BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01518 It snowed today and the kids both had the day off. Th amount of snow that we received did not warrant a day off but they got one anyway. This is Andy’s snow boulder. Andy gathered up al of the snow in the front and back yard to make this. That is pretty much the extent of the snow that we got. Yesterday I received word that my Tuesday morning Krav class was cancelled and so I went to class on Monday night instead. Luckily the classes in the afternoon today were not cancelled and the kids could go to their Jr. Krav class. The class was so small today that it was almost as if they got a private lesson from Sensei Brochu. I think that this is helping Andy so much. All of the extra attention is really helpful.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01517 Andy made a batch of sugar cookies yesterday. They are Tie Dye Bow Ties and they look great. They also taste pretty good. Andy wanted to do some baking on the day off. Baking is something that they really enjoy very much and any chance they can do so they do it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01516 Tonight Allison and I went to PPAC to see the musical, Come From Away. This was a spectacular show. I wasn’t that invested or excited to see it but got tickets because Allison was so excited to see it. I was just going to get tickets so that she and a friend could see it but I am glad that I was the one who went with her. I loved it. The play is about a small town in Newfoundland called Gather and they used to have the world’s largest airport. On September 11, 2001 that airport went back into use for several days to take flights that were diverted and the town population doubled in size overnight. The play is about how the citizens responded to the emergency and how the displaced passengers and residents made lifelong friendships through such a traumatic event. One of the best plays I’ve ever seen.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01515 We have a little bunny that has been hanging around the house for the past few months. Today it started snowing later in the day and when I went out for work there was the little bunny sitting in the snow. The other night I saw two of them. Come Spring we may be seeing even more. A mostly quiet day. I went back to Saturday morning Krav class and today it was taught by Sensei Brochu. He gave us quite the workout. I thought I would sleep the day away but sadly did not get a great sleep today and tonight I had to go into the office for work. Maybe I’ll head home during break.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01514 As I picked Eva up from her cousin’s house I noticed that across the way the sky looked really nice. So I decided to make that today’s photo of the day.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01513 Eva and Andy had their stripe test today. I had mine this morning, too. We all got our stripes. This rotation we are working on gun defense. Eva got to help out in the demonstration with Sensei Brochu. You can see Andy in the back holding pads for their partner. Andy partners with a girl named Axel whenever they can. They work very well together because they are both learning and she doesn’t blast Andy across the room with her kicks. Eva’s partner was Miss Sabrina, she’s intense. Eva likes that, though, she’d rather work with someone who is tough and challenges her than someone who offers no challenge. It is great watching both kids get stronger and more skilled in Jr. Krav. Eva will earn a 7th stripe and graduate at the graduation next month to the red/black belt. Andy will move up to orange belt at their next stripe test and both will graduate in the same class for the first time. With Eva earning her red/black next month that means that she’ll soon be in...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01512 This week was school vacation week so Andy wanted to rock climb with one of their friends. We asked their friend Preston if he would like to come and rock climb for a couple of hours with Andy and he said yes. Preston is a friend from karate and he is also a friend who plays Minecraft with Andy often. The two of them create all sorts of Minecraft worlds together. They have a lot of fun. This was Preston’s first time rock climbing and Andy helped him out along the way. The two had a great time.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01511 I have a feeling that we may have one too many of a certain book. This makes me laugh every time I walk by.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01510 One of Allison’s students is a diabetic and she shared with Allison that something that helps regulate her sugar before bed is a slice or two of cheese and a couple olives. We are not sure why that combination but it appears to work for her and for me. Because my schedule is weird on the weekends I can end up getting low alerts on the days when I sleep. So, to prevent this I’ve adopted the cheese and olive method of regulating steady sugars before sleeping for the day. I do have to get myself some white American cheese, though, the yellow is Andy’s.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01509 I have a few things hanging on my microphone because I can’t figure out anywhere else to put them. I have my steampunk goggles, Andy’s steampunk monogoggle and my horns for King Richard’s Faire. There is also a hulk itty bitty stuffed figure on it as well. As I look even closer there is also a bear paw pendant and a leather bracelet hanging on it, too. I should probably find a better place for all of these things.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01508 Tonight Allison and I went to see the comedian Tom Papa at Foxwoods. We hadn’t been there in a while, I think the last show we saw was last year with Gabriel Iglesias. Foxwoods is a great venue for comedy because it is easy to get to, plenty of parking and the theater is nice for comedy. We’ve seen a few comedians there over the years. We had never seen Tom Papa live and it was really funny. Well, most of the show was funny but the very end was full of continuous laughter. We tried to get reservations for some of the restaurants within Foxwoods but they were all booked up solid. Instead I mapped out the route down to Foxwoods and took a look at all the restaurants along the way. We found one, The Tin Peddler, that looked good. Allison asked me to make reservations and I am glad that I did because when we got there we found out that the place was celebrating their two year anniversary and they had a live band playing. The three piece band did a lot of fun co...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01507 Allison put Andy in charge of picking out M &M’s for me for Valentine’s day. Andy got some peanut M & M’s, my favorite, and also a bag of these Strawberry Shake M & M’s. On their own they are rather strong but I think they would go perfectly in an ice cream concoction that Andy may make in the future. Add these and real strawberries to the ice cream and I think we’ve got something there. Plus the chocolate is white chocolate and that goes well with a Strawberry based ice cream.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01506 My favorite snack food has to be pretzels. This year I finally tried out some of the flavored pretzels from Dots and have since found some other pretzel varieties that I also enjoy. I was at big lots and found these Garlic Parmesan Pretzels which were pretty tasty.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01505 Today was one of those days where I did not photograph anything until the very last minute. I took a photo of this glass angel that we have in our bedroom. The day was not without activity. I had my physical therapy in the morning for my shoulder. My shoulder is certainly improving and the PT is getting more and more challenging. Today was the dad as a cab day where I picked up Eva from school, dropped her at the house, ran to Andy’s school to get him and take him to rock climbing, ran home after that and picked up Eva to take her to her confirmation rehearsal. In between there was some running to CVS, Target and many other places. All the while nothing came up for me to photograph, or at least I was pretty busy that I did not stop to take any.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01504 This year Valentine’s Day fell on a Tuesday and so with it being a Taco Tuesday we decided to go and get some tacos from El Azteca. I had suggested Taco Bell but got voted down on that one. So instead I ordered a bunch of tacos from El Azteca along with some Mexican rice and we had a great meal. I also picked up a few other goodies for everyone for Valentine’s Day. Shaw’s did chocolate covered strawberries so I got an order of those. They also did chocolate dipped cookie bouquets and I picked those up too. We had a nice meal together and enjoyed the day.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01503 Maybe it was because we were away over Christmas or maybe it was just being lazy but it wasn’t until today that I took down the Christmas tree on the front porch. Last year when we bought the artificial tree we also bought some giant tree bags to store them for the year. They work out really nicely so that I can keep everything together so that we have it next season. It was definitely overdue to be taken down but it looked really nice out on the porch. But I think having it up past groundhog day is a bit much. I’ll have to take it in earlier next year. Of course, the inside one is still up and decorated. That will have to come down soon as well.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01502 Tonight was the Big Game and we had our yearly junk food appetizer meal for celebration. I did have to work so I was only downstairs for a little while. Our friend Colleen came over to watch with Allison. The kids watched for a bit but they were not into it so they went and did their own things. That was to be expected. We enjoyed some tasty treats and then Allison had the best night because she won a Big Game Squares prize. It was a very lucky night for her.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01501 Last night Andy and Allison made some homemade Bacon Mac and Cheese. The bacon caused the house to get all smokey and the fire alarms to go off. We did not have the mac and cheese last night but rather saved it for today. I put it in the oven for about 30 minutes but the top didn’t really crust up so I figured I’d hit it with the the broiler for a couple of minutes. Well, I must have left it too long because before I knew it the top was on fire. I managed to salvage the dinner but the house was once again filled with smoke. Allison asked Andy how dinner was. Andy’s response, “Crispy.” Luckily we have another whole container of unburnt mac and cheese for another night.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01500 The fine folks at Playmobil sent me a set of their new Naruto figures for free so that I could make an unboxing video. I haven’t had a chance to make it yet but will be doing so later this week. I don’t have much experience with the anime show, Naruto but Fortnite did a crossover with it once and that seemed like fun. So, when i was offered the pack I jumped at it. I am so sure that I’m going to screw up the pronunciation of each character’s name. I should do some research before the video.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01499 Today at Jr. Krav Sensei Brochu was away on vacation so I had Miss Jen as my instructor in the morning and we had a great class with some sparring fun. The kids had Miss Alex as their instructor and their class had more conditioning to it but they also got the chance to work with many different people during the class. Andy’s usual partner, Axel was there but they had a drill where Miss Alex would yell scramble and everyone would have to pick another partner. This gave the kids the chance to work with many different partners and learn some new things. Andy is so new to the class that they got the chance to learn some additional combos from the upper belts. Overall it went very well. Many of the upper belts were so good with Andy. However there was one person who was the same rank as Andy who said to Andy when they partnered, “Oh, it’s the child”. I am surprised by that sort of behavior. Andy didn’t seem overly upset by it but I can tell that they were a bit...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01498 Allison sent me the image below to let me know that there would be special night where The Burgundian lets other food trucks use their facility to put out their food. It is a great way for them to support other food trucks as well as introduce their clients to other great food. The options that they hard were really good. Andy and I got the burger while Allison got one of the Chicken Sandwiches and Eva got the other. We also had some of their ribbon fries. Everything was good but it would have been better had we been able to be there to eat. That way the fries would have been crispier. Today was a crazy day for driving around. I picked up Eva to take her home and then was supposed to take her to the Boba place so she could hang out with her friend Steven. But when I picked her up she informed me that we had to get Steven and then take them both to Boba. However, it is a Wednesday so I also had to pick up Andy and take him to rock climbing. I want to encoura...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01497 Andy has been making great use of the new Ninja Creami that they got for Christmas. Andy made two flavors this week. The first was an orange creamsicle. When we went to Michael’s last they asked if they could buy orange flavoring for future ice cream making. The second was more natural flavor with cut up pieces of strawberries and pineapple. I liked the strawberry but might want a little less pineapple next time. It was very good ice cream. I can’t wait to see what Andy dreams up next.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01496 Eva has a number of projects that she is working on and many that have been in development for a while. Tonight she started working on a special mask for her Technoblade cosplay. I think she’s wanted this one created for some time and I knew she’s going to be excited to have it for future Comic Conventions.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01495 Andy got creative today. Cake pops were the order of the day with the theme being animals. Andy chose some different colors for the overall pops and then decorated them to look like animals. They were a bit melty despite it being so cold outside. The next time that Andy does this they’ll have to put the ops upright instead of down so that they look more like pops then squished cake . They still tasted pretty good, though.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01494 This weekend we saw some record temperatures with regards to the wind chill. Temps of -32F were happening and on Mt. Washington that was -108F. Ah new England weather. It was cold last night, too and so we did not go to the office because that building was not heated overnight. Supposedly the building to work at tonight was heated but I heard otherwise and so decided to tell my supervisor that I was going to stay home and work from home instead. He was very understanding of this. It still makes no sense to me whatsoever that this job is not 100% remote. No sense.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01493 Andy told me that this new Oreo was coming out this past Tuesday and asked if I would pick some up. I was in Target the other day and found them so I got a couple of packages since Oreo’s tend to disappear in this house, quickly. They are basically double the double stuff Oreo with a cookies and cream center. So basically crushed up OREOs make the center creme for the Most Oreo Oreo. They were quite good, though.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01492 Tonight was Andy’s Invention Convention at school. Andy created the “Meow Cat-Her 3000”. This device is supposed to pet your cats when you are not around. Andy came up with the idea and I helped build the prototype. Several trips to Lowes and many dollars later this is the finished product. Andy’s invention was one of the ones that had more thought put into it than some of the others. Maybe I am biased because I helped Andy out with this one but there were some where there was no effort put in overall. Andy would demonstrate this invention and Andy showed all 3 of the prototype attachments. I got some new tools out of the deal.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01491 This week is Catholic Schools Week and at Andy’s School they have had some fun activities. Andy chose to do bingo with the principal today. Each kid got their own Bingo dabber and a special green visor. Andy then decided that they would wear it during their Rock Climbing class today. I told their teacher about it and Emmett said, “I’m sure they’ll commit to the bit”. That is Andy. When there is something comedic to do they are consistent in committing to the bit. Allison didn’t have to do After Care today so she came to watch Andy climb. The main thing that they were doing to day was bouldering, which is climbing without ropes above very spongy floors. Andy did very well as they always do. We are so glad that Andy has found an activity that gives them so much enjoyment. Andy can really be Andy when they are there.