A Week Without a Birthday!

 

We had our first week without a birthday celebration in a while.  Instead, we got to be princes and princesses (or kings and queens depending on who you asked) on Tuesday!  It was National Princess Day, but for us it was also National Prince Day.  We celebrated by channeling the prince or princess in all of us and spent the day being kind, helpful, and productive!  This week also found us visiting Christina at The Art Museums of CW, hanging out with our therapy dog friends, cooking and being absurd on the same day, and working at Eaton.  AND, we did it all without Carol.  She was visiting with family in Utah for her brother's wedding!

Tuesday

Carol was absent this week so we had some help from The Arc's Kasey.  She joined us today, but we didn't get a picture with her!  So sorry, Kasey!  You were a great substitute for Carol today.  👏👏  We will see you again on Friday, and we promise to get a photo then!  👍 

The first thing we worked on this morning was a follow up lesson to our food drive shopping trip from last Friday.  We learned that we did very well staying within our budget, only going over by 37 cents!  Some group members mentioned that they were happy to find items on sale, while others were proud to have gotten more for their money by shopping store brands.  One group mentioned reading labels to see how nutritious some of their items were!  Great job to our guys and once again, many thanks to one of Laura's neighbors for the cash donation that we used to make the purchases!

As mentioned previously, today was National Princess Day, but we included our guys, too.  Before decorating our crowns, Alexis and Kate shared the princess dolls they have.  Alexis also wore a shirt that features the horses of Disney princesses and Kate wore her Elsa shirt.  👸👸

We had fun decorating our crowns with bling, and using letter stickers to put our names on them!  There's a prince or princess inside us all.  💗  We're good looking as royalty, so here's another look at our group photo!

Next, we put our royal good natures to work making cards for Christina and our therapy dog friends so we could express our thankfulness for them.  After that, we took a walk around the garden and then had an early lunch.  Soon it was time to load up for a visit with Christina at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg!

Christina picked up on our Prince and Princess Day theme by taking us on a search for museum objects that reminded us of royalty.  We found prints and paintings of kings and queens, a mirror that was gilded in gold, silver from the time of King George III (before the colonies revolted against him), a lovely painting that included a castle on a cliff, and a handkerchief that featured pictures of a royal family.  What a fun scavenger hunt it was!

In the education studio, we created our own royal shields that depicted some of our favorite things.

Thanks for making us feel like royalty today, Christina!  It was fun learning about things that princes and princesses (and kings and queens) would have used and how those things set them apart from "ordinary" folks.  We enjoyed making our shields, too!

Wednesday

It was all about Thanksgiving when our therapy dog friends visited today.  We needed books for our reading rotations, so Alexis and Liz went to the JRES Library and checked out these great selections for us!

We had 5 handlers and 6 dogs today, including a couple of new ones.  Here, we have "old" friends Carol and Darby, who were reading with Kevin and Devin; and Kent, Leo, and Tavish, who were reading with Liz and Bryan.  In the bottom photo is Vicky with her younger pup, Lucy!  Vicky usually brings Aubree, but now that Lucy is certified, she can bring either of them...or both!  Welcome, Lucy!

Our "old" friend Marisol brought Tucker today and along with Nan, they read with Xavier, Kate, and Erik.  The other photo shows new friend, Lisa, and her standard poodle, Lola, who enjoyed reading with Michelle, Thomas, and Laura.  Welcome Lisa and Lola!

After our reading rotations we all got together for a game of Thanksgiving trivia, followed by wonderful speeches to thank our dogs and handler friends for the time they spend with us each month.  It's a day we look forward to very much!  Great job by today's Speech Committee members Michelle, Alexis, Kate, Thomas, Liz, and Devin. We are thankful for all of our therapy dog friends, old AND new!

We are also very thankful for our dedicated volunteer, Allison!  She missed all the dog fun today so she could put together the arrangements for Commonwealth Senior Living.  We could have squeezed it in after lunch, but Allison was so gracious in offering to do it so we could do other things later.  The flowers from Trader Joe's were particularly pretty this week, and Allison made lovely jars.  She also brought us a treat of peanut butter oatmeal cookie bars!  Allison, we love having you as a volunteer!  You are an important part of our team!!  Thank you for the cookie bars...they were YUMMY!

Because Allison got the flowers done, we had time after lunch to listen to our read-aloud and play board games!  We were celebrating National Play Monopoly Day, but our guys give Monopoly a thumbs down for being "too long and boring!"  We celebrated by playing other board games instead.  It was a fun afternoon!

Thursday

On Carol's third day away this week, we held down the fort with a day at the center...no travel.  It was National Peanut Butter Fudge Day and we had been curious about trying a 2 ingredient recipe for it.  Devin, Gail, and Patrick helped mix up a jar of creamy peanut butter with a container of vanilla cake frosting.  Next, we heated it in the microwave for about 1 minute to get it kind of gooey.

 

After pouring it into a pan lined with parchment paper (thanks, Nan), Abraham smoothed it out and we put it in the fridge for a couple of hours so it could set.  Hmmm...easy peasy...but would it taste like peanut butter fudge?  We would find out later!

As if on cue, Liz mentioned that the smell of the peanut butter fudge was making her stomach growl, and our next activity happened to be a Mystery Science lesson about why our stomachs growl!!  We learned that muscles in our digestive tract help to squeeze food along from the time we swallow until the food reaches our intestines.  When there isn't as much food to move along, such as when it's getting close to time for our next meal, it's easier to hear the sounds those squeezing muscles make...which sound like growling!

After learning about digestion, we got into groups to discuss some of our favorite (supposedly) healthy foods.  We searched for pictures online that we could print, cut out, and use to complete pennants which we made into a banner.  This was a good activity for our more seasoned computer geeks to get a chance to teach others some copy and paste skills.

While working on our healthy food banner, some of us paused to help with lunch preparation.  

Erik, Devin, and Bryan needed to add more water to the pot of green beans.  They were checking how much was in the measuring pitcher so they would know how much more seasoning to add.

Alexis, Thomas, Laura, and Abraham put together the macaroni and cheese.  We used a combination of cheese packets and shredded cheese.  Note:  That large pan (a 2 lb. box of elbows) was waaaay too much for us and we didn't eat it all!

Our chicken grilling team of Michelle, Liz, and Gail got lots of credit for filling the room with a great aroma!  Made our stomachs start growling again!

Meanwhile, Patrick, Alexis, and Kate redistributed food drive donations so we could easily carry each bag.  We'll drop them off at GCOC tomorrow.  We're proud of how successful our food drive has been!

Lunch was delicious! 

Happy National Peanut Butter Fudge Day!  We were pleasantly surprised at how creamy and tasty the two ingredient fudge was.  We'll add this recipe to our keepers!

 

We finished the afternoon by being silly since it was also National Absurdity Day.  We tried a game where we had to say "Zip" or "Zap" and change direction each time the word changed.  We almost caught on near the end, but we were so seriously concentrating that it didn't seem all that silly!

During a game of Pie Face Showdown we let loose a little more! 😜

We also want to note that we've been working on Eaton tasks this week.  Erik, Alexis, and Liz have applied gaskets while Michelle packed and Bryan (not shown) cut the gaskets into individual pieces from the long rolls.  Thanks for getting this done, friends!

Friday

There was plenty of work to do at Eaton this visit.  We had a smaller than usual crew, with just 12, but unpacking, consolidating, and  assembling PowerSlide Doors happened!

Thanks to Kasey for filling in for Carol today!  She learned many skills including how to tighten screws and apply labels to PowerSlide Doors!

Erik taught Kasey the ins and outs of tightening screws.  Thomas, Kevin, and Xavier inserted hundreds of screws this morning, putting 4 sets on each door.  Nan, Alexis, and Liz taught Kasey how to apply labels, and Kate inserted amber lenses to begin the assembly process.

Gail and Bryan had a huge stack of yellow frames to transfer to bins and they also had to fold the paper surrounding them so it could be boxed for recycling.  Laura and Patrick consolidated parts by packing them more neatly, freeing up extra bins for Gail and Bryan.  Our man Devin set the pace for the PowerSlide Door assembly by making sure new boxes were opened and finished boxes were moved to the storage pallet.

We were proud of our team's work this morning, especially being a smaller crew and missing Carol!  When our work was done, we decided it was overcast and a bit chilly outside, so we returned to AFCC for lunch instead of going to the park.  We'll get our Turkey Trot in on Monday!

Our Fall Food Drive will come to an end next week, so please keep the donations coming.  After lunch today we delivered another 220 pounds of non-perishable food to GCOC!  That makes our total 465 pounds donated since the drive began.  Thank you, Arc of Abilities families!

The back of the van was full, and we had more bags on the seats with us.  Plus, we had to put some of the donations in Kasey's car!

Our last activity of the day was a relaxing segment of yoga with Jaime.  She has a new episode about Thanksgiving, which is cool since Jaime is British!  

Arc of Abilities will be in session on MONDAY and TUESDAY, November 24-25 to provide a two-day week.  We will be closed Wednesday-Friday for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Here's what we have planned for the shortened week:

Monday:  We're going to be outside today as we move around ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving meal!  We'll take a "Turkey Trot" (walk) around the campus of William and Mary and then head to Freedom Park to check on the garden and have a picnic.  The weather forecast calls for sunny skies and 58 degrees.  Let's hope it sticks!  Please bring a bagged lunch.

Tuesday:  We'll have some Thanksgiving activities and also remove our fall decorations so we can update our calendar to prepare for December.  We will cook spaghetti squash with pesto sauce (that we made/froze with basil we harvested from the garden) for lunch.  We'll also draw our Secret Santa selections so please make sure you returned your Secret Santa Helper Form by today!

Have a wonderful weekend, and we'll see everyone on MONDAY!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

Happy Birthday Patrick and Elizabeth!

 

Alas, our fall season of birthday celebrations came to an end this week as we honored Patrick and Elizabeth, each with birthdays on Tuesday!  We'll take a break for a few weeks and then kick off the winter celebrations in early December.  Oh, what shall we do until then?!  Haha!!  

In other news, we had a great Service Work Wednesday, volunteering in the library, at Grove, and making flower arrangements.  On Thursday we welcomed Mike from the Watermen's Museum for a Friendsgiving lunch and on Friday we worked at PSP, cleaned up around our center, and went on a heartwarming shopping trip in support of the food drive.  We also welcomed Sara to visit on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday as she is on the waitlist for our program.  You'll see her in some of this week's photos!

Tuesday

Our morning was busy as we began with our dance warm up and then turned our attention to card making.  It's only once a year that we get to make two birthday cards for the same day, and today was it!  We made cards for Pat and Liz that filled the birthday board with color and good wishes.  Next, we had a discussion about Veterans Day, and made a list of the veterans in our immediate AoA families.  We composed a message to thank them for their service, colored the cards, and sent them home today.  Many thanks to our AoA veterans, and all American veterans, for their service and sacrifice for our country!  We also squeezed in some indoor movement, followed by a stretching session, too!

Soon it was time to celebrate our birthday twins Elizabeth and Patrick!  Liz turned 31, Pat turned 34, and don't they look great?!  They have been sharing their special day with us for years, and we always look forward to it!

We love when our families are able to join us!  Today, Liz's mom, Lise, and Pat's parents, Sue and Kevin, treated us to a delicious lunch of baked ziti, salad, bread, and cupcakes.  We missed Liz's dad, Greg, who had a follow up appointment for his recent knee replacement surgery.  Thank you, Lise, Sue, and Kevin for delivering such a tasty lunch and for spending time with us to celebrate your great kids!  Greg, you'll have to visit us soon, too.  We missed you!

Pat and Liz, we hope all your wishes come true!  

It turned out to be too chilly, and windy, to head to the park, so Liz chose a Thanksgiving version of Jeopardy for a party game.  We knew a lot of the answers about Thanksgiving foods, symbols, and traditions, but something we didn't know was that the average American consumes over 4,000 calories on Thanksgiving Day.  Say it isn't so?!

Patrick chose corn hole for our other party game.  He, like his friends, really enjoys playing this game.  Today, Pat and the boys played against Liz and the girls, and the boys were on fire!  

Congrats to Pat and the guys for a 23-12 win today!  Birthday fun for everyone, despite the score!

Wednesday

In her second trial day with us, Sara expressed her interest in volunteering at the JRES Library.  She has library experience, and she did a fantastic job!  That's Sara on the right behind Laura. 

Our CSL flower team had mostly sunflowers to work with this morning.  Devin, Kate, and Nan filled the Mason jars with pretty bursts of fall color.

Liz and Kevin colored pictures we will use for tomorrow's luncheon with Mike.

Our GCOC group arrived with this week's Food Drive donations.  We added another 45 pounds to the contributions from The Arc!  Thank you AoA families for supporting our efforts to assist Grove as they serve those in the community who are living with food insecurity.

As usual, we helped set up the assembly line.  We worked with Joel and Peggy today.

Michelle mentored Drew on transferring the filled bags to the storage shelf.  She reported he was quick to learn how to place the bags and push them toward the back of the shelf so they could fit more!

Thank you, Peggy, for baking very delicious lemon pudding cookies for us!  Joel said he "tested" them at home to make sure they were "OK" and we are really glad he didn't eat all of them because they were awesome!!  🍋🍋🍋

Back at the center we had a movement activity and made crafty pumpkin pie slices to use for decorations for tomorrow's lunch.  Then, we watched the trailers for three Disney movies from the early 2000s that Lisa thought we might like.  She gave us a ballot so we could vote for which one to watch this afternoon.  It was a close vote, with Tiger Cruise edging out Hounded by one vote!

After lunch and Choice Time we watched Tiger Cruise and Gail offered to run the concession stand so we could have popcorn at intermission!  Thanks, Gail.  Your popcorn is the best!

We enjoyed Tiger Cruise, which was about "Navy brats" who get to spend time on with their parents who are stationed aboard an aircraft carrier.  They learn how important their parents' work is during the course of the cruise, and come to see them in a different light by the end of it.  Turns out it was a good choice considering we observed Veterans Day this week!

Thursday

Yesterday we had done some prep work for today's Friendsgiving Luncheon, but we still had work to do this morning.  Liz shared her Aunt Anne's recipe for corn pudding.  It turned out to be a very popular dish! 😋

We were also having roasted sweet potatoes with a citrus glaze.  That's one of Carol's recipes, and Gail help with its preparation by zesting and then squeezing the juice out of fresh lemons.

We worked with partners to make cards for Mike so we could express our appreciation for his contributions to our learning and fun throughout the year.  Alexis helped Drew with some tricky coloring of tiny turkey feathers.

Here are the finished cards, along with the pumpkin pie decorations we made yesterday, and our "Happy Friendsgiving" message.  (Mike's contribution to the luncheon was going to be a pumpkin pie cheesecake dessert!)

There was time for a game of Thanksgiving Bingo.  We found a version that used a slideshow instead of traditional calling cards.  It was cool to look at the screen to see what was called, and it was easy to find it on our Bingo cards, too!

By late morning it was beautiful and sunny outside, so we enjoyed walking, ball bouncing, and basketball hooping.

Heike surprised us with a drop by visit, too!  She said she really likes her new job as a supervisor for Parks & Rec.  She oversees the cleaning at the Rec Center on Longhill as well as at Legacy Hall, the Human Services building on Olde Towne Road, and the office complex on Palmer Lane.  It's keeps her hopping!  It was a joy to see her!

Finally, it was lunchtime and Mike arrived!  He brought a turkey marionette that had belonged to his late mother.  He told us about how she loved to create through knitting, crocheting, sewing, and such, and that she specialized in Colonial inspired projects.  Maybe Mike got his thirst for history from his mom!

We chatted a bit with Mike before eating and learned that he is very busy these days doing all kinds of programs in communities near and far that will lead up to America's 250th Anniversary next year.  He's got such a passion for Colonial American history, and it shows!  Way to go, Mike! 

 

Our Friendsgiving bounty consisted of turkey and dressing casserole, corn pudding, pumpkin pie cheesecake, roasted sweet potatoes, and cranberry salad.  We served this deliciousness on festive Thanksgiving plates that were provided by our friend, and Laura's mom, Lisa P.  It was a beautiful table!

After lunch we enjoyed more time hanging out with Mike.  It had been a couple of years since he came to our place.  Our "Mike Speeches" team of Liz, Devin, Kate, and Thomas shared heartfelt words about our friendship with Mike, and he read each of the cards.  Next, he served the very tasty pumpkin pie cheesecake dessert he made, presented on a holiday tray complete with a festive turkey centerpiece!  And of course, there was singing before he left!  

Thanks for spending Friendsgiving with us, Mike!  We always relish time spent with you, and the joy and fun that comes with it!

Our day ended with a look at the website for Food Lion, which is where we are going shopping tomorrow.  We received a cash donation for the food drive, so we're going to divide into groups and shop within a budget to purchase nonperishable items.  Today, we learned that it's important to compare prices and sizes, and to realize that convenience products don't always go as far as the basics.  We're looking forward to spending wisely tomorrow!

Friday

Today was a good work day for us.  We sent one group to the pet store, and the other group got a lot done around the center!

Our big task at AFCC this morning was to try and purge some of the stuff we have accumulated in the storage closet we share with Parks & Rec.  We began by clearing away some extra boxes and sweeping the floor.  Then it was just a matter of consolidating things to make the shelves look a little neater.  This was about 1/2 way through our job that took an hour.

Erik, Patrick, and Kevin recycled a lot of the extra boxes we finally let go!  In other chores, Annmarie counted out fresh crayons so we could add them to our crayon tubs, and Nan and Michelle prepared a cart of books from JRES Library for discarding.  Down in the kitchen, Gail and Alexis reorganized our mixed-up cooking utensils!

Kevin and Patrick helped rearrange the shelves in the storage closet and Devin and Erik sorted and restocked a couple of our pantry tubs.  (Drew also helped Devin clean tables and chairs, but their photo didn't transfer to the blog correctly.  Still trying to figure out the problem with that!)  

Meanwhile, today's experience at Pet Supplies Plus included plenty of stocking.  Abraham and Liz introduced Sara to the routine!

Bryan and Laura teamed up to empty this card pretty quickly!

Scott welcomed Xavier's help lifting bags of dog food for Scott to put on the high shelves.

We got to work with both Scott and Roxanne today!  After finishing our shift, we showcased Thanksgiving toys because we know our pets would love some turkey, too!  Thanks, Scott and Roxanne, for another engaging and productive work experience.

After lunch we took a trip to Food Lion.  One of Laura's generous neighbors gave us a donation to use for the food drive.  Our goal was to get as many food items as we could while staying within our budget.

We divided into 4 groups and used the skills we discussed yesterday to make our selections.  Sara, Devin, and Alexis were the Protein Group.  Laura, Xavier, Erik, Abraham, and Carol were the Fruit Group.  Liz, Gail, Nan, and Kevin were the Pasta/Rice Group.  Bryan, Lisa, Patrick, Michelle, and Drew were the Veggie Group.

 

We'll share more details next week after we have a follow-up lesson on Tuesday, but we think we did really well with our selections and our budget!

The shopping trip was the ending to our day and the week.  We enjoyed getting to know Sara (pink jacket in the photo), and we hope she liked spending time with us.  Next week Carol will be on a trip to Utah for her brother's wedding, but we'll carry on (somehow) without her!  Here's a look at our plans...and what she'll miss!

Tuesday:  We'll welcome Kasey to help out today in Carol's absence.  Our activities will include card making, a celebration of Princess Day (we're making it Prince Day, too!), and a visit with Christina at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.  Feel free to bring your prince or princess stuff!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Walking Taco (?!) or Pizza.

Wednesday:  Today we get a visit from our therapy dog friends!  We'll have reading rotations and games with a Thanksgiving theme.  We'll also celebrate National Play Monopoly Day by playing board games, and we'll arrange flowers for CSL, too.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Assorted Wraps.

Thursday:  Today is National Absurdity Day and we're going to explore what "absurdity" means while having fun with some silly activities.  We'll also prepare grilled chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, and green beans for lunch, and peanut butter fudge for dessert to celebrate Peanut Butter Fudge Day.

Friday:  Kasey will join us again for work at Eaton so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  We're hoping for nice weather so we can eat at the park and get in an early Turkey Trot!  We'll also stop by GCOC to drop off this week's food drive donations.  Time permitting, we'll wrap up the week with a yoga segment with Jaime.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support of the Arc of Abilities!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang