BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02185 Tonight is the wedding reception but for the day we decided to get tickets to go to Hollywood studios because we had never seen Galaxy’s Edge before and I really wanted to see it. We were able to get on one ride, the Smuggler’s Run and that was a decent ride but we could not get anywhere near Rise of the Resistance unless we wanted to start paying extra for special passes. But we explored the park for a bit and went to two attractions. The park is just so cramped. We also saw Muppet’s 3D which is a great little show to see plus there is virtually no wait for it and we were tired and cranky so that was good to do for a bit. We got some lunch and then searched for a special little shoulder pal for Andy. Andy wanted to find the Remy shoulder pal from Ratatouille. We were able to find him in one of the emporiums and Andy wore that for most of the rest of the trip. When we were in Galaxy’s Edge we wanted to get some of the blue milk but found out that it wasn’t ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02184 Today we drove down to Disney World where we will stay for the next couple of days to celebrate my cousin’s wedding. We checked in to the All Star Music Resort a little after noontime and visited with some family, had some lunch and then got ready to go to Epcot for the Dessert reception that we were having in Italy. This would be a casual reception with tasty treats and access to great views of the fireworks and lights show. We thought that we would hop over to Epcot and then get our park passes at Guest Services and then ride the monorail. Well, we got the park passes pretty easily but then we found out that the monorail was not running from EPCOT at the moment. We debated hopping over tot he transportation center and then getting a monorail but then getting back in time for the reception would become an issue. So we stayed there and waited. It got cold. I had left my sweatshirt at my in-laws in their front hall closet so I only had a t-shirt and I was co...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02068 I was in Five Below today like I do each Saturday. I take a quick walk through the place to see what they have for cheap t-shirts and more. I noticed that they sell a lot of Disney’s Stitch items. I like the character, makes me think of Andy when they were younger.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02026 I went to see Deadpool and Wolverine today because I was not going to let spoilers happen to me with this movie. I knew that there would be a lot of surprises and some may even be unspoiled. I was right to go and see it as soon as it arrived at the theater. There was so much in this movie and so many cameos and surprises. I loved it. I laughed like crazy and had a great time. there was a time when I used to go to Disney and get to interview the actors of Marvel movies. I haven’t done that in many years now. I hadn’t been as excited for Marvel movies like I had been either but I knew that this one was going to be the one I had to see on day one. I really enjoyed the other Deadpool movies and Hugh Jackman has always been a great Wolverine. Seeing these two characters together was awesome! Can’t say much more about it but it was a very funny movie and I look forward to what Marvel puts out next and whether or not this movie will have an impact on that, storywi...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02012 Today we did a guy’s night/ girl’s night. The ladies went out to see the movie Inside Out 2 and the guys went to Shipwrecked for dinner. I split a pizza with Dylan while Andy inhaled a massive burger. We also split some calamari which was done really well there. We had a nice night. The girls had a nice night too. Eva, however, wasn’t feeling well so I picked up some soup for her because she did not feel like having anything at the Cinema Pub. That tells you that she’s not feeling well because she loves their food.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01490 Last Friday I had a twitter party for the Disney 100 Years of Magic Tsum Tsum collection. I received the entire first series from Jakks Pacific toys for free because I was doing the Twitter Party. It was a fun twitter party because there is so much you can do with Disney that people understand and enjoy. I took a ton of photos and posted them with silly fun captions that got a lot of attention from the people in the party. Now I’m not sure what to do with this collection since I probably won’t be collecting the rest of the series. I’ve been working on cutting down my collections and my collecting tendencies lately.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01456 We should be getting on a flight home tonight but ours was cancelled. We had made plans with friends of Mimi and Dano’s to bring us to the airport. Our plan was to go to dinner in Celebration and then go to the airport for our flight. Well, despite not having a flight we decided to go to Celebration for dinner anyway. We went to the Columbia Restaurant and it was excellent. After dinner we caught up with my Aunt and Uncle who live in Celebration. We got ice cream from Kilwins. They have fantastic ice cream there. We enjoyed our ice cream and chatted with my relatives. Then we explored downtown celebration. there is a christmas tree in downtown Celebration and they make it snow around the tree a few times during the night. They even have ice skating and other activities. there were horse drawn carriages and even a little train that people could ride. We decided that we would drive Dano’s car back to Massachusetts rather than wait for the rescheduled flight o...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01450 Today we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This was part of our Christmas gift from Dan and Marcia along with our stay at All- Star Music last night. Because we were staying on property we were able to get into the park early. After taking a photo by the giant Animal Kingdom Christmas tree Allison, Eva, andy and I went to the Avatar Flight of Passage ride. This is our favorite ride and it is super popular so waiting in line for it is a very long thing. I think we only waited for about 45 minutes though. We had gotten there close to when the rope drops for the park and because we were on property we got in a little earlier. However, the rope drop happened and all those people were sprinting to the line. It was obnoxious but we were able to get on the ride and I was able to book us a Lightning pass for the Safari when we were done with Flight of Passage. The Animal Kingdom Christmas tree was huge. We asked someone passing by to take our photo so we could all b...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01449 This morning we got up and headed to the airport at 4:00am for our 6am flight to Florida. We’re headed there to celebrate with Allison’s parents in their new house. We’ve never been to Florida for Christmas before and our Christmases with Allison’s parents have always been virtual. They send us a big box of gifts and we open them on Facetime or a Zoom meeting or something like that. This year we decided that we’d go down for a week and spend the holiday with them in person. Our flight down was very smooth. Andy had some trouble with the pressure in his ears on the descent but luckily that wasn’t too long for him to go through. He can’t seem to pop his ears properly to get relief. He had some shows to watch on the flight so he kept busy. When we landed we were greeted by Dan and Marcia. They picked us up and we headed to breakfast at Cracker Barrel before heading to Disney Springs to walk around. When we got to Disney Springs we saw all the beautiful Christm...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01364 A Few weeks ago I got an email from Disney + asking if I would like a Disney Drop. Apparently, they send out these special boxes to subscribers from time to time. At first I thought it was a scam email but then discovered that it was not so I signed up for it to see what would be sent. The box contained a whole bunch of things themed around, The Little Mermaid. There was Little Mermaid Bingo cards, a movie still with facts on the movie, some blank cards, a sarong, a Rubik’s cube, a pot holder and more. It was interesting but not really anything that anyone here in the house would use. Allison might use the sarong but that is about it. but, overall it was a nice thing to get. Had the kids been younger this would have been a fun box for activities.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01286 Today we went to a birthday party for my cousin’s daughter. She turned 1 year old. It was a nice chance to spend some family time with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins. My cousin Shaun and I work together and talk most every weekend. We also play a lot of X-Box but that’s besides the point. His sister Carissa lives out in California but when she comes home she packs in all the parties and get togethers she can. So today we celebrated her daughter’s birthday and we had special guests of Mickey and Minnie at the party. I decided to embrace the surreal Mickey and Minnie, who could have used a (disney) Magic Eraser on their costumes. Also, Mickey definitely had a Latinx accent. Minnie sure could play some soccer, though. They came and danced and took photos with everyone. I watched all of it and couldn’t help but think that someone who would have loved the whole experience would have been my Grandpa Rick. He just loved to have fun even if it was completely silly. ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00993 Eva went to the Thrift store today and came home with this t-shirt because she, like me, loves a good pun. This one was great. We’ll have to hit a Mexican restaurant for tacos soon so she can wear it.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00980 We headed home from Connecticut today. We drove up 195 to Wareham to meet my parents and pick up the kids. We enjoyed a lunch at Red Robin and then headed home. It was good to see Mom and Dad and enjoy lunch together. The kids had a great time visiting with them. Andy and Eva both got to spend time with their grandparents, cousins and also their friends. Andy made a new friend, too. They told us all about it at lunch. Andy also did a lot of training with Eva to work at earning his white and blue stripes at karate. This past Thursday he did not earn his white stripe because his details were not up to par. So he was very disappointed but Mr. Brochu talked with him and reassured him that we all believed in him and given some practice he could not only earn his white stripe but his blue stripe this coming week. Andy handled it very well and he practiced with Eva each day that we were away. Mr. Brochu allowed us to record the form so that Andy could work from that as ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00947 Tonight we took the kids to see The Jungle Cruise at The Mendon Drive In. This is a really nice place with a great atmosphere. It was mid week so it was not that packed and we had plenty of room to spread out. It was raining so we did not spread out at all. Allison and I stayed under the over of the rear hatch of the car and the kids stayed inside. We got there fairly early and finished playing a game of Phase 10 that we had started the night before. That is a rather long game to play. In the end we simply finished it. No need to declare a winner. FYI: – it was me. I got some popcorn and we enjoyed some candy and ice cream right before the movie started. We only stayed for the first movie because that one finished around 11pm. That and we had already seen Black Widow and Andy was not going to stay up or want to watch that. We had a nice family night and enjoyed our time there. the rain never did get too bad until we headed home. then it poured and poured. the Jun...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00905 Allison has been planting plants on the side of the house. These are gifts from people from school or kids from school. She’s got a Hydrangea and a Rose bush so far. I look forward to seeing how they grow. Allison worked very hard today to plant these. Tonight we watched the movie Luca on Disney Plus. It was a cute story and very funny. Not as high a Pixar standard as past movies but still very enjoyable. I made a video review of it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00869 I found some new Disney Character cars the other day and I am excited that they made a Bruce car. Bruce is the reformed Great White Shark that claims that “Fish are friends, not food”. It is also funny that his name is Bruce. Bruce is what they named the animatronic shark they used for Jaws. I love that because on one level Finding Nemo is fun to the kids but there are also parts that are great for kids.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00855 I really thought that today I would get around to watching the Bad Batch on Disney+. Instead I waited too long only to find out that it was a 70 minute episode. That is great but I didn’t have time to actually watch it. So, instead I watched the 3 minute short of Maggie Simpson in The Force Awakens From Its Nap. That was pretty funny overall. I enjoyed it because of the classic Simpsons humor to it. I didn’t do much to celebrate Star Wars Day today. Not like years past with so many fun Star Wars related stuff but at least there is a new fun show that has started on Disney+ that I can’t wait to watch. But I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00780 We received a free review copy of the book Flora and Ulysses from Candlewick Press. Flora & Ulysses is being turned into a movie for Disney + and debuts tomorrow. Opinions are our own. So, I asked for this book so that Andy could read it. I figured that there were some illustrations inside that he would enjoy and he might also like the story since the book was being made into a movie for Disney Plus. He did not read the book. I read the book. It was a quick read filled with interesting characters. The character of Flora is the most interesting character of the book. She is described as a natural born cynic. How she got to be this way is sort of subtly explained. Flora lives with her mother who is a romance writer. She observes a squirrel being sucked up into a vacuum and saves him. The squirrel she names Ulysses after the vacuum hat has changed his life. Ulysses is now a Superhero. Ulysses ends up doing many fantastical things like write poetry and fly....

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00777 This afternoon Eva and I watched Iron Man 3. We’re slowly working through several of the Marvel movies so that Eva is up to speed when new series come out on Disney + and when movies return to the theaters. I want to get to the point where we are completely up to speed. So we watched Iron Man 3 and we have a ways to go until we get into the movies like Endgame. But we are moving along.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00744 For the past several months I have been collecting Funko Pop! figures of the Avengers. The set of six figures connect together to recreate the most iconic moment of the movie, The Avengers. At this point the camera pans around the group of six Avengers as they prepare to take on The Chitauri. This is one of those amazing hero moments that solidifies the group before the battle. The Avengers are united. They ae Assembled! When I first saw this I knew I wanted it and as it got closer I knew exactly how I would display it. I would display it on the Lazy Susan from my Grandmother’s dining room table. We no longer have the table but I kept that Lazy Susan. I was fascinated by it as a kid and that was the only thing I wanted when my Grandparents moved. Now it sits atop a hope chest that is Allison’s in my office. I can freely spin it whenever I’d like to see the Avengers ready themselves for battle. It looks like you can still find this on Amazon except for The H...