BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02301 I’ve had some great success in buying entertaining books off of Tik Tok from the authors. I’m finishing up three books from S.L. Rowland and I have enjoyed them very much. This book is my newest acquisition is a modern retelling of the King Arthur legend with Queen Guinevere as the main character. The author did a Tik Tok video explaining who she thought would play her main characters and that actually sold it for me. That and the fact that I love King Arthur related books.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02300 The other day Andy and I cleaned up a bit more of the yard. Things are starting to bloom around the yard including a large Lilac bush near the fence. We have 3 additional ones that I got for Allison for Mother’s day a year or so ago. Those have yet to bloom but they are nice and green at least.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02299 I backed a Kickstarter for a new comic book series called Ekos. It looked really interesting so I jumped at it. It recently arrived and I read the book today. The artwork is great and the story was very interesting.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02298 Rehearsals for Sly Fox are well under way. Tonight we actually had Sly’s bed on the stage and that is very helpful for blocking. Tonight I actually got to rehearse my own parts but also, of course, two others. We have yet to have the whole cast together. I hope that soon we will because I have to learn my own blocking for the play.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02297 There was a deal on Tik Tok for a sampler pack of Dave’s Sweet Tooth soft toffee. There are twelve different flavors and so far they have been amazing. I enjoy the Tik Toks that Dave’s make. I think I like it so much because they destroy so many corrupt politicians by sending them rocks or sand and telling them to Kick Rocks or Pound Sand. The funny thing was that they did not sell rocks or sand and so they got in trouble for sending those things so they then pivoted and decided to sell rock and sand so they could keep doing it. This morning I had a nice breakfast with my friend Neil. We went to Morin’s. I haven’t been there since they closed down over year ago. The place looks great. Food is still very good, too.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02296 It was the last weekday night of school vacation and since we didn’t do a vacation other than a staycation and some time on the Cape we decided to go out for dinner tonight. We took the kids over to Rehoboth Baking Co. Rehoboth Baking Co. makes three different style of pizza so we got one of each kind. We decided on a Meat Sweats on the Bar Style pizza, Buffalo Chicken on New Haven style and a Mama Ash pizza Detroit Style. I loved the Detroit style and the bar style pizzas the most. The New Haven style was also good but not as good as the other two. I have yet to have a bad meal there. Everything has been excellent.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02295 This morning Allison and I went over to La Salette for a morning walk. We walked around the grounds and then over to the Attleboro Springs trail. Around the area that has the Christmas Alphabet during the Christmas season we saw a group of turtles sunning themselves. After our walk we went over to Rehoboth Baking Co. for breakfast. I’ve been there a couple of times already but this was Allison’s first visit.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02294 I had picked up a set of egg cookies for the kids to decorate for Easter but they seemed to have forgotten them so they decorated them tonight. Andy and I worked in the yard today and put some soil and compost around some of the flowers and plants in the backyard. I’m hoping that the lilacs come back and so do a couple other plants.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02293 We came back from the Cape this morning. When we arrived there was a box of items that I had ordered from Kickstarter. They are called ONO Signets. These are magnetic silicone fidget balls with different textures. I got a set for everyone in the house and one extra. The kids were excited about them.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02292 We had another day on Cape Cod today. I took a walk over to Great Bay in the morning and in the early afternoon we all went over to Spohr Gardens to walk around. We may go there to shoot Eva’s senior pictures for school. On the way back from the gardens we stopped at Aldi and picked up some dips and snacks to enjoy. I was hoping to find their crab rangoon dip but they did not have any this time. I do hope that we can catch it again later. Aldi did have some great prices on their chips and other snacks, though. We’ll be back this Summer.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02291 We’re on the Cape for the next couple of days for the Easter holiday. Today was Easter. I worked last night so when I finished I slept for a few hours and then we went to Mass at St. Anthony’s. It was a very well done Mass. We then came home and had a very nice Easter lunch. I picked up a butter sculpture from Munroe dairy. It was a nice touch to the table. The kids loved it. After lunch we enjoyed playing a new game callled Tapple. Andy and I also played the game One Hit Heroes. This was a game I got through Kickstarter. Good strategy game.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02290 Today after work I took a quick nap and then we headed to Cape Cod for the Easter weekend. Allison drove and I stayed awake. When we got there we had some lunch and took a quick walk around the neighborhood. I took another nap before work and then we enjoyed some Paul’s pizza for dinner. After dinner I got set up for work on the sunporch for the night ahead. Andy was excited to play our new game One Hit Heroes. So Andy, Allison and Eva gave the game a shot. I have not looked at anything with the game yet so I am not sure what was happening but I’ll give the instructions a look over tonight so that we can play tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02289 Today we had lunch with Mom and Dad, Shelby and Tim and the kids at House of Fortune. Shelby and the kids are headed to Kentucky and mom wanted to get us all together before their trip. It was a nice meal with everyone and we are looking forward to our few days on the Cape for Easter. Mom and Dad gave me two coasters including this one in the photo. A definite inside joke in the family.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02288 Allison had a half day today. I’ve been playing taxi driver all week because my car has been in the shop. So, today I picked up Allison from her half-day of school and since the kids had full days of school I took her to lunch downtown in North Attleboro. They had excellent Birria burritos and quesadillas. At Eva’s school they had the stations of the cross and Mem came down to attend and she then brought Eva home and hung out with us for a while. I had rehearsal tonight and there were so few people there that I had many roles. Seems to be the way this one is going.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02287 Took a long walk today and over by one of the schools there is a waterfall. The water has been high and the waterfall was rushing pretty good. Tonight Andy met up with friends at Bliss. More ice cream. Their friend from out of town was meeting up with even more of their friends. They had ice cream at Bliss and then went across the street and played at Finberg Field together. They had a great time together. It was nice to see Andy so happy.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02286 Today Andy had some friends over for ice cream. I got a couple of half gallons from Munroe and then also picked up a pint of special ice cream for Allison. Last week I tried to get some of this ice cream from Bliss and that did not work out. The monthly special ice cream is Peanut Butter Brownie Ice Cream. I went in last week and picked up the only half gallon in that spot and it did not have a label so we checked it and the kid said that it was the flavor I wanted but when we got it home it was actually cookie dough. Oh well, So I tried again this week. They did not have a half gallon of the ice cream so instead I got a hand packed pint. Then I got the bill. Never doing that again. Andy did have a great time with their friends, though. They all got together at the park after school and then came here for the ice cream sundaes and went back to the park to meet up with another friend who was visiting from out of town. It was nice to see Andy with their frien...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02285 On my walk today I saw these beautiful flowers. I’ve been taking walks around the neighborhood now that the weather is much better than it has been.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02284 The weather around here has been up and down but today while it was rainy and cold I saw this beautiful Cardinal on the gate. I didn’t dare open the door or it would have flown away so I took this with the zoom on my phone through a window. Today I had rehearsal. We did blocking for Act 2. It went pretty quickly, too. Right in the middle of the day. Already pretty tired but at least it wasn’t too long a session.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02283 I’ve been doing some coloring lately. I had picked up some gel pens form Five Below but they weren’t that great, so I picked up another set on Amazon. 130 gel pens to color in a bunch of fun coloring pages. I am thinking that I may have Andy put all the pens in hue order. Andy has this game that they play that puts colors into hue order. Andy is great at the game. Maybe Andy can do that with all the colors in this set. I’m thinking of doing some pages all in one color set. Then other ones using all the colors I can like the image I colored tonight.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02282 Allison and the kids got me this Wheeljack metal model for my birthday. It arrived today. I’ll have to see if I have the skills to put this thing together. It is all about bending metal to make the model. andy had a half day today so I took them to see The Minecraft Movie. It was okay. Silly and not my thing but Andy enjoyed it so that is what is important.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02281 The raised bed arrived yesterday and I did try assembling part of it but it was cold and that thing is metal. so, today I finished assembling it and then when Andy got home I got andy to help me fill it up. I found some raised bed filling techniques online and They tend to layer the bed with different things like cardboard on the bottom (save sme a trip to the compost area) then wood (plenty of dropped branches were added to the container), yard waste (I had lots of leaves I could add. then we started adding the bags of soil that I had gotten from Lowes. I did not have enough so tomorrow I will get some more to complete the fill. I did get my black earth compost, though and I bought 2 extra bags. I’ll spread 2 in the raised bed and use the other one for other areas where we have plants.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02280 Today was my 51st birthday. I had the day to myself and did a few things. I too a walk after dropping andy at school. then I went to Seven Arrow Farm to pick up our Black Earth compost but they had not gotten the delivery yet. They were going to get it around 11 and I was there too early. So, I left and went to Rehoboth Baking Company and got a Bacon Egg and cheese English muffin sandwich. Excellent as always. I’ll go back to Seven Arrows tomorrow. We did burgers for dinner and had some mini lemon cupcakes to celebrate. I did try and pick up a half gallon of Peanut Butter Brownie from Bliss but for some reason it ended up as cookie dough. That was even after the kid behind the counter checked the container (it had no label but was in the peanut butter brownie spot). Oh well we enjoyed that ice cream too.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02279 Tonight was the Spring Art show at Feehan. We were joined by my parents to see Eva’s works on display. Eva had 4 project son display this show. The photo is of Eva with two of her projects, a still life and a more complicated layered piece that I still don’t quite understand how it was created. Eva also had a sculpture and a self portrait in the show. Those were also excellent. After the show we went to the Towne Tavern for dinner. Partially to celebrate my birthday tomorrow and partially to celebrate the art show.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02278 Eva is working on a cosplay for our next trip to Granite State Comicon in September. This year she’s going to compete in the competition and because of that her costume has to be largely created by her. So she has been sewing up a storm to get this made. She’s very focused on her project.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02277 I had my first rehearsal for Sly Fox today and since it was fairly early I walked there and walked home. On the way home I noticed that someone had put a futon along the side of the Ten Mile River behind Cumberland Farms. It was so out of place so I took a photo of it. Today we got our first Meat Bundle from Chartley Country Store. We got a ton of food for a pretty decent price. Chartley was running a weekend event where they were raising money for the Hebron Food Pantry which is in dire need of donations.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02276 I recently got a deal from Xfinity to get a Google Pixel watch. This replaces my fitbit lite and connects to more of the apps that works on my phone and the watch. I can use my Walkfit app with the watch and also use it for the fitbit app. It monitors heartrate and more. I do wish that it was integrated with my Dexcom as well so that I could always be able to see my Blood Sugar levels. I’ve been doing the best that I can to hit that 10,000 goal step each day.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02275 This morning Andy came down before school and was sitting on the couch watching YouTube on their phone. I came in to see that Andy was watching YouTube and petting Torrun. Torrun does not sit for anyone to let them pet her. Nobody but Andy. Torrun got up and ran off immediately after I took this.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02274 Andy gave me a hand cleaning up one half of the yard. We’ve been doing it a piece at a time to get it done before the city picks up yard refuse in a week or so. Of course the weather hasn’t been too cooperative so far. I’m hoping that we get the whole backyard done quickly before that time otherwise we have to wait till May. I’m also hoping to get the other side done because we’re putting in a raised bed for some vegetables. Hope to get that going and finally put rain barrels to good use.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02273 On my walk today I passed by the Rust Oleum plant that is a street over. Apparently there was an accident there recently. Something hit that fence, hard. So hard that the fence got pushed through the building as well.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02272 Last night Eva told us that her cinema studies class is going to watch The Breakfast Club today and I said no way, you’re not watching one of the best coming of age 80’s movies out there without me. So I rented it last night and we watched it. Andy watched for the first 20 or so minutes and then went upstairs to play video games. I had hoped that Andy would watch it all but sometimes the attention span for movies is short. Eva watched the whole thing with Allison and me. She liked it and is all ready to start watching it again in class. Today Andy came down in pretty much every flannel/hoodie that they own. Why? Not because it was April Fools, but rather they wanted to “beat Bender”. The character had several layers of clothing in the movie. So andy decided to one up the character. I did not catch a photo of what Andy was wearing this morning so I asked Andy to recreate the look for a photo tonight.