BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00609 Andy’s LEGO Super Mario LEGO starter set has arrived. He was very excited and built all of the sets that he has for Super Mario. In addition to the set that he bought I picked up two other sets for him to build and add to his Super Mario set. With them he can make bigger playsets for Mario to advance through. There are special bricks that make Mario do special things. The Mario unit can tell what color bricks he is on and he can do different things as he moves around the area. There are several other sets that he can get to add to this and then he can do even more. There are different outfits that you can put Mario in to allow him to do even more things. There are several suits that Mario can use including the Fire Suit, Cat Suit, Builder Suit and Propeller suit. When Mario puts these on he can do additional feats like collect more coins or shoot fire at the enemies. Eventually we’d like to add Bowser’s castle to the mix.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00608 When Andy got his new bed and bedroom it was also time for us to change the decor a bit so that it was more grown up than the comforter that he had when he was 3. Andy decided that he wanted to have a set of Minecraft sheets and a comforter. Allison and the kids picked up this new set for Andy yesterday at Target. Tonight he got to sleep on the sheets for the first time. He was very excited. Andy has been enjoying his new bedroom and new bed very much. This weekend he transformed his futon into a fort, Fort Jupiter in honor of Camp Jupiter from the Percy Jackson books. He is having fun making the space his own.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00607 About a month or so ago I ordered some Xero Shoes. These are nearly barefoot shoes and they have been excellent for me. The Xero shoes that I got first were called Speed Force. These are lightweight and can be used for running. I have them for my walking and eventual running. I’ve put several miles on these shoes already as we walk 3.5 miles each day. I’ve also run in them and I like how they feel. Some new styles have been released and I decided to get a few more pairs. One for the dojo because I cannot go barefoot. One for around the house. The thing is, I am not sure which one are going to be better for the dojo. The Apto is a laceless slip on shoe. While it fits my foot pretty well I sort of feel like it may fly off during a powerful kick. On the other hand there are no laces and so it will be a nice flat surface for the kick. The other shoe that I ordered was the Prio and that is more like a traditional sneaker and they have laces. The Prio is thicker than t...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00606 Allison found a cute activity to do with the kids at school. She’ll be helping with the Kindergarten class this year. She found this project that kids can do to color self portraits of themselves with masks on and without masks. Andy used one of the papers to make his own. He even made it look just like him for today down to the new haircut and shirt that he has on. Hre is what the project looks folded up. I took Andy over to Rome’s for a haircut. Zach took care of Andy and even played the “I’m Thinking of..” game with him. Andy loved playing that game with Amanda for years. Now he’s taught the game to Zach and has Zach looking to find a harder thing for Andy to guess next time around. Andy needed his home done haircut taken care of before going back to school.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00605 I’ve been walking an average of 30 miles a week since June 4th. That was when I joined the ranks of the fitbit family, or at least this family where each members has a fitbit. The kids got them first and then Allison was doing a walking challenge with folks from work. I was the last holdout and then I too got one in time for a walking challenge at work. It was pretty glaring how little I moved throughout the day and since I put on the fitbit I’ve been moving a lot more. Allison and I have been taking daily 3.5 mile walks to start the day. I then added the use of a 30lb weighted vest for more of a workout. Because of this walking we have both made a little progress on some weight loss. Nothing huge but it has made a difference. Today I walked along Great Bay on my own because we were still at the Cape and Allison still at home. We went home later in the day in time for Eva’s Jr. Krav Maga class. Her class got a small taste of the work that my class did on Tu...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00604 We had a nice day on the Cape today. The cousins came over and we all went to the beach and enjoyed a beautiful day. This evening we had a cook out and celebrated my sister Shelby’s birthday. We enjoyed an ice cream cake and hamburgers and hot dogs. I’m glad that we were able to spend the day with everyone and celebrate this evening.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00603 The Summer days are waning and because of that I took the kids down to the Cape for a few days. Trying to soak up the last bits of sand, water and sun before it is back to school time. Allison was back to work this week so it was just me and the kids taking the trip down. After my morning Krav Maga class we packed up my car and headed out. Took a quick turn through the McDonald’s drive through and then we were really on our way. We got down and relaxed. Andy played a ton with a giant container of LEGO bricks. We gave them to my niece, Kylie. She’s been having fun playing with them, too. They got to build together this week and that was fun for them. The cousins were not down today but would be later in the week. The kids had my parents to themselves for the night. Eva went to work on the tiny library that she and my dad built when she was down last. Eva went right to work painting the library. She can’t wait to see it put into use. Dad will be making a stan...