This week we were excited to celebrate Drew's birthday on Friday! We didn't have any birthday parties in February, though we did celebrate a few other things...haha! We were also excited about visiting the new Williamsburg Fire Department, which we did on Tuesday. The rest of the week found us volunteering at Grove Christian Outreach and working at Pet Supplies Plus...and also stuffing a few hundred Easter eggs! Check out our week that was filled with a variety of activities!
Tuesday, February 27
We had been looking forward to visiting the new Williamsburg Fire Department all month. Over the past couple of years we observed the older building being torn down and watched as the new one was built. Our tour was a lot of fun, and the new firehouse is amazing! Here are a few pictures...and videos, too!
We had to park across the street near the Community Building, so we got a bit of a walk. That was good because our tour lasted about 45 minutes longer than we expected, and when we finished, around noon, the wind had really picked up so we decided not to go to the park to picnic and walk.
We were happy to welcome Liz's parents, Lise and Greg, as extra chaperones. It was a big day for Greg, as he had shoulder surgery 2 weeks ago and still has a couple of weeks to go in the sling, which has really crimped his style! (He's been in a bit of pain, too.) We're glad he felt like joining us on this beautiful, and not yet windy, morning!
We divided into 3 groups for most of the tour. This is one of our guides, Mark #1.
Mark #1 snapped this picture for us.
Tom was the guide for another group. Here, he was telling them about this 1948 truck that is in the part of the new building they refer to as "The Museum."
Very nice kitchen with separate refrigerators for each of the 3 shifts! Shifts are 24 hours at a time.
Eating area with a nice lounge/tv area in the background.
There are beautiful photos all over the building. They are printed on glass. This one was taken at Zable Stadium at W&M. It's of fire department volunteers, many of whom are W&M students.
No one was using the state-of-the-art workout room this morning.
Most of the shift members were in class! This class was getting a review on working around toxic materials. We peeked into the classroom from a conference area.
This is the huge bay area where all of the ambulances, rescue vehicles, and fire trucks are parked. They get washed every morning!
The bunk rooms are downstairs, so the need for a fire pole isn't as great at this station, but they do have one. (By the way, we didn't take pictures, but the bunk rooms are private and only sleep one. Bathrooms are shared but only by a couple of shift members at a time. ) Tom said sometimes the pole is used if a call comes in and crew are upstairs in the workout room or in a classroom. With a little prodding from us, he demonstrated how to use it!
Mark #1 explained that the gurneys on their ambulances are mechanical and can be easily gotten in/out out of the trucks and lowered/raised by the push of a few buttons. Patients still have to be lifted by medics to be placed on the gurneys, though!
Here's Mark #2 on the left! He and Tom explained that during a fire emergency they will do their best to protect as much of the "stuff" in the building as they can, and try not to "wreck" more than they have to in order to get things under control. They strive to protect things like photographs, furniture, and other valuables as much as they can, sometimes by tossing blue tarps over them.
Mark #2 showed us the hydraulic spread-cutter, often called the "Jaws of Life." He recalled the first time when he had to use this to remove the roof from a car, and how unbelievably exhausted it left him. It's very heavy.
After we got this group shot with Tom and Mark #2, we asked if the lights on one of the vehicles could be turned on for a demonstration.
After the lights demo, we were making our way to the back exit door when an alarm sounded! We quickly moved aside as 3 firefighters came running down the stairs. A fourth one used the pole!
What an exciting end to our tour as we watched these amazing local heroes spring into action! They were responding to a call about chest pain at a hotel. On our way back to the AFCC, we saw the fire truck returning. We don't know if the ambulance transported someone to a hospital, but we hope the outcome for the person with chest pain was good. Many thanks to the shift members on duty at the Williamsburg Fire Department, especially Tom, Mark #1, and Mark #2, for a fantastic tour this morning! We learned a lot and were very impressed with your new digs! Thank you for everything you do to keep us and our community safe!
Wednesday, February 27
It was a busy morning at the Arc of Abilities! First, we sent a group to work in the JRES Library where Mr. Nonnemacher had plenty of books for the FIVE of them to shelve! (We're glad the JRES students read that much!)
Annmarie separated the nested eggs from their packaging so they would be easier to stuff. Sam, Drew, and Abraham were our "runners," who made sure the gang at the stuffing table had plenty of empty eggs to fill at all times.
Alexis, Michelle, Erik, and Beka were stuffers, filling each egg with candy and snapping them securely shut so the good stuff wouldn't fall out! Our runners also took the stuffed eggs to the "packer," who was stationed at the pool table.
Beka was a great stuffer!
Patrick was a great packer, carefully transferring the filled eggs to a larger box so they wouldn't pop open.
What a fun job! We'll finish it in a couple of weeks with a different group.
Our second group traveled to Grove Christian Outreach Center where they worked with volunteers Peggy, Tom, Ursula, and Joel to fill distribution bags with a nice variety of nonperishable food that had just been delivered. We were happy to see Peggy and Joel back. They had been gone for about a month for travels to Michigan for the funeral of Joel's father, and to South Carolina to welcome their 3rd grandchild, Owen.
After a couple of busy hours, we had time for a walk before lunch. Instead of doing laps around the garden, we established a new circuit: All the way down the sidewalk to the back of the garden...make a U-turn...back up the sidewalk to the front of the AFCC and around the loop in front of Door 7. We did three laps in 15 minutes and guessed it was a little over 1/2 mile. Next time, we'll go 4 laps!
We're also getting ready for next Wednesday when we will celebrate our nearly 8 year partnership with Eaton Corporation. We're hosting a luncheon for our current Eaton friends, as well as a special one from the past! Today we began getting some decorations ready, including a lot of bubble letters we colored in shades of "Eaton" blue. Tessa cut the letters out for us, a task she enjoys and does very well.
We ended the day with an old school game of "Heads Up, 7 Up!" It took a few rounds before we were all kind of...sort of...on the same page. It was fun and all of those who understood the game better were very patient with the others, and we all got a few good giggles out of it! A cool way to end our day, and we will definitely play again!
Good guess Drew, but Erik wasn't the one who tapped you! Mr. Cool Bryan, with a straight face, wins again!
LEAP DAY - February 29, 2024
The last time we had a Leap Day was right before Covid hit, so today we are a little bit in awe that it's been 4 years since the pandemic... We were glad that this year's Leap Day finds things almost back to normal!
We began the day with our dance warm up. The HVAC system is being worked on this week by Jerry, the electrician. He's one of our school friends, so when he was working on the unit this morning, it made us think about "electric" songs... We dedicated "Electric Avenue" to him, and he said we are good dancers! He declined to join us, citing a "bad knee." Poor, Jerry!😟
Next, Lisa shared email messages from some of our friends. We had sent Lena and Marlo (therapy dog) a message thanking them for the donated books and games they sent last week. Lena is finishing grad school and she and Marlo are on hiatus from joining us for therapy dog visits, but they stay in touch and hope to be back soon. Lena replied to our message and sent some cute pictures of Marlo. We had the boys pose with him!
Next we heard from Caroline with an update on Pip. She continues to recover from her doggy "ACL" surgery, and she's up to taking 13 minute walks and also going up slight inclines! Caroline keeps her calm by stuffing chew toys with cheese or putting kibble in a game toy that takes Pip a while to open. Indy gets walks on her own since she can go farther and faster. It's been 4 weeks since Pip's surgery, and she has 4 to go before her x-ray that will hopefully reveal good healing and allow her to become her good ole active self again. Our girls posed with Pip.
The highlight of today was learning about Leap Day, and we also took today as an opportunity to learn about frogs! During our video, Mallory paused it to give us some clarification on toads vs. frogs. She assured us that you can't get warts by touching toads or frogs!!
Mallory also brought us popcorn for a Leap Day treat! She said she was craving some for herself, but thought it would be nice to share with her friends. Aww, thanks, Mallory! That was very thoughtful of you. We do love popcorn!
The popcorn went well with a Leap Day treat we had already planned to enjoy - chocolate chip cookie bars that Krafty Karen brought us when the MGs visited last week. We had stuck them in the freezer since we already had a dessert that day, and decided today would be a great day for a sweet treat. They went very well with the saltiness of the popcorn. Thanks so much, Krafty Karen! You know you are one of our favorite bakers! We enjoyed these bars very much. What a fun Leap Day celebration for us!
Speaking of our MG friends, here's Carolyn's beautiful journal update which recaps their visit with us from last week! Thanks, Carolyn!
Understanding how Leap Day came to be was a bit difficult for us, but Mystery Doug does a pretty good job of it in this video that we watched Long story short, it actually takes the earth about 365 days and 6 hours to orbit the sun. So, every 4 years there are an extra 24 hours that need to be accounted for so, in hundreds of years, our seasons won't get off track...Click the picture if you'd like to hear Doug's explanation!
Everyone colored a Leap Day picture, which we mounted on green paper and used to create a giant photo frame. Here are the only other pictures we took today...of lots of "Froggy Friends" enjoying this extra day that only comes around once every 4 years! (We were missing Kate and Abraham today.)
Friday, March 1
We started the third month of 2024 today and the highlight was a party for Drew's birthday! More on that later...as always, our work comes before our fun! We sent a crew to Pet Supplies Plus and the others stayed at AFCC to update the March calendar, begin changing the room to St. Patrick's Day and spring colors, and get things set up for the party!
Here's what went down at the pet store today:
We were delighted to have Mallory's help again today! Our gang loves working with her. Here, she assisted as Michelle introduced Beka to working at PSP!
Kevin, Drew, and Liz were a busy trio stocking items on the dog aisle!
A large delivery had come in on Thursday so Bryan, Devin, and Erik were quite busy with their stocking tasks.
Can you believe it is almost St. Patrick's Day? Come on down to Pet Supplies Plus and pick up some goodies for your "lucky" pets! Thanks again, Mallory and thanks also to PSP's Brittany and Anna for working with us today!
Sam and Xavier had a lot of winter-themed items to remove from the walls. We've given up our hopes for snow and are moving on to spring now!
Patrick and Lexi added clip art to to the calendar squares to represent our March activities.
Annmarie and Laura colored the MARCH letters in bright colors that will compliment the rainbows, leprechauns, and pots of gold we hope to add next week!
Emma and Tessa prepared to reset the numbers on the calendar and when the new squares were ready to go in, they did that, too! This was the first time we've done the calendar update activity without the help of the entire group. Everyone multi-tasked and we got it done!
The morning went by quickly and soon it was time to celebrate Drew's birthday! We had a delicious lunch of chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A, along with tater tots, fresh veggies, pears, and Drew's favorite beverage, pink lemonade! Lunch was followed by very tasty cupcakes, too! Thank you, Andy and Donna, for treating us today. We're sure you could tell how popular Chick-fil-A nuggets are with our gang! The party was a huge hit, and hanging out with you was a lot of fun, too!
One happy birthday boy!
Three amigos! (Fun photo from Drew's dad!)
Happy 33rd Birthday, Drew! We loved partying with you today and we hope your every wish comes true!
Drew took his parents up on the option to go home after the party, and we didn't blame him! Liz left early to head out of town, too. The rest of us headed to Newport News Park for fresh air and a brisk walk, but we missed them!
When we got to the playground, it was our lucky day! No little ones were at the park today, so we got to tap into our inner-6 year olds to swing, slide, and run around! It was so much fun, and a wonderful way to end another wonderful week!
Xavier, Annmarie, Erik, Michelle, and Patrick swinging high and swinging low!
Beka and Mallory racing down the slides!
Peek a boo from Xavier, Laura, and Tessa!
Mallory gave Emma a whirl on this thing and then backed out of the way!
Annmarie and Kevin about to go for another slide!
With Beka looking on, Bryan, Devin, and Sam raced down these slides. Devin may or may not have jumped the whistle!
What a great ending to our week! March got off to a fabulous start! We'll keep this happy vibe going right on into next week, too. Check out our rocking plans:
Tuesday: Get ready for bowling and pizza for lunch as it's the first Tuesday of the month! Many thanks to Sam's grandmother, and our friend, Nina, for the Domino's gift card that will provide today's pizza! 😍🍕 We'll also finish preparations/decorations for our big Eaton celebration luncheon tomorrow! Wear Arc shirts, please!
Wednesday: We're showing our appreciation to our friends at Eaton today with a lunch of bbq sandwiches, baked beans, and cake! They have been our vocational partner for almost 8 years (in April), and they recently facilitated a grant for The Arc of Greater Williamsburg for $20,000 from the Eaton Foundation. We're honored to prepare lunch for them! After lunch, we will all crash and call it a day...or maybe just have an extra long Choice Time!
Thursday: It's funny how some of our "big" days tend to come all at once. The celebrations will continue today as we party for Annmarie's birthday! Her actual birthday is tomorrow, but we will be working, so today her family is treating us to a fried chicken and cupcake lunch! Are we blessed, or what? 💖 We'll also enjoy a couple of her favorite activities: Corn Hole and Disney Song Trivia.
Friday: We'll "slow" things down (not really) with an Eaton Work Day! Please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. After we finish our work, we'll check the weather to decide if we take a walk at the park or return to AFCC for yoga with Jaime, so dress to stretch, too.
Happy Weekend to Everyone,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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