Happy Birthday, Thomas!

 

Oh, how we love birthdays!  This marked the 5th week in a row that we have celebrated at least one friend's birthday.  It was Thomas this week, who is our youngest member at 25.  We partied with him on Thursday, and we worked in National Nacho Day, too!  Earlier in the week we kicked off November with bowling and pizza for lunch on Tuesday, and completed our service work on Wednesday.  By Friday, we were ready to wrap up the week with an Eaton work day and a beautiful afternoon at the park.  Check out our first week of November!

Tuesday

It was nice to see sunshine as we began the first week of November with bowling!  We were thrilled that our favorite lanes 1-4 were up and running, and ready for us when we arrived.

We forgot to bring the camera, so we just took a few pictures with Lisa's phone.  We couldn't overlook a photo with Thomas, Alexis, and Devin who bowled today's highest scores.  They each hit 138 in one of their games!  Wow!  Great job to "The 138 Club."  🎳🎳🎳

Cameron joined us today, but Michelle and Abraham weren't able to be here.  We missed them!

We changed up our usual pizza spot and tried Papa John's today, which is conveniently just across the street from Bowlero.  We liked the pizzas, of course, but thought Domino's has a tastier crust. 

We took the pizzas to Freedom Park since it was such a nice day and we wanted to check the garden.  Huge thank you to Cameron's parents, Brian and Stacey, for treating us to pizza for today's lunch!  Cameron loves pizza, and so do his friends!

Some of us wore jackets, but in the sun, it was very mild.  We couldn't complain about the view, either.  The trees are changing colors and are beautiful!

Due to rain, we had our last two master gardener sessions at our place, so we were happy to be in the area and able to check the garden today.  We had planted many fall veggies, and they all looked to be growing well except for spinach (it was missing!) and beets, which looked kind of small.  We harvested mustard greens and collards.  We'll cook them for Thursday's lunch...how will they go with nachos?!

In the collard bed, we also noticed the cabbage, brussels sprouts (we think) and kohlrabi were growing well.  We weren't sure if the broccoli we planted was growing or not.  We couldn't tell that there was another plant that could have been broccoli.  We'll have to send Krafty Karen a message and inquire!  We enjoyed our afternoon at the park and garden.

Wednesday

We got right into our Wednesday routine this morning!  First up, the group that stayed at AFCC completed a variety of tasks.  Erik, Kate, Alexis, Gail, and Nan arranged flowers for our friends at Commonwealth Senior Living.

Patrick, Drew, and Thomas took down Tracy's Halloween decorations in the hall that had been up since the Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event.

Next, this group completed a "Happy Birthday" banner for tomorrow's party!

We also had time to cook the nacho filling ahead of time for tomorrow's birthday party for Thomas!  Erik and Drew handled this task!

Our Grove group was busy, too.  Upon their arrival at GCOC, they met Laura's mom, Lisa, who delivered a trunk full of food drive donations collected from their neighborhood!  After helping to unload Lisa's car, our guys took the donations inside and Grove volunteers weighed them.  There were 200 lbs of donations!  Many thanks to Lisa and Tom Palmer, and their neighbors in the Southport neighborhood at Ford's Colony, for helping us get our Food Drive off to an amazing start!  Our friends at Grove Christian Outreach Center, and all of us, are grateful for your generosity.

Next, our guys helped carry trays of food to the tables and remove the shrink wrap to set up the assembly line.  Then, they got to work filling food distribution bags with our favorite volunteers, Peggy, Ursula, Joel, and Thom!  What a great team we all make!

We volunteer because we want to serve in our community, but we sure do love the treats we receive in return.  This week, we enjoyed gluten free chocolate cookies baked by Ursula.  Joel said they were as light as a cloud.  They were sooo good!  Thanks, Ursula.  How thoughtful to find a gluten-free recipe so Xavier could enjoy the cookies, too!  (Note:  We always have gluten-free cookies or snacks on hand for Xavier, so he never misses out on a treat!)

Before lunch, after everyone was back together, we were seriously working on creating a few turkeys so we could replace some of the jack-o-lanterns on our walls and windows.  We are leaving most of the other fall decor in place for the month of November, but we felt we definitely needed some turkeys!  Thanks, Allison, for preparing the materials and guiding us as we crafted these fun turkeys!

Aren't they terrific?!

After lunch, we were caught seriously working on updating our November calendar, removing Halloween decorations, and getting the room ready for a Thanksgiving look!

Bryan removed our spider web art gallery; Cameron glued the event labels on our calendar squares; Devin and Thomas took jack-o-lantern stickers off of the gourds so we could use them for November; Annmarie and Cameron colored fall pictures while Patrick searched for pictures for the calendar squares.

November will be a short, but busy month!  (Not sure what happened to the 12th?!  We'll be here doing something!) 🦃🦃🦃 Also, remember...we only come on ONE Monday a year, and it's during the week of Thanksgiving.  We will be here on Monday, the 24th and Tuesday, the 25th.  We will be closed for the holiday Wednesday-Friday. 🦃🦃🦃

Thursday

Fall Birthday Season rolled on as we celebrated Thomas turning 25 today!  We began with a dance warm-up, where Thomas got to pick the tunes.  We already knew he liked country, but today we found out he likes it all the way back to before he was born!  And most of his friends do, too!  Yee-haw!

After our dance warm up, we had a visit from someone on the waitlist for our day program.  Her name is Sara and she's very nice.  We showed her around and invited her for a trial visit next week.  After that, we had time for indoor recess.  We worked out to a GoNoodle video and also took a 10 minute hallway hustle.  It was getting close to lunch time and we needed to burn a few calories!

Before we celebrated Thomas's birthday, we wanted to show off our latest collaborative banner creation.  It's a great time to say we are feeling thankful for our master gardeners who helped us grow collard and mustard greens (which we harvested Tuesday) AND for Nan who took the greens home on Wednesday night and cooked them for us...the old fashioned southern way!  Most of us who tried them today agreed that they were good!!

We're also thankful that Thomas's mom, Lori, and sister, Allison, could join us for his birthday lunch!  Today is National Nacho Day, and our lunch was very tasty, even if we didn't get a picture!  What a great day to have a birthday party!

Lori and Allison hung around after lunch and enjoyed watching Thomas and his friends play UNO during Choice Time.  Lori and Allison, we loved hanging out with you today!  Thank you very much for the cake and ice cream.  It was the perfect ending to our nacho lunch!!

Thomas, we loved your Washington Commanders-themed cake!  You're such a loyal fan!  We hope all your birthday wishes come true, too!

Our party (and the day) ended with Birthday Corn Hole!  It was Thomas and the Commanders vs. Devin and the Eagles, and the Eagles won, 23-21.  Such a close game, but everyone had a great time cheering for each other...no matter which team they were on!  Devin and the Eagles even invited Thomas to be in their victory photo since he was the Birthday Boy!!  How cool is that?!

Friday

Everyone was recovered from yesterday's party and ready to work this morning as we headed to Eaton!  When we arrived, we found out that there wasn't as much work to do as usual, so Lisa took a group back to AFCC to work on some thank you cards, and Carol and Nan stayed at Eaton with a group to get that work done.  At lunch time, we all reconnected at New Quarter Park for a really nice afternoon outside!

Devin and Patrick teamed up to unload this large bin.

Bryan prepped gaskets and Liz applied them to lids.

Erik, Nan, and Lexi applied gaskets to rectangle parts.

Great job today from our "mini" Eaton team!

Here is the rest of our team, trying to show "sad faces" because they weren't needed at Eaton.  They were heading back to the van!

But they WERE needed back at the center!  We made thank you cards for several groups in Laura's neighborhood who sent over 200 combined pounds of food for our Fall Food Drive this week!

We loved today's weather!  It was cool at the picnic area, but warmer in the sun.  We had a great afternoon.

Erik found a book by James Patterson in the Free Little Library box and decided to take it home for his father.  How thoughtful, Erik!

A few of us headed for a brisk walk.

Others enjoyed the slides on the playground!

It's always nice when we can spend time outside for fresh air and exercise.  The weather looks to be turning chillier in the coming days, but as long as the sun shines and it's not freezing, we can zip up our jackets and continue to enjoy the fall season.  Here's a look at our plans for next week: 

Tuesday:  We'll wrap up Fall Birthday Season today with a double celebration for birthday twins Patrick and Elizabeth!  Many thanks to their families for providing Baked Ziti, Salad, and Cupcakes for lunch!  We'll also have a lesson to commemorate Veterans' Day and if it's not too chilly, we'll take an afternoon walk at Newport News Park!

Wednesday:  It's Service Work Wednesday so please wear Arc shirts.  We're having a special luncheon tomorrow so we will spend the morning on preparations.  We'll also vote on a movie to watch after lunch.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Asian Chicken w/Rice or Flatbread Sandwich.

Thursday:  Today we're welcoming Mike from the Watermen's Museum for a Thanksgiving lunch.  He's providing pumpkin pie and we're cooking turkey/dressing casserole, roasted sweet potatoes, corn pudding, and cranberry relish.  We'll also do research for tomorrow's shopping trip.

Friday:  It's PSP Work Day so please wear PSP shirts.  Our group that remains at the center will catch up on cleaning tasks!  After lunch, we are going shopping for our Fall Food Drive.  We were given a generous donation which we will turn it into a lesson on planning and budgeting.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Corn Dog Nuggets or "Special" of the Day!

Families, don't forget we will be in session on Monday and Tuesday, November 24 and 25, and then closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday Wednesday-Friday.  Carol has notified WATA, but please follow up for those who use that service.  Thanks!

Please support our Fall Food Drive!  We're collecting donations which we will take to Grove Christian Outreach each week when we volunteer.  Thank you for the donations we have received so far!  Our donation box has lots of room!

Have a good weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

Happy Birthday, Alexis!

This is our retake for Lexi's birthday since the photo we took on her actual birthday was lost when our photo card became corrupted.  We're missing Kevin, Patrick, and Abraham in this one.

Yes, it was another birthday week at the Arc of Abilities (and we have another one next week) as the fall birthday season continued!  We celebrated Alexis on Tuesday, and no, we're not tiring of celebrating our fall birthday friends!!  There were other fun activities this week, too, including our final session of the year with the master gardeners, our Wednesday service projects and a helpful visit from Kasey, a joyful time with Marisol and the corgis, and of course, our Halloween party! 

 Before we get into our regular week...check out this shoutout to our very own Devin!  This is from an online review posted by a Pet Supplies Plus satisfied neighbor (customer) last Friday after an encounter with some of our workers!  The worker who carried the 34 lb bag of dog food was Devin!  

Take a bow, and thanks, Devin, for representing yourself, your family, and the Arc so well!  We're proud of you!

Tuesday

What we didn't know all day as we welcomed the master gardeners for their final session of the season, and then celebrated Lexi's birthday, was that the memory card in our camera was becoming corrupted!  Once Lisa got home and began working on this post, she realized ALL of the photos from today and the past several months were lost.                 😢😢😢

Fortunately, our beloved MG friends Karen and Joanne also took pics today.  They graciously shared them with us so we could document the wonderful time we had with them wrapping up another awesome season of learning, planting, harvesting, and eating!  (MG Carolyn, who usually takes photos, was not able to be with us today.)  Thank you soooo much, Karen and Joanne!

Our MG friends came to us again today, due to the rainy weather.  We were happy to host them, but missed being able to check our fall planting at the garden.  We will stop by on Tuesday before bowling, and see if there is anything to harvest!

The first thing we did with the MGs was take our grow bag outside (in the sprinkling rain).  We had been growing sweet potatoes in the bag since the spring, and it was time to harvest.  Barb and Karen braved the sprinkles, along with Lisa, who was snapping away on our (not known to us) corrupted camera card!

The rest of us watched with anticipation from under the awning at the front of the building!

Barb dumped the contents of the grow bag into the mulch.  (No mess in the classroom!)  Much to our surprise, and disappointment, we only got 1 large and a few very, very small sweet potatoes out of this harvest.  We're not sure why, but as the MGs told us, sometimes what we plant doesn't work out.  They also reminded us that we had an excellent harvest of regular potatoes, grown at the garden, earlier in the summer!

Thanks, Barb and Karen, for getting wet for us...

Back inside, Karen set up for us to plant our "lasagna" pot with a variety of bulbs that will bloom in the spring.  Just like with lasagna, we layered the ingredients...or in this case, bulbs!

We had lots of volunteers to help layer the bulbs in the pot.  Larger ones went deeper, and all of them went in "pointy" side up!

Barb helped us plant pansies for the very top layer.  As we know, pansies are hardy in cold weather and will provide color in the pot all winter long.  We set the pot outside our green door and didn't need to water it, thanks to Mother Nature!

Liz and Kevin showed pictures of the flowers that will grow in our bulb pot:  daffodils, tulips, and two kinds of hyacinths!  It's going to be beautiful and colorful in spring of 2026!

Before enjoying a snack of Karen's delicious zucchini bread, we presented the MGs with a thank you card and a donation to help cover the costs for the many projects they work on with us.  Devin, Kate, and Liz gave heartfelt speeches that thanked the MGs for all they do with us!  Thank you, master gardeners, for another fabulous year of therapeutic gardening.  We are so grateful for our partnership with you, and can't thank you enough for your enduring dedication to working with us.  We love our friendships with you!

Even though she wasn't with us, MG Carolyn still produced a lovely journal page to summarize today's visit.  The photos are some of the same ones we used in this post, since the only pictures to survive the day were from Karen and Joanne, who shared them with both Carolyn and us.  But we wouldn't dream of not including Carolyn's journal page!  It just means we have double the pleasure of remembering the memories made today!

Alexis, the Birthday Girl, was honored with a lovely bouquet from Karen's yard!

Speaking of the Birthday Girl, we had a wonderful lunch and party for her after our session with the master gardeners.  We're sad that our photo card decided to go bad on her special day, but we have lots of memories!  For starters, Lisa made a big pot of chili for our lunch, and we enjoyed that with a side of cornbread.  We also had brownies topped with ice cream for dessert, and Lexi blew out a candle and made a wish!  🎂🥳🎉

Here is a recreated version of us singing to Lexi that we made on Wednesday.  We couldn't imagine not including this tradition.  All the love our friends have for each other is still here...it's just missing the brownie and candle!  Lexi, we hope all your wishes come true!

Lexi was quite surprised when her favorite cousins, Haley and Jordan, showed up for the festivities!  They joined us for brownies and a lively game of pool noodle volleyball, as well as a fun game of Disney trivia.  They are very up on their Disney knowledge!  Thanks to Lexi's Aunt Mary for this sweet photo. 

Many thanks to MG Joanne for this photo of Lexi with her mom and grandma. 😍

Wednesday

It was another rainy morning but it didn't stop us from having a great day.  Allison is coming on Friday this week, so we welcomed Kasey from the Arc's office to work with us, and we kept her busy working with flower and poster making teams!  We also worked at the JRES Library, and sent a group to volunteer at GCOC.

We were happy that Trader Joe's was able to donate a few more flowers than last week.  We didn't have to be too "skimpy" in making the arrangements.  Erik set them out for us.

Kate, Bryan, and Gail showed Kasey how we set up our flower arranging assembly line.

The jars were full and very pretty this week!

Our group that worked on flowers also worked on coloring celebratory pictures for a few posters we were commissioned to make for Pam and the Arc.  We really can't say too much about them because it's a surprise for the recipient, but someone very important to the Arc is going to be recognized at an upcoming sporting event, and our posters will be flashed from the stands when that person is honored!

Meanwhile, the USDA food delivery to Grove was right on time as we arrived, so we helped unload and then pack 144 bags.  There were 9 items in each bag today, which was a little more than we've been packing recently.  That's a good thing!

Peggy and Joel brought Halloween treat bags for everyone today, including one with gluten-free treats for Xavier!  We will enjoy these at our party on Friday.  Thanks Peggy and Joel, for these fun and special treat bags!!  They will look nice on our Halloween table at the party!  Thanks also to Ursula and Thom...we enjoy working alongside you, Joel, and Peggy so very much!

When the GCOC group returned to the center, it was almost 11:00 and Marisol and the corgis had already arrived!  Marisol, Tucker, Nellie, and Louie had planned some Halloween-themed fun for us today, and we loved it!  First, Marisol read us a Halloween story that featured corgis who faced their fears at a spooky haunted house, that turned out to not be so spooky after all!

Tucker, Nellie, and Louie were chilling as Marisol read, but when she made a spooky sound effect, they, and a few of us, jumped!

Marisol and the corgis brought us a treat today!  It was homemade (by Tucker, Nellie, and Louie, according to Marisol) sugar cookies in the shape of corgis!  You know we we enjoyed them!

The fun continued with a rousing game of Halloween Bingo!  Thanks, Marisol, and pups, for another joyful visit.  We enjoyed the tasty cookies very much, and will play the Halloween Bingo game again soon!  It's nice to have a new version!!  Happy Halloween, Marisol, Tucker, Nellie, and Louie!

After lunch we finished our read-aloud, The Wild Robot Protects, and spent the rest of the afternoon in awe of Kasey, who carved our jack-o-lantern out of the pumpkin we grew with the master gardeners!

Before...

After...

With lots of help in between!

🎃🎃🎃 Shoutout to our friends Scott and Kelly at APEX-PT and Movement Center for lending us their ultimate carving kit for today's job!!  WOW...it really made the job easy and quick...and Kasey isn't missing any fingers!!  Thanks so much, Scott and Kelly! 🎃🎃🎃

Thursday

Today was spent on celebrating Candy Corn Day and Wicked Day, while doing more preparations for tomorrow's party.  

We learned from our video that candy corn has been around since the 1880s and was originally called "Chicken Feed!"  Apparently, folks either love it or hate it, but most must love it.  We couldn't believe how many candy factories across America make candy corn!

We tried a new recipe today for Candy Corn Popcorn!  It was very simple to melt candy corn and a little bit of white chocolate and pour it over popped popcorn.  We tasted a small amount...it was yummy...and we saved the rest for the party! 

We had a blast giving our corn hole boards a Halloween makeover!  

Gail and Thomas worked on making one corn hole board look like a ghost.

Michelle, Laura, Drew, Devin, Xavier, and Nan prepared some colorful bubble letters.

Erik, Liz, Bryan, Kate, and Alexis painted the other corn hole board to look like a spider web.

Michelle and Kate brought a book and magazine for our lesson on National Wicked Day, and Kate wore her shirt, too.  They posed beside our finished corn hole boards!

Later today, we made this collaborative mural to use for tomorrow's decorations!  We are excited to have our room really decked out for Halloween!

💖💖💖💖💖

We got another wonderful update on Tessa today!  She continues to enjoy weekend outings and had a fun time meeting an alpaca!  Mom Michelle reports she's venturing some shorter distances without her walker!  She's still a little unstable, so the walker is helpful on longer walks, but we are happy for her ongoing progress.  Keep working it, Tessa!  We're pulling for you and looking forward to your return to the day program!

Friday

Today we ended our week just the way we started it...with a party!  It was Halloween all day!  Enjoy our joy!

We began the morning with our dance warm up, and after that Laura's parents, Tom and Lisa P., stopped by to drop off cupcakes and help us with a spider craft!  Thanks, Lisa P. for sharing the materials for the craft and the tasty cupcakes with us!!

The spiders were so cute!  We lined them up along our table for decorations.  We forgot to get a close up, but Liz sent us one later from home.  Thanks, Liz!    

After we finished crafting spiders, we headed to Bicentennial Park for a pre-lunch Halloween Hike.  It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining and we were happy to get out and stretch out legs for the first time all week!

Lisa was disappointed that no other hikers were on the path today so they could see her walking with such a cool squad!  

Back at the center we kept the movement going with a Halloween version of musical chairs.

By our rules, no one is ever eliminated and if your chair number comes up on the spinner, you get a treat!  

Next up, lunch!  Our room looked great, and so did our spread!!  Many thanks to Carol and Nan for making the lunch magic happen while Lisa and Allison took us for the Halloween Hike!  

(Not sure what's going on with this next photo.  We are using a new photo card so maybe it's the blog program?! or the computer?!  Someone who works on this blog is very frustrated!)

Our spooky spread consisted of vampire veggies, haunted chips, frightening fruit, candy corn popcorn, and the ghoulish goodies shown below:  mummy dogs, witch fingers, ghosts, bloody punch, and celebratory cupcakes!  Thanks to Allison for the witch fingers and ghosts and to Lisa P. for the cupcakes!  We enjoyed all of them very much!

We also want to thank Annmarie's and Laura's families, as well as Peggy from GCOC, for the wonderful Halloween goodie bags!  We are so loved!!  Additionally, we added some awesome new decor items to our stash this year, some of which can be seen here, including a haunted tree that lights up.  We thank Carol's neighbor, Beth Ann, for those donations!  Our room was spectacularly decorated!

After dessert, we settled down for a few minutes and watched a fun video edition of the book The Good, The Bad, and the Spooky.  It had us in stitches as the main character, Bad Seed, tried to postpone Halloween since he didn't have his costume ready!

We ended the party, and our week, with a competitive and good sportsmanship version of Halloween corn hole.  Our ace players were not at all distracted by the decorated boards we created yesterday!  Which team would prevail?!

The ghosts?

Or the Spiders?!

It seemed like the Spiders were going to win by a landslide, but the Ghosts fought back to close the gap.  After the final toss, the Spiders were still on top, 25-20!

It was a great game...we played 4 quarters so we could have a half time show!  Check out "Shake It Off" led by Taylor Swift and Shakin' Cowboy Jack, along with a few of their BFFs!

We have too much fun sometimes!  You can't blame us, though.  It's not too often we get to start and end a week with parties!  And speaking of parties, we'll have another one next week as our Fall Birthday Season continues!!  Here's a look at our agenda for the first week of November:

Tuesday:  We're looking forward to beautiful weather as we head out for our monthly bowling activity!  We'll pick up pizza for lunch and enjoy it at Freedom Park so we can finally do a garden check.  There may be some veggies to harvest!  

Wednesday:  Today we'll do our service projects of library work, flower arranging, and food bag packing.  Please wear Arc shirts.  Other activities today will include updating our calendar for November and preparing for tomorrow's birthday party!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Spaghetti with Meat Sauce or Philly Cheese Steak.

Thursday:  Today we will celebrate Thomas's birthday!  He was born on National Nacho Day, so we'll have nachos, beans and rice, and cake for lunch!  Thomas loves games so we'll play card games and corn hole for his special day.

Friday:  We're off to Eaton for a work day so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  We'll take advantage of the forecasted nice weather with lunch and a walk at the park to end our week.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

The Arc of Abilities and The Arc of Greater Williamsburg will be collecting nonperishable food donations in support of The United Way of Virginia Peninsula's response to a surge in needs for assistance in our area.  Please join us during the month of November as we collect donations for this important food drive.  Thank you in advance!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang