BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01338 I was given a free Twinkly Line starter Kit (affiliate link) to review. Opinions are my own.My Office is full of all sorts of fun lighting effects. I have two of my LEGO sets lit up, I have a light up Game Over sign, I have a bookshelf that I made specifically for my Skylanders that has special lighting in it as well. When I was asked if I’d like to check out a Twinkly product I was more than happy to give it a shot. The Twinkly Line is a 5 foot long sleek, premium, all-black smart LED strip with an adhesive and magnetic back. I could affix it directly to my wall under some of my Funko Pop figures or I could create something new with a blank wall. I decided to create something new. My office has this sloped wall that was unused. I decided that I would take my Hot Wheels character cars and put them on the wall using Command Strips. I’d also place a length of Hot Wheels track on the wall as well. Then I’d put the Twinkly Line on the track, sort of like the mi...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01337 Today was the first day of school and our first day where not everyone was at the same school. Eva began high school at Feehan. I am very proud that she is attending Feehan. I loved my time there so much and I hope that she has an amazing four years there. She has already connected with the daughter of one of my high school friends and that is fantastic news. I love that my daughter is in school with children of my high school friends and that they connected and are friends. That is a wonderful thing. Andy started 5th grade and this was his first year without having Eva in the school. e had a good day and I think he’s really going to enjoy his teacher this year. Allison is going to be very busy this year. She’s starting the year substitute teaching in second grade until the teacher returns from a trip. Then she’s running before and after care programs at the school and also working as a para-professional in the classrooms on the first floor. Plus she runs t...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01336 Tonight Allison and I went to Feehan for the new Feehan Family night. Tomorrow is the first day of school and while we sat int he auditorium with the upper administration for a welcome and also a question and answer period Eva was in her homeroom getting to know other students. We were briefed on how drop off would go and I assume how pickup would go as well. I don’t think that was ever stated explicitly but I will do my best picking Eva up tomorrow. When we were leaving the auditorium one of my high school friends, Jenn said hello to us and told us how her daughter was excited to meet up with Eva again after being in plays years ago. They became friendly once again during Freshman academy. So, as we are walking out of the auditorium we look across the way and see Jenn’s daughter and Eva right behind her. They had found each other at their assembly and also some other friends from Freshman Academy.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01335 Tonight there was a fun event at Capron Park. They had food trucks there and live music. I could not believe how many people were there. We had gotten there pretty close to when the event began and it was already packed. We walked around and looked at all the trucks. The lines were very long so we decided to divide and conquer. Eva went to one truck for dinner for she and Allison. I went to another and got my dinner and something for everyone to share. Allison took Andy to the Mac and Cheese truck because the kid can’t get enough mac and cheese. Eva had some kabobs and Allison had a chicken dish. I went to Friskie Fries and got their buffalo chicken and fries box. I also got their general Tsao’s chicken and fries box. We shared that one. It was a nice event and so packed with people. The music was good and we had a nice time eating our meal up on a hill overlooking the park and all the people and the food trucks. If they do it again we will have to get ther...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01334 We recently ordered Eva glasses. She needs them for seeing the board at school. She can now see much further. Her prescription is a low one but it does her her out. She also looks very cute in her new glasses. Apparently they look very similar to one of the YouTubers that she enjoys.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01333 I found some Hot Wheels character cars for the Buzz Lightyear movie today at Walmart. I had been taking it easy on buying more collectibles lately but these were just too cool looking to pass up. The movie was a lot of fun and we enjoyed it very much. I like how these cars do such a nice job of showing the great features of the character’s designs.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01332 On our last Summer day before heading back to school next week we decided that it was far beyond time to make a trip to Snappy Dogs. This trip we tried their newest dog, the Scooby Snack, a full pound hot dog. Allison and I decided to split it because it was just so large. Lisa even fixed it up perfectly with toppings on both sides for me and for Allison. Andy graduated to the Great Dane. That is a 1/2 lb Pearl hot dog and he demolished it. Andy was quite proud of himself for finishing the whole hot dog on his own.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01331 Today I went to lunch with my college friend Frank. We met up at Mick Morgan’s Irish Pub. Neither of us had ever been there but it was in between where we each live so it was a good place to meet up. Inside it was packed completely with Irish memorabilia. They had almost everything you’d ever want in Guinness stuff. There was so much on the walls, and even the ceilings. It was very, very busy in that way. Our lunch was so much fun. We talked for two hours and caught up on everything going on in our lives. I can’t believe it had been one year since we had last gotten together. That is really sad seeing as we live only 1/2 hour from each other. We made plans to get together again in the near future to record one of his podcasts.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01330 Once a week I take my head shaver and shave my head. I probably could do it every other day but I find that once a week works best for me. There are those special occasions where I want my head the most smooth so I use actual razors and shaving cream, but this works well for a once a week clean shave.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01329 Andy and Allison made some cookies today and we used them to make ice cream sandwiches. It was very very hot so they were quite melty but very tasty.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01328 Allison made this special pasta salad for the ABD picnic. It was fantastic. We’ve been enjoying Mexican street corn recipes lately with the Mexican Street Corn dip that they have at Markey Basket and also Stop & Shop. Market Basket’s is better. We’re going to look into making our own street corn dip, too.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01327 Today we went to the America’s Best Defense Cookout at Colt State Park. I got a little bit of sleep in the morning before we all went to the event. Speaking of sleep, Andy was pretending to sleep for much of the ride. Not exactly sure why, but when he woke up and broke the silence he broke it. Eva was going to go to her D & D group but the DM was sick. So, she came along with us. We got there around 12:30 or so and got ourselves something to eat. Allison made a big bowl of Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad. It was fantastic. We ate our lunch and visited with some of our friends. I had brought along my drone so that I could take some shots of the event. Unfortunately it wasn’t the most picturesque thing to shoot. The photo below was my best one. I also had a drone mishap. I was panning backwards and flew into a tree. Luckily I was able to get it back with the help of one of the folks at our picnic.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01326 Playmobil sent me a free Knight Rider set to unbox and review. Opinions are my own. When I was a kid I was huge into Knight Rider. I never missed an episode and loved the stories of Michael Knight and his intelligent car, K.I.T.T.. Their adventures each week were such fun where the good guy took care of the bad ones to protect innocent people. There was a big theme of this to the 80’s shows like Knight Rider and The A-Team. And now I have Playmobil toys from both of these shows. Amazing. My 10 year old self would be so jealous! I made an unboxing video of the set that you can see below.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01325 We tried out Crumbl cookies for the first time today. They just opened a location in our area. They make 6 different types of cookies each day and when we got there they were already out of two of them. So, I got a set of the 4 remaining cookies. Chocolate chip, Lemon Poppyseed, Caramel Popcorn and Chocolate Peanut Butter. I enjoyed the lemon poppyseed one myself but the peanut butter was probably the best.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01324 Today we took Andy to the Rock Spot Climbing Gym. He has been expressing that he wants to start learning how to rock climb and we had the time today to check out the gym. We bought him a day pass so that he could try out the facility. The pass also got him the equipment he needed and shoes. He learned a powerful lesson about footwear by the end of his time climbing. Next time we tell him to find sock, proper socks, he’ll get them. We started out with an introduction to the gym and a small lesson. They have Auto-belays that allow you to clip in and climb. There are a bunch of different levels of climbs that people could choose. Andy kept to the 5.6 and 5.7 ones. He started off with some challenges but eventually he got more comfortable in his climbing. He would go from climb to climb and then over to the Bouldering area. He had a great time on all of it. After a couple of hours of the climbing he declared that he was pretty tired and we went home. He enjoyed...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01323 Eva is on the Cape for a little while. Whenever she is away too long James gets very depressed. He wanders around and meows loudly. He even hopped in bed with Allison and me one night. That is very unusual and he must have been very sad to have done that. Most likely he will be smothering Eva once she returns. Or he will be upset and ignore her.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01322 This year’s stuffed animal for the company picnic was a hippo. Andy took to his immediately and it is now one that he sleeps with each night. He’s also walking around with it on as a hat to be silly. This kid.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01321 It has been a couple of years since my company has had a picnic. The pandemic shut it down for two years and this year things began to start getting back to normal. It was a more stripped down version of the picnic but in all I really liked it. It did not seem as cramped as it had past years and the weather today was fantastic. We got here right at the start of the picnic and went right for the fried dough. This year they even had fried Oreos as well. We tried two of them. This was the very first time I had ever tried Fried Oreos and they were delicious. I love fried dough but adding an Oreo to the middle of one of these was a great addition of a chocolate taste to the fried dough. We gave Andy the run of the place. He wanted to try out the rock climbing and so he did that right after the fried dough. He did okay but did not get all the way up. He’s shown interest in learning how to rock climb and so we are going to get him to a rock climbing gym soon. He’s...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01320 I enjoy many different hot sauces. A couple of weeks back I had breakfast at Café Locale with Allison and was reintroduced to Cholula hot sauce and I really love the taste of this sauce. It is more flavorful than Tabasco and also Siracha. So, I picked up a bottle at Target today on a whim. I made sure to add that to my tacos tonight and they were so good.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01319 I am going to build this Black Panther LEGO set tonight. I slept much of today and didn’t take any other photos. We were busy at work tonight so I snapped this photo quickly. I then took a photo of Black Panther and Wolverine LEGO Mechs together later on. It is interesting how these mechs are mostly created the same way but where Wolverine looks bulky black Panther looks lithe and lean like the character is in the books.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01318 I took the drone back out this morning. I braved the possibility of hitting myself again and did much better this time around. I flew the drone up over Bristol Beach and took some shots of the beach after it was cleaned and it looked like a Zen garden. I also took a photo back towards the house and down Falmouth Heights Beach. We went home today. That worked out well because the morning was the best part of the day. In the afternoon there was some light rain but we did come home to much cooler temperatures.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01317 Today Tara and Erik went home but left Lexi with my parents. Andy decided that he would sleep with Lexi tonight to keep her company. Andy certainly does love dogs and he loves getting to spend some time with Lexi alone. He was so happy to sleep there with Lexi and they slept really well all night long. This morning I took the boys across the street to the Bristol Beach parking lot. We took the two RC cars there so that I could work on the video for the BEZGAR truck. I also took my drone with me because I wanted to take some follow footage. Well, at one point the truck was backing up and I was trying to watch it in the drone controller screen and was backing up the drone at the same time and flew it right into my head. I got a couple good slices on my forehead. I was okay, though. We spent much of the day over at the beach and today was one of the nicest at the beach this Summer. Tonight we had a nice dinner with Mem and Grandfather in the back yard.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01316 We are staying on the Cape for a few days. We came down just in time for the rain and a much needed break from the heat. There was a pretty severe thunderstorm happening and the temp did lower a bit but the amount of rain overall was quite low. We’ve been in drought conditions for a few weeks now. We had a very nice dinner tonight. Tara and Erik were there along with Shelby and the cousins. We had steak and swordfish and some lobster salad. This was in place of our nearly yearly trip to The Flying Bridge. We had a really nice dinner at the house, though. It was good to have almost everyone there. Dad and I grilled and we cleared out a lot of things from the freezer. Some didn’t quite work, like the buffalo short ribs. Those needed much more preparation that he had time for and because of that they were pretty much inedible. They would have worked for buffalo jerky if you wanted to chew on it for a good long time.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01315 The other night at dinner Eva told s about her new Dungeons & Dragons character. She described the character and that inspired Andy to create a drawing of that character for her. As we sat and watched the movie, Luck on Apple TV+ Andy was busily making his creation on his iPad. He has a special drawing program and a pen that he uses to create his drawings. Luck was a cute movie. Andy enjoyed it very much. He’d been waiting for it to be released.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01314 I was sent a BEZGAR RC Truck for free to check out and review. Opinions are my own. I love Remote Control toys. I love flying my drone and also playing with remote control cars and trucks. I recently got myself a really fast one for my birthday and it is so much fun to run around. well, the folks from BEZGAR must have known what I like because they offered me a remote control truck to check out and I jumped at it. Now I can race along with Andy or Andy and Dylan can race each other with really fast fun vehicles. I took this truck to the Cape and made a review video. You can see that below. If that looks like something you would like then please consider using my Amazon.com affiliate link below to order one for yourself. I am very pleased with mine.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01313 It has been really warm lately but with the weekend here we were able to cook out on the grill and eat outside. It was actually more comfortable than being inside. Allison picked up two great steaks and I grilled them up and finished them with a pat of butter each. That really makes it something special. Maybe at some point I’ll learn how to make some compound butters for our steaks.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01312 Today was the last day for both Andy and Eva at their respective camps. Well, Andy was at camp, Eva was at more of an orientation week prior to going to her first year of High School. Andy had been in an archery camp for the past week. 2 Hours each morning to fire off arrows at targets, do some water balloon fun and more. He enjoyed it but after one week he was pretty much archery-ed out. We spoke with the woman running the camp about what programs were offered at X-Spot throughout the year and got a ton of information on the program. I figured that archery was something that Andy had an interest in doing but I think that he got his fill this week because he did not get that excited of the prospect of continuing the archery journey. We’ll still be searching for his thing for a bit. Eva had a nice last day at Freshman Academy. She got to spend some time with some new friends who are interested in the theater. Eva and I talked about the things she was interes...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01311 We received some free Fandango passes from Warner Bros. to see DC’s League of Super Pets. Today was super hot outside so a trip to a nice air conditioned theater in the hottest part of the day sounded like a lot of fun. We were delighted by the movie, it was very funny and cute. There were some emotional parts to the movie as well. I laughed out loud several times throughout the movie. It has a great cast of voices and there were even a few that caught me by surprise when I heard them and one when I actually saw who it was during the credits. After the movie I wanted to get a photo of us around the poster but they don’t really hang up movie posters anymore they have screens that show the poster. So we waited by this screen until the poster rotated through again.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01310 I received the Wood Cabin Retro House for free from Funwhole. Opinions are my own. I’ve been building this Wood Cabin from Funwhole for the past few days. It was very relaxing to build such a nice set. I made little videos at different points of the build and put that all together in a full video below. Overall this was a great build. The instruction book is full color and while I did find a few errors I was able to work through it to complete the entire build. I loved adding in the lights and seeing how nicely everything looked lit up. From the soft red glow of the wood stove to the warm lights on the front porch. It looks incredible in its complete form. You can see it in the video below. If you wanted to pick one of these up for yourself you can go to the FUNWHOLE website to find the Wood Cabin.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01309 Today I went to lunch with an old friend of mine, Derek. He and his family were home for a visit to his parents. He had reached out a while back to say that the next time he was home we should catch up. He had a lot of things going on this week but we were able to squeeze in a lunch at Boneyard BBQ. Of course, he caught me while I was out to breakfast with Allison this morning. We had attended the parent’s meeting at Feehan this morning to discuss ways in which we could help out and volunteer at the high school. Then we went to Cafe Locale for our breakfast and Derek texted me that he had time for lunch today. Well I didn’t want to miss my one opportunity to hang out so I said sure and we met up at Boneyard. We had a really nice meal and conversation together. It was good to catch up after such a long time. It is nice to know that friends can go off and live their lives and then when you come back together for a time it is as if nothing ever changed. It was...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01308 I received a brick building set from Funwhole, a company that asked me to check out their products. I began building there Wood Cabin Retro House today and I imagine it will take me a few days to complete because it is 2000+ bricks. The set also includes lighting elements to give it an additional pop. I completed the first couple of bags today and that created the yard and the foundation of the cabin. We’ll see later in the week how I progress.