On Tuesday we said "see you around" to our beloved custodian, Heike, as she is transitioning to a position at the JCC Rec Center. We've been with Heike for over 8 years, and we adore her! She's someone we can count on when we need help with anything from resetting the circuit breaker to spraying for ants to unjamming a locker! Heike is more than our custodian, she is our friend. 💜
We are happy for her as she takes on a supervisory position at the Rec Center, where she will work an evening shift. Many Arc activities take place in the evenings at the Rec, so that's why we didn't say "Goodbye." We know we'll see her around at Arc events! She also promised to come visit us at AFCC, and we know she'll keep her word. Best wishes on your new career adventure, Heike. JCC Rec Center is very lucky to have you!!
Here's how the rest of our week shaped up as we welcomed the month of October!
Tuesday
It didn't end up raining today, but it was cloudy and humid. We decided to stay at the center and do what we originally planned for Thursday: Celebrate....wait for it...National Smarties Day AND National Produce Misting Day, both of which fall on October 2! LOL! It was actually a great day, and we think Thursday will be better for our trip to Air Power Park.
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Before we got into today's celebrations, we said so long, for now, to Heike. As mentioned above, she's transitioning to a new position at the JCC Rec Center. Her replacement hasn't been hired yet, but she did introduce us to a new custodian named LaToya who will be responsible for cleaning our part of the building. Welcome, LaToya! We look forward to getting to know you!
To celebrate Produce Misting Day (it's a thing) and Smarties Day, we started by dividing into several groups to prepare our lunch. The gang has been asking for Chicken Pasta Caesar Salad, which is our specialty because it's so easy and tasty. Our recipe uses lettuce and spinach, which are types of produce. For our side dish, we chose a veggie tray for even more produce. Our dessert didn't have produce in the recipe, but it did include Smarties because we added them to a chocolate chip cookie mix!
After we roasted the chicken, Kate and Erik broke it into bite sized pieces. Nan, Bryan, and Gail went through a huge box of spinach and removed any leaves that were not up to par, as well as some of the long stems. Laura, Liz, and Devin created colorful napkin rings depicting pieces of produce!
Annmarie, Alexis, and Patrick mixed the chocolate chip cookie dough and then topped each cookie with a few Smarties for a "new" cookie recipe. Down in the kitchen, Thomas and Kevin worked on slicing and dicing skills (we missed a pic of that) and then arranged the fresh veggies onto the tray. Carol worked with Xavier and Drew on tearing crunchy iceberg lettuce into smaller pieces, and later they also used their hands to mix it in with the spinach.
When all was said and done, we had created this beautiful lunch!
We also did brain work on the topic of produce. We had clues to help us figure out answers to questions about produce we are familiar with, like carrots, broccoli, and apples, as well as less familiar ones like eggplant, kiwi, and cantaloupe.
It seems we have lots of time in the day when we don't travel! Here, we were taking a walk on the sidewalk outside the building. It was a bit humid, but there was a nice breeze.
We also had time to play a trivia game that consisted of questions about produce that were used on Jeopardy! over the years. We did pretty well!
We knew the answer to this from all the years we've spent learning about Halloween traditions!
We thought this one was hilarious...how a president used his status to refuse to eat broccoli!
Before the day was done, we even had time for Lisa to read a few more chapters from our book, The Wild Robot Protects. It's an interesting story (book 3 of 3), but so long, and there are many days we don't have time to read. It was nice to hang around and fill a "regular" day today!
Wednesday
Wednesday is for service/volunteer work, and we enjoy making a difference! First up is the JRES Library, where we usually send our helpers to volunteer around 8:45. But this morning we had to delay our arrival a few minutes because some of our early birds hadn't arrived yet or were absent. By 8:55 Carol was able to round up Bryan, Liz, Alexis, and Gail to get the job done! 👍
This was Gail's first time working in the library and she did a great job learning to place books by the guide letters (first letter of author's last name).
Next, we send a group to Grove Christian Outreach Center. This week was Carol's group's turn. Devin, Liz, Xavier, Bryan, Annmarie, Kate, Kevin, and Laura worked alongside Peggy, Joel, Ursula, and Tom to fill bags with nonperishable foods. GCOC will distribute them to families in need in the Grove community.
This week, Peggy sent everyone a banana flavored moon pie as a treat! Thank you, Peggy! We tried banana moon pies one year, on Moon Day (July 20), and liked them, but haven't had them since. We will enjoy them and as always, we are blessed by the thoughtfulness of you and Ursula in sharing goodies with us! 💖💖💖
Our 3rd service project each week is making lovely flower arrangements to deliver to Commonwealth Senior Living. Trader Joe's donates unsold flowers to The Arc which we use to fill Mason jars trimmed with colorful ribbons. CSL uses them as center pieces on dining tables and we hope the residents are cheered by our arrangements!
Great teamwork today from Patrick, Thomas, Erik, Gail, Alexis, Drew, and Allison!
Soon, everyone was back together for mid-morning movement and singing!
Today was National Pumpkin Seed Day. Check out the jack-o-lantern craft we made using pumpkin seeds we painted orange. These look cute around our room!
It wasn't quite lunch time after we finished the craft, so we played a game of "Heads Up, Seven Up" and were shocked that Allison had never played this game back in the day!
After lunch and read aloud, we updated our calendar for October. We can't believe the tenth month of the year is here already, but we're excited for all the fun plans in store! Especially the fall birthday season! 🍂🥳🍂🥳🍂
Thursday
Postponing our community outing to today was a good idea. The weather was much nicer than it was on Tuesday, and we enjoyed our day visiting Air Power Park and Gosnold's Hope Park in Hampton. We had never been to either place!
There is a small museum at Air Power Park, but it contains over 380 models of all kinds of airplanes and spacecraft, and many interesting photos and posters, too. Our guys thought the library room was great.
Devin recognized the Apollo 11 astronauts on a book cover; Laura spotted Snoopy painted on an old helmet; and Bryan thought a poster about the "first flight" at Kitty Hawk was cool!
Michelle and Drew thought this model of an astronaut and the planets was worthy of a photo!
After looking around inside the museum, we headed outside to check out several vintage aircraft and experimental space launch vehicles.
They were very large!
Don't we look quite small by comparison?!
Behind Air Power Park is an access point for Waterwalk, a 2 1/4 mile path that leads all the way to the Power Plant shopping area. We walked about 1/4 mile along Newmarket Creek before turning around to return to Air Power Park.
We had hoped to see lots of wildlife, including fiddler crabs and muskrats...but the only wildlife we spotted today was a beautiful egret.
We spotted several fighter jets, though! They were super busy flying overhead as we took our walk, reminding us of the sound of freedom!
From Air Power Park we headed to Gosnold's Hope Park for lunch. Before leaving this morning we learned that Bartholomew Gosnold was the captain of the Godspeed, one of the ships that brought colonists to Jamestown in 1607. Turns out he was very important in helping establish the settlement, even though he thought it was too swampy of a place to stay! Sadly, he died from (swampy water) disease 4 months after arriving, and his significance in history has been somewhat lost. His burial site was discovered at Historic Jamestowne in 2002. At least he has a parked named after him!
There are several very nice picnic shelters at Gosnold's Hope Park, but we could only find one bathroom station?!?!
There is a really nice playground area at this park. We played on the accessible end, but there were other parts, too.
As usual, we had a great time running, jumping, climbing, sliding, rocking, and swinging! We wore ourselves out and the ride back to the center was pretty quiet!!
Friday
Today we were off to Eaton for a work morning. It had been a while since we worked onsite, as the past few weeks we did our work at the center. It was nice to be back with our Eaton friends! We were surprised to find out we would be assembling PowerSlide Doors today...that's always a big teamwork task! In addition, we did unpacking, sorting, consolidating, and clipping. It was a VERY productive morning!
To know us is to, well...love to bring us treats! Once again, we were blessed by the kindness of someone we've worked with and left an impression on. This time it was Katie at Eaton, who has worked with us on craft projects in the past. She said she's been wanting to make cupcakes for us for a while, and today she finally got the chance! Thank you, Katie, for your truly sweet gesture! Your cupcakes were so pretty and they hit the spot at lunch time. Everyone loved having chocolate and vanilla to choose from, and there were plenty to go around. We enjoyed them very much!
After we finished our work at Eaton, we drove to Newport News Park for lunch. We didn't get any pictures of us eating today, but we did get a few on our walk after lunch. It was a gorgeous day to be outside. We are lucky our center is so close to this great park. Lots of fresh air and sunshine!
Next week's weather is looking great for more outside time. We are planning to take advantage of these opportunities! Here are our plans for the upcoming week:
Tuesday: Today we will celebrate Lisa's birthday with bowling and pizza for lunch that she's bumping up to stuffed crust for this celebration! The forecast looks good to enjoy lunch at Waller Mill Park and take a walk, one of Lisa's favorite things!
Wednesday: It's service time so please wear Arc shirts for our visit to GCOC. We'll volunteer in the library and arrange flowers for CSL, too. Other activities will include a visit from a new Arc board member who will help us with a fall craft, and brain work as we explore Metric Day. Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is offering Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Assorted Wraps.
Thursday: We're off to visit with Mike at the Watermen's Museum today for fall fun! We'll keep our eye on the forecast and hope for a nice day in Yorktown to eat lunch by the river, play bocce, and maybe ride the trolley. We'll also have time today to make cards for 2 of our October birthday friends! Please bring a bagged lunch.
Friday: We have a great ending for the week in store today! First, we'll send a group to work at Pet Supplies Plus, so please wear PSP shirts. While they are gone, the rest of us will prepare lunch sides and party decorations for a fun afternoon celebrating Erik's birthday with Christina! She's providing cheeseburger pie for lunch and we'll fill in the rest, along with Erik's family who is treating us to birthday cake. Christina also has a project planned that we hear involves...sand! Sounds interesting!
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Don't forget to get your costumes* ready for Tracy's Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event! This is always a fun time with friends and treats, and you can also get some valuable information about disability services in our area. Carol and I will be manning the Arc's table!
*Note: Costumes not required, but fun still guaranteed!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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