Saturday, March 23, 2024

Spring Arrives!

We celebrated National Goof Off Day this week!

This week we welcomed spring with a lot of sunshine and temperatures cooler than last week, but still very nice outside.  We enjoyed a slower pace, visiting with Christina at The Art Museums on Tuesday, hanging with our therapy dog friends on Wednesday, goofing off on Thursday, and working at Eaton on Friday.  Here's a recap of our week:

Tuesday

This morning we had our usual dance warm up, and then we made a neat thank you poster for our friends at Rock Steady Boxing who welcomed us for a great workout last Friday.   Isn't it neat?!

Next, we made cheer cards for Krafty Karen's 94 year old mom, who broke her hip in a fall.  She lives independently in central Virginia, but Karen will go to stay with her for a while after she finishes her post-surgery rehab.  We enjoy Karen's stories about her sweet mom, and we'll keep sending positive vibes for her recovery.   


We checked last week's blog post and then had an early lunch so we could be on the road to visit Christina at 12:30.

"Lunch Lady" Liz delivers hot meals to our friends who order from the JRES Cafeteria!

When we arrived at The Art Museums today, there were no parking spaces available.  That had never happened before so we had to call Christina and tell her we were in a pickle!  She came outside and asked a few people if they were leaving, and after we circled the lot a few times we got a couple of spaces.  🚌🚌

Inside the museum, Christina told us we would be celebrating National Poultry Day by searching for chicken related art!  The first object we found was a weathervane, and Christina told us that chickens are the official symbol for the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.


More weathervanes; 3 are made from metal and 1 is wooden.

These are toy chickens, made from paper!  Some have strings you can pull to make them move a bit.

Some of the toy chickens were squeak toys, and this video showed how they made sound when the paper they were made from was squeezed.

During Colonial times, chickens were popular as pets.  These eight brothers and sisters were holding a few, and there were several on the ground around their feet.

While not chickens, Christina was excited to tell us that on her trip to Ireland last week, she visited a museum and learned that Thomas Frye was born in Ireland.  Frye mainly practiced art in England, and  Christina always thought he was from there.  Frye made the prints on the wall behind her.  This revelation has inspired Christina to prepare a tour for next March about objects in the museums that were created by artists from Ireland.

In the Education Studio, we take up most of the seats now, but Christina arranged them so we could all see.  She was going to teach us how to draw chickens!  We followed her directions step by step.  Once we finished, we colored them with markers, and we must say, our artwork is very cute!  Thanks for another great lesson, Christina!  We loved learning that chickens are considered as smart as human toddlers, and that mother hens chirp to their babies while they are in the eggs before she lays them, and they chirp back!  Our chicken drawings are adorable!   Who knew Poultry Day could be so much fun?  



We enjoyed having Mallory with us again today!  







Wednesday, March 20

It was off to work at the library first thing for this crew, who also did a great job checking out books about farm animals.  We wanted to read more about chickens, so why not goats, pigs, and cows, too?!


Our therapy dog and handler friends came today!  It's always a good time when they visit.  We read with them first, and then, to celebrate National Memory Day, we played games and looked at "Memory Lane" blog posts of previous visits.  It was a very nice morning!

Kate, Bryan, and Xavier played a memory matching game with Indy and Caroline.  Pip is still recovering from surgery on her leg, and may be able to join us next month.  A cute picture of Pip on one of her walks follows! 🠋


Beka, Sam, and Kevin played a memory game with Kent and Leo that involved noticing which item was missing from the tray.

Carol and Casey played the missing object game with Alexis, Patrick, and Annmarie.  They played so that the person who identified the missing object got to take one away on the next turn.  (The photographer apologizes for missing your smiling face, Carol!)

Tessa, Liz, and Abraham played the memory match game with Carol and Darby.  But wait...where is Darby?! Oh, look under the table!  🠋


Aja was back with us this month and she enjoyed being cuddled by Emma during the match game with Michelle and Drew.

Karen challenged Erik, Laura, Nan, and Devin with the missing object game, and Heike got some kisses from Tessa!

We all enjoyed checking blog posts from the first time we met the group (August, 2022) and a few other fun times since then!

Sadly, for us, today was Karen and Tessa's last visit with us.  They are moving to Massachusetts to be closer to family.  We are very happy for them, but they will be missed!  Karen said she and Tessa have enjoyed their time with us.  The feeling is mutual, Karen.  Thank you for your dedication to our therapy dog sessions.  It was a pleasure working with you!


After the dogs left, we held an election to choose tomorrow's Goof Off Day movie.  Several of our friends nominated DVDs they brought from home, so when the polls opened up, we got in line!  Nan and Carol were election officials in the room, making sure that we only voted for one candidate!  Patrick's nomination of Toy Story 3 was the winner!

Only one voter was allowed in at a time!

We had two rounds of voting.  In Round 2, we had narrowed the field to 3 choices.  Beka had to decide which DVD to vote for by placing her Bingo chip in the cup.  High tech!

Xavier says, "V is for voting and victory!"

We took advantage of the milder weather today and got outside for both a brisk walk before lunch and a fun game of Spring Corn Hole Challenge after.  The first full day of spring wasn't lost on us!







Congratulations to the Jamestown Guard on today's victory!

Thursday, March 21

National Goof Off Day is tomorrow, but we will be working responsibly at Eaton, so we celebrated it today!  Actually, we worked responsibly today, too.  Before we got into "goofy" mode, we took steps to make sure our lunch would be ready because we were also celebrating National Ravioli Day (yesterday) and National French Bread Day (today)!

Silverware and napkin rings thanks to Alexis, Emma, Tessa, and Xavier

Garlic bread by Liz and Michelle

Pasta sauce with Drew and Erik

Beka and Bryan on salads

Popcorn for the movie thanks to Dev, Kate, and Mallory

Goofy decorations from Abraham and Patrick

 Annmarie, Laura and Sam arranged our dessert tray with Girl Scout Thin Mints that were donated by Annmarie's family.  Thanks so much, Sullivan Family! 😋

Goof off time began with a screening of Toy Story 3!

We went from Goofy to thankful when Liz and family gave us a new electric air pump for inflating balloons.  Ours had broken down recently.  Thanks so much, Kline Family!  This is a very useful gift!

How cool is that?!?!

This was our lunch table "before" we got to work this morning.  We magically transformed it into what you'll see in the "after" photo, which is next!  #teamwork



Lunch was served!


A closeup...yum! 

Just for fun, here are a bunch of pictures of us being goofy outside!  We had a great day and we're so happy spring has arrived!





And one pic of Annmarie just being pretty!  Isn't her sunflower shirt gorgeous?!


Friday, March 22

Today we welcomed 3 guests who wanted to see our program in action, and they became extra sets of hands at Eaton.  It was great!  Meghan has been volunteering with Arc evening programs, and Lauren and Patricia are graduate students studying school psychology at W&M.  We really appreciated their help while they "observed" today!

With Patrick looking on, Meghan worked with Devin to transfer bright red lenses to tubs and boxes.

Lauren assisted Drew and Abraham as they transferred clear lenses to tubs and boxes.

While Sam unpacked PowerSlide Doors, the "Label Ladies" (Beka, Alexis, Nan, and Emma) trained Patricia on the application of labels.

Kate and Laura handled a nuts and bolts sorting task today.

Applying nuts and bolts to the PowerSlide Doors were Tessa, Xavier, and Kevin, while Carol helped keep the flow going by bringing them doors from the label table.

Liz had the job of inserting amber lenses into the doors.

Patrick and Bryan transferred these awkwardly shaped plates from the large black bin to the smaller gray tubs.

Our work at Eaton wrapped up earlier than expected this morning, so we decided to eat lunch outside at New Quarter Park.  It was a little chilly, but the fresh air felt good!  We want to thank Meghan, Lauren, and Patricia for visiting today, and for pitching in to help us at Eaton!  👏👏👏  They were fun to get to know, and we hope they will visit us again some time.  (Actually, Meghan will be back next Wednesday!)  



Back at the center, we had Choice Time and then ended our week with a new St. Patrick's Day yoga session with Jaime called Clover the Cat.  The theme was about hard work and perseverance, and we felt we could relate to that!  After the yoga we also enjoyed a Peace Out session which is very calming and relaxing.  Always a great way to end a great week!

Jaime looking very Irish, even though she is English!

Cat pose, which is a very good stretch!

More stretching!

We are shaking our heads that the last week of March is upon us next week!  Here's a look at our plans:

Tuesday:  We're hoping for nice weather today as our plan is to go on a Spring Scavenger Hunt on the campus of W&M.  After that, we will have lunch at Freedom Park followed by games and a check on the garden.  Mallory is spending the entire week with us and will start a series of lessons on turtles and tortoises with us today, too!  She's got some fun things planned for us!  Arc shirts optional.  Bring a bagged lunch (no microwave).

Wednesday:  Mallory continues her lessons today as we make turtles with clay and create a diorama!  We'll also play Easter Bingo and maybe finish our read-aloud, Zorgamazoo (key word..."maybe.")  We welcome Meghan to volunteer again and speaking of volunteering, we will be at GCOC this morning so please wear Arc shirts.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is open for Popcorn Chicken Bowl or Hot Dog.

Thursday:  Jeff is coming for art today!  We'll use crayons and watercolors as we create scenes of spring.  Mallory will present her third turtles/tortoise lesson, and it will include yoga with Jaime so dress to stretch!  We are also celebrating National Something on a Stick Day and trying a recipe for homemade baked corn dogs and veggie kabobs for lunch.  Sounds interesting!

Friday:  It's a Pet Supplies Plus work day, so please wear PSP shirts.  The crew that remains at AFCC will update the calendar for April, which begins Monday!  Mallory will wrap up her turtle/tortoise unit with, weather permitting, a visit to NN Park for a picnic lunch and a walk to look for turtles.  Please bring a bagged lunch.  

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang