas could get out of his head and he could sleep. He was able to do that and before he got started with the clay he drew a few pictures of what he wanted to do. When I came down this morning he had already finished making the baby Jesus. By the time I had left the house later in the day he had completed the whole Holy Family. He was going to make it as an ornament but it ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00725 Our Christmas day was pretty relaxed. We got up late and opened gifts. We had our cinnamon rolls after all the gifts were opened. It was a lighter year this year Some gifts did not arrive on time and some were for things and experiences in the future. Last year Allison and I gave each other some fun gifts for events but they did not happen because of the virus. Also, because of the virus we were home. We did not venture down to the Cape to spend time with my parents and sister and brother-in-law. We stayed put and had a nice day, we did do Zoom calls for both sides of the family. The kids were excited about their gifts. Andy got a new controller for the Nintendo Switch and Eva got a Dungeons & dragons starter set and she is very excited about that. The kids got me some Hot Wheels and I got Allison some sewing lessons. Eva also got Andy some Jingle Bell socks and he enjoyed wearing them all day long so he jingled while he walked. Eva would like to do a D...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00724 This Christmas was a little different than past years. Or Rather, it was a lot different. We have been in quarantine since the 15th because of a close contact and therefore our plans to head to Cape Cod for Christmas day and spend it with my parents and sister Tara and Uncle Erik were gone out the window. That still would have been a different Christmas but it would have been closer to normal. For the past few years we have hosted Christmas eve dinner after the 4pm Christmas Eve vigil at Sacred Heart Church. This year we got dressed up and watched Mass on Facebook Live. It was still at Sacred Heart Church but it was sad that we could not be there in the church itself. We still had the delicious chicken stew that Allison makes each year but it was a table set for 4 people. We did get dressed for dinner and had a very nice meal. The kids enjoyed just being able to be at the house. Allison and I enjoyed being able to keep the whole house clean or in the semi c...

  DC Kids sent us a selection of their fantastic graphic novels for kids for free to check out and enjoy. Opinions are our own. Getting Andy to read can be a tough job but we are all about encouraging him to read more. Luckily DC Kids sent us a great bunch of new graphic novels for kids and he has been tearing through them like nobody’s business. The first one he read was We Found a Monster which comes out on January 12, 2021. We wrote a separate post just on that book. He loved the style of Kirk Scroggs and so the second one he wanted to read was The Secret Spiral of Swamp Boy which was part of the DC Graphic Novels for Kids Box Set 1 and that set also includes Dear Justice League, Superman of Smallville and Black Canary: Ignite. Rounding out the package from DC Kids was Teen Titans Go to Camp. These graphic novels are great for kids. They are filled with lots of laughs and awesome art. I love that Andy is diving into comics and comic book characters because I have a ton of comics...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00723 On the Eve of Christmas Eve we enjoyed some family time today. The later afternoon was spent watching some of the Christmas classics. We watched Frosty where Eva pointed out that all the kids were wearing shorts in the snow. I never noticed that before. Then we watched Rudolph and saw how mean even Santa was to Rudolph until he needed him. Next was Santa Claus is Coming to Town to which Andy said that the movie was just ripping off the song. Finally we got to A Charlie Brown Christmas where it was just Allison and I left watching. Linus’ speech was as effective as ever. I love that special so much. I think we may have started with that one next time. It is the most meaningful of them all. We’re getting ready for the next few days where we will be staying home. No visits to friends or family this year. Just us. We have a tree and have decorated it. The kids have decorated their mini trees and gotten their special ornaments. We have the annual family photo or...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00722 Each year since 2009 I’ve purchased the Hallmark Family photo ornament. I’m wish I had been buying these ever since 2008. As we were decorating the tree Eva was giving us some grief that there was not baby’s first Christmas ornament with her on it. We have two of Andy but none of her. I don’t know why we don’t have one of her when I took 26,000 photos of Eva in her first year. I guess some scouring of eBay soon will be in order. When we were deciding which picture to use we did consider using a photo of all of us wearing masks. That would represent 2020 but in the end we used the photo of all of us in or Christmas pajamas because it was the best family photo we had for 2020.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00721 Yesterday Eva made 4 stuffed froggies. I posted a photo of 3 of them with our frog but I did not post the 4th one because that was a gift for the folks at America’s Best Defense. Today we gave the team at ABD a gift bag with some special cookies, thank you cards and the new ABD mascot. Eva made the frog out of one of my extra Krav Maga shirts. She even made a little red belt for the frog. The team loved the little guy. I am so proud of her talent and creativity.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00720 Eva was quite busy today with many sewing projects. She went and made three stuffed froggies. Just because. The green frog that she made reminded me of our Froggy’s Lair frog. It was very flat like the African Dwarf Frog. At dinner we were talking about the sewing that she did and we also discussed something that we were giving to the staff at ABD. She said that she’d make a little frog with a karate belt. I told her that I had an extra Krav shirt and she could use it to make a special frog for ABD. She made a great one. I’ll have to get a photo of that tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00719 ThinkFun sent us an early sample of their latest Brain Teaser, Block Chain, for free to check out and review. Opinions are our own. The Block Chain™ Brainteaser game from ThinkFun is a rather interesting one. We selected their Pirates themed set. There will also be unicorns and robot themed sets. Inside the package are three cubes, each made of three 4 paneled cubes that are moved and manipulated around to show something specific. Each cube has a different solution. The easiest cube is the first one where you either show a treasure chest or what is inside the treasure chest. The next and more challenging cube has you solve by having six different colors and six different symbols showing for a correct solution. The final cube is the hardest and the one I have not been able to solve… yet. This cube has a maze on it like a treasure map with 4 different trails of varying colors. You must solve the cube and have every trail connected to the correct colors. Each ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00718 I should start calling Fitzy Snitchy the Elf since he sold me out over my office. I have this sign on the door that I light up when I am making videos. Most of the time those videos are about Video Games so I do often play video games in the office. Still, Fitzy did not need to draw attention to that fact. We had a nice day today. I took Andy for a haircut and of course forgot to get a picture of how handsome he is looking. We then went to Target to shop for a gif for Allison and I got him lunch along the ride home. Speaking of Video Games, when I got home I was back at work on some gameplay videos. We had to finish up so that we could all watch The Croods: A New Age tonight because I had a Twitter Party invitation to attend. It was a really funny movie. Andy and I were howling at it. We enjoyed it very much.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00717 We had our first snowfall today. It actually began falling last night and then continued today until around 1pm. School let the kids have the rest of the week off to have their first Snow Day of the Winter. The snow was a mix between heavy and freezing. When I went out at 8am there were some tough moments but overall that old snowblower still kept churning. I ended up doing 17,000 steps for the day between doing our driveway and sidewalks and my neighbor’s two driveways and sidewalk there was a lot of ground to cover. The snow sapped everyone’s energy. We played a few more rounds of Rummikub and then hung out and relaxed. I went out one last time before dinner and cleared anything else that had piled up. There wasn’t much but the ends of the driveways where the plows snowed everything in.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00716 The kids decorated their mini trees tonight. They are so full of excitement over the snow happening tomorrow. It began snowing around 8pm tonight and we saw it coming down after we finished playing Rummikub together. We ended up playing that for a while because it was our first time through but by the end of the game we got the hang of it. This year the kids got special ornaments. After years of princesses and such Eva got a Black Widow ornament and she was thrilled! Andy got Buddy the Elf with Mr. Narwhal and it makes noise. So Andy absolutely loves that aspect of the ornament. Apparently with a snow storm on the way Andy figures it is the best day to wear a sleeveless shirt.

Bright Stripes sent us their latest in their spa line of natural beauty goods for free to check out and review. Opinions are our own. Eva has been experimenting with her hair and makeup recently. I knew that she would be all over some body art. The Bright Stripes Spa*rkle Rainbow Festival Body Art ($19.99) is a set of 6 rainbow colored tattoo markers, 4 colors of shimmer cream, 10 stencil stickers, 25 sticky gems, and easy instructions. Eva used the markers to give her self some tattoos from her favorite shows and books. There were stencils in the set but she always does her own thing. She also enjoys using her brother as a canvas. He enjoys that as well. Here is Eva’s finished artwork. I think that Eva would also like to try out the Spa*rkle Hair Chalk Pastels and Barrettes Set ($14.99) is a fun way to add temporary color to a few strands of hair or go bold with purple, blue or metallic pink hair stripes. She had green hair this Summer but cannot have colored hair at school. With this...

  Goliath Games sent us a free review unit of Rummikub Premium. Opinions are my own. We tried our hands at a game new to us tonight. Rummikub is a fast paced family game that you play with numbered tiles. The tiles in the premium set are very high quality and great for play. They are engraved and come with a storage bag. Those tiles go onto the premium tile racks. The maximum number of players is 4 so for a family of four this is a perfect game. It is also for ages 8 and up so great for Andy who makes mathematical connections really well. It did take us a few turns to really figure out the best way to play the game. However, once we got going we were trying all sorts of things to make different groups and runs. You need to have a good strategy and lots of luck to win this game. We only played one game but we have 4 more to go tomorrow and it will be perfect for us to enjoy on a snowy day.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00715 Today was a day to celebrate the hard work it took to accomplish earning a new rank in our Karate and Krav Maga classes. Each of us advanced to our next rank. Eva has earned her third belt. She’s our newest student in the family and she is loving her classes. She really taking her training seriously. She has even set up a workout routine to do each night. She lights up on Krav days or when she remembers that she has class. Andy has earned the rank of advanced brown. This is where he and I diverged in our belts being the same color. Adults go from brown to red then advanced red. Karate kids go from brown to advanced brown then to red. Either way we each have about a year before we test for our black belts. Andy did an excellent job on his test. He enjoyed learning how to use nunchuks this time around. I think this is his best work yet. As for me I earned my red belt. I’m coming up on two years at America’s Best Defense. It has been a major challenge for me. ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00714 It seems that everyone went and bought their live Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving this year. We went to Attleboro Farms and when we got there they had 10 trees left. They had 800 to start with. So, our tree is probably the tiniest tree we have ever gotten. It is also super skinny. But that is what we had to choose from. We’ll make it work. It just means we put a few fewer ornaments on the tree. Only the most important ones will make it on the tree.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00713 With the kids home from school 2 to 3 days a week we have to come up with fun things to occupy their time that do not involve screens. When I was offered the chance to review Yo Ring I thought it was a great idea. So we were sent some free packages of Yo Ring to check out. The Yo Ring is a silicone disc that fits in the palm of your hand. It is meant for flight and for playing a dynamic game of catch. There is a hole in the middle of the Yo Ring and so you are supposed to catch it on your finger. It takes a bit of coordination to be able to do it but it is the trying that is the most fun. You can also easily toss it around and catch it in your hands any way you want. The Yo Ring comes from a teen inventor. He started our with a metal ring that he had in his pocket and tossed to a friend. They made a game out of it and then after discovering that the metal ring was a bit painful he experimented with 20 different materials and ended up with Silicone to get th...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00712 Let’s Start Coding sent us a free Code Rocket to play with and review. Opinions are our own. A hile back Let’s Start coding contacted me about doing a review of their Code Car and Eva and I worked on that together. Eva enjoyed it so much that she brought the Code Car to school and showed her class how it worked. They next sent us the Ultimate Kit II which she also enjoyed. Recently they got in touch with me again and offered us the Code Rocket. This time Andy helped me out with the review. Andy and I have been doing a lot of things on his iPad with regards to coding. We’ve made video games and more. With the Code Rocket he has 20 projects to do through the free software that teaches him the basics of coding with C++. Andy took to this right away and was figuring out how to do the challenges of each project with very little prompting from me. The Code Rocket looks really cool and it has lots of lights and even sound effects. This retails for $50 and is great...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00711 Safari Ltd. Gave me a free Wizard Dragon way back in March. I have been terrible about getting this review up. I had grand, grand plans to build a dice tower and make a video about that because the Wizard Dragon was meant to be the top for our dice tower. However, when the dice tower arrived it was miniscule compared to this guy. I recently got into paint pouring and I was inspired! The colors of the Wizard dragon are incredible and I went out and picked up a bunch of metallic paints to create a paint pouring inspired by the colors of this dragon. I still want to build a dice tower and put this dragon at the top of it, but that will have to wait. Safari Ltd. also gave me a discount code for my readers and YouTube viewers that gets them 20% off of their purchase. They make some incredible figures and I highly recommend them, especially the dragons. You can go to the Safari Ltd. Website and enter the code DREW for your 20% off. Using my link will let them kno...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00710 DC Entertainment sent me a free review copy of the graphic novel We Found a Monster by Kirk Scroggs.  I have been looking for books that will keep Andy’s interest and having a tough time. When I saw this book as an option for me to review I jumped at it and was glad that I did. The book has enough silly humor to it that it makes Andy laugh and continue to read page after page. When we go to karate each week Andy always asks me if he can bring his iPad or Switch so he can play while his sister has her class. I always say no and have him take a book instead. He usually brings a short one and is done in minutes. Today he brought We Found a Monster and it held his attention for most of the class. Another sign that it was a good book is that he kept telling me parts of it as he read. When your kid is telling you about the book he is reading that means that he is engaged. An engaged reader will keep reading and want to read more. So, if a book gets my nine y...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00709 Funko sent me their upcoming Funko Pop! Ad Icons figure Punchy, the mascot for Hawaiian Punch for free to check out and review. I took it a step further and was inspired to create a paint pour based on the colors of Punchy. This was my very first paint pour of this kind. I picked up special canvases at Target and used the Crayola Paint and Pour Art Set that Crayola sent us for free as well. I then got some paints and pouring medium and got to work mixing and pouring. I made a video of it. I think that in the future I will use far less black as that overpowered everything. I’m still learning this technique but will continue to improve over time. I plan to do many more of these.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00708 Eva is so interested in Dungeons & Dragons. We were given a couple of great t-shirts and a hoodie for free recently. I showed you the one with the classic D&D cartoon characters. We also received a special dragon from Safari Limited. This is the Wizard Dragon. I received this for free as well a while back. I picked this because it would be fantastic for us to play Dungeons and Dragons together. I think this should be on top of a dice tower. I ordered a dice tower for Eva to build and it was so small so the dragon was towering over the tower. If you are thinking of some Dungeons and Dragons gifts for your friends and family I can help you our. I have links below to Amazon.com for the Dungeons and Dragons T-Shirts.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00707 Our favorite BBQ place in the area, Chub’s Blue Pig BBQ, had a special pop up even at their place. They did a Southern Fried Chicken and Waffles in conjunction with The Burgundian. The fried chicken was so good and paired with the Burgundian Liege Style Belgian waffle it was amazing. I messed up, though and did not pre-order. So I camped on the phone like I used to to request songs from 92 PRO FM. I got my call in immediately and was able to order 4 orders of the chicken and waffles. I missed out on getting the sides so I picked up some sides at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Everyone had a great time with dinner.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00706 Super Impulse has sent me quite few of their World’s Smallest series of Tiny Arcade video games. They recently sent me a free World’s Smallest version of Tiny Arcade Mappy.  Mappy is one of those early 80’s games that was put out by the makers of Pac-Man, NAMCO. It was even made on the Namco Super Pac-Man hardware modified to support horizontal scrolling. The game features a police mouse called Mappy who is retrieving items that were stolen by several cats, Meowkie. Mappy must not get caught by the cats or he dies. The stolen items are within a mansion that has several floors. Mappy gets from floor to floor by jumping on a trampoline. He can get to different floors on the way up but not the way down and if he uses the trampoline too many times it breaks. This is an entertaining game and requires timing and skill. Mappy can run around on the floors and open doors that can momentarily stun the Meowkies. Blue doors when opened shoot a microwave at the Meo...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00705 Apple TV + invited us to screen the upcoming movie Wolfwalkers and have a drawing event for the kids for which they provided a box of goodies for free. Opinions are our own. On December 11th a truly beautiful movie is coming to Apple TV+ on December 11, 2020. The movie is about a young girl named Robyn who wants to be a wolf hunter like her father until she meets a Wolfwalker and her life is changed forever. the movie is set in Ireland and is a hand drawn animation movie that is visually astounding. The voice talent is fantastic including Sean Bean. The movie was created at Cartoon Saloon, an Irish animation film and television studio based in Kilkenny, Ireland. The movie was directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart with art direction from Maria Pareja. Our direct to draw event was attended by other blogger families and we were able to talk with and ask questions of filmmakers Tomm Moore (Director) and Ross Stewart (Director) as well as Maria Pareja (Art Dir...