Party Time!

April is a month full of birthday celebrations at the AoA!  This week, we celebrated 3 of our own, Sam, Chloe, and Becky.  We did a few other fun things, too, including starting our Spring session with the master gardeners and observing Army Rescue divers in training.  Check out the great week we had!

We were celebrating Sam's birthday on Tuesday at Freedom Park, so the first thing we had to do was make his birthday cards!  Our guys enjoy writing special messages to each other on their birthdays.  

Tuesday was the first day of our Spring session with our wonderful master gardener friends!  We were happy to see lots of familiar faces, and welcome a couple of new ones!

Barbara showed us a piece of potato that has sprouted eyes.  We planted several of them in a "potato bag" that we brought back to AFCC.

Liz, Alexis, and Annmarie planted potatoes in the bag.  We have never heard of planting potatoes in a bag, but Barb told us it could yield up to 5 or 6 pounds of potatoes in a few months!  We're excited to put this in our garden area (outside the window) and watch the potatoes grow.

After potato planting, we went to several areas of the garden to start sprucing up.  The Botanical Garden will be part of the Virginia Historic Garden Week Tour this year!  If you're interested in the Williamsburg tour, check out this link: Williamsburg Historic Garden Tour - April 30, 2019

Kate helped Liz and Marcella remove the mustard greens so we could plant radishes and beets in this spot.  We got to bring the greens back with us...yummy in our future!

Chloe and Laura helped Carolyn and Joanne clear the spinach bed so we could plant lettuce there.  We also have another fresh spinach salad in our future!

Karen worked with Liz, Patrick and Kevin to add compost to this strawberry bed.  There are several blossoms on the plants, and that means we will have strawberries soon.  Unless the birdies beat us to them!

This is a package of seed tape, which is something else new we learned about on Tuesday!  This allows the seeds to be evenly spaced and makes it a little easier to get the planting done.

Alexis, Kate, and Rick planted beet and radish seed tape.  The white paper is biodegradable and won't hurt the soil.  We'll be curious to see how the beets and radishes grow!

Linda told us about the "Herb of the Day," rosemary.  She said back in "the day," it was believed that putting it near your head, such as in your hair, would help improve memory.  So rosemary got the nickname, "Herb of Remembrance."

We will certainly remember how delicious the rosemary shortbread cookies were that Linda baked for us!  Here, Kate, Carolyn, and our volunteer Pam W. made sure everyone got a sample, along with some water or lemonade!  Thanks, MGs, for a great kick off to our season.  We look forward to working with you again!

We celebrated Sam's birthday with a party at the park!  The nice folks at the Interpretive Center let us set up inside since it was still wet outside from overnight rain, and Coach Teri treated us to pizza and cupcakes!  Thanks, Teri!  It was scrumptious and so much fun! We love pizza, and the cheesy bread was also a tasty treat!

You're looking good, Sam!  Thanks for the Emoji lip balm party favors, too.  They were adorable!

After a short walk at Freedom Park, we headed to Studio South for a fabulous yoga session with Kiley!  She's always happy to see us, and we love seeing her, too!

Stretch it, guys!  Doesn't it feel good to get those deep breaths?!

Here we are in various "stages" of frog pose... 🐸  Might need a little more practice on this one!

Our friend Kacie went to Hawaii last week!  We were happy to have her back with us on Wednesday, and excited that she brought us a treat!  Thanks, Kacie, for the macadamia and chocolate candies!  They were as sweet as you are!  We hope you had a great trip and made lots of wonderful memories with your family!

Wednesday is the day we work in the library at JRES.  Liz, Alexis, and Kacie handled the duties this week.  Our friend Bo, who also enjoys working in the library, went to Colorado last week to visit his siblings, and got stranded there for a few extra days due to a big snowstorm!  

We miss you, Bo.  But it looks like you are having a good time in Colorado celebrating your birthday a little early!  

We had a special trip on Wednesday.  Sam's dad, Tim, arranged for us to meet and see some Army Deep Sea Divers up close at the Yorktown Pier!

The currents on the York River are swift and that makes a good training ground.  While we were there, the divers were searching for a "dummy rifle" that had been hidden.

We were told that in water that is not very clear, the diver goes to the bottom and makes "water angels" as a way to search for the object.  Think snow angels, but under water!

  

We were curious to learn about the equipment and gear, because clearly the divers stay under a long time.

These tanks are heavy, but they have enough air to sustain the diver under water that isn't super deep for about 40-60 minutes.  They also told us that if the diver is working extra hard, or moving around a lot, then more air is used.  These divers do searches as well as salvage and repair operations.  They can even weld and use blow torches under water!

If the diver is going into deeper water (up to 190 feet), they might wear this special helmet that has an "umbilical" cord attached for pumping air into it.  There is also a great communication system in this helmet, so the diver can talk!

These guys told us about the very high-tech GPS system they use to map the bottom of the area where a dive will take place.  This system can get measurements as accurate as within millimeters!  These divers have SO many skills and are constantly in training to learn more and keep on the cutting edge!

WOW!  The diver found the dummy rifle before we had to leave!  We gave him a round of applause when he came up with it! 👏👏

Here we are with Tim after our visit with the divers.  We can't thank you enough, Tim!  This was a fun and educational presentation.  We LOVE to learn new things!

It was a gorgeous day on Wednesday, so after our time with the divers, we went to the picnic area near Yorktown Beach.  What a lovely view for our lunch!  We're so lucky to live in an area with a lot of beautiful and accessible outdoor areas.

We spread out among a few picnic tables.  It was a little breezy, but we didn't lose any of our trash!

Cheers from Yorktown!

A view like this, friends...and lunch.  Does it get much better?!

After lunch we drove over to the Battlefield Visitors Center where we picked up a walking path that led us to the Yorktown Victory Monument.  It was approved by the Continental Congress to be built shortly after Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in 1781, but actual construction didn't begin until 100 years later and it wasn't completed until 1884.

We gave Chloe the challenge of getting another group shot.  It's hard to get everyone in, isn't it Chloe?!  Still, it's a nice picture!

These friends take sharing to a new level when there isn't enough bench seating for everyone.  Yes, those are very sturdy benches.  No, we didn't let them stay like this for long!  We had a fabulous day in Yorktown!

Easter is coming and on Thursday, we stuffed hundreds of eggs with candy for Jorie, our Eaton friend.  These are for her neighborhood egg hunt and we were happy to help, especially since we got to sample the candy!

The eggs were several different sizes, so our guys had to figure out the best combination of candy to stuff into each one.  

Some of the eggs were difficult to snap shut, but our guys stuck with it.  We all agreed we were glad Jorie didn't ask us to hide them!  That will take a while!

Not everyone worked on egg stuffing.  We had some food prep to do since we were making a fresh salad with the last of the spinach we harvested at the garden on Tuesday.  Devin and Kacie volunteered to work in the kitchen.  Here, they are slicing strawberries to add to the salad.  They also cut bread slices into cubes for our cheese fondue, which we were working on at the same time.

Liz also volunteered for cooking duty.  She grated cheese and mixed spices and chicken stock into a base for our fondue.  Thursday was National Cheese Fondue Day.

We moved the fondue to the main room when it was time to add the cheese.  Everyone agreed it smelled delicious. 

Patrick and Cameron were the first to try it.  Doesn't it look gooey and creamy?  It was very tasty and soon we had enjoyed samples with bread, apples, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.  It was a hit, but we had a lot left over.  We decided to boil some pasta we had on hand and make a small mac and cheese casserole that we'll eat tomorrow.

As always, our fresh spinach salad with strawberries and raspberry vinagrette was delicious.  Can you see the little green leafy bits on top?  That is mini-arugula that the master gardeners gave us.  It added a delightfully peppery flavor to our salad.  We will miss being able to harvest fresh spinach, but look forward to trying the lettuce we planted in its place.

After lunch we assembled the Arc's May newsletter!  You know what that means:  make your selections and return your sign up sheet to Bette Faye by the deadline date, which is April 22nd!  The Arc is getting a little tough about the sign up sheets...if you don't return them, you can't call at the last minute and ask to join an event.  Bette Faye and Sandy have everything planned ahead of time like supplies, transportation, and volunteers, so if you ask to come at the last minute it can throw things off for everyone.  So, take it from Drew and Alexis and, PLEASE, return your sign up sheets on time!

At the end of the day on Thursday, we needed to make birthday cards for Chloe.  We sent her out of the room so she wouldn't see our masterpieces until tomorrow.  She went through a stack of Disney trivia cards and pulled out questions that she thought were best suited for us to use in an upcoming game.  Chloe is one of our resident Disney experts!

It was a pleasant morning to be outside on Friday so we spent some time shooting hoops and walking laps.  Patrick, Abraham, Alexis, and Devin had participated in The Arc's Basketball Clinic with the W&M Mary Girls' Basketball Team on Thursday night and here they were following up on some of the drills they learned. 😎

Xavier had this hoop to himself.  He kind of likes it that way!  Nice shot, Xavier! 

We noticed a lot of pretty blooms in the community garden.

We had a mini-lesson about Thomas Jefferson, since his birthday is on the same day as Chloe's and Becky's, April 13th.  Becky used to teach Virginia history and knows a lot about TJ.  Here, she is pleased to hear all the facts we remembered from our lesson from earlier in the day.  

Our favorite part of Friday was celebrating Chloe's and Becky's birthdays!  They are great birthday buddies and have enjoyed celebrating together over the years.  Chloe's family provided our lunch of homemade burritos and Mexican rice.  They were delicious!  We can see why it's one of Chloe's favorite dishes!  Thank you, Florence and Ric, for treating us to such a tasty lunch for Chloe's birthday.  We hope she told you about all the compliments her friends made about the food!

To accompany the delicious burritos and rice, we also had a fabulous birthday cake!  Thank you, Becky, for contributing this beautiful and delicious cake!  It was the perfect ending to our birthday lunch.  

Celebrating three birthdays in one week is so much fun!  We hope Sam, Chloe, and Becky felt the love!  There will be more love next week as our marathon of April birthdays continues with our celebrations for Bo and Kate.  Here's what you need to know for the coming week:

Tuesday:  We're scheduled to visit the Mariners' Museum today for a lesson on the Titanic.  We got late word that our museum instructor may not be able to make it, but we're going to make the trip anyway.  If she isn't with us, she will reschdule our lesson.  While there, we will check out an action photography exhibit and watch the  movie SeaRex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World.  We will picnic on the museum patio and explore the Noland Trail, as the weather looks great for Tuesday.  Please wear Arc shirts, pack a lunch, and bring $5. 

Wednesday:  Yay!  It's birthday time again!  We will celebrate Bo's special day with a Taco Bar and Cupcakes for lunch.  It's Ellis Island History Day so we will learn about that and the Statue of Liberty.  We'll also have yoga with Patti, so dress to stretch.

Thursday:  We will enjoy poetry today as we celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day.  We'll also have fun with Animal Cracker Day.  If the weather forecast holds, it will be a pretty Spring day so we will visit New Quarter Park after lunch for movement and fresh air.  Lunch on your own.

Friday:  Yay, again!  It's time for Kate's birthday celebration!  Her family will treat us to subs and cupcakes for lunch!  We will also discuss the Easter holiday and try dyeing eggs for the first time ever.  Earth Day is on Monday, so we will learn about that, too.

Upcoming Dates to Save:

May 4             British Car Show

May 27           Zumbathon hosted by Ironbound Gym

May 31           Jamestown Jams

June 22         Rotary Concert Series at The Kimball 

June 28         Jamestown Jams

July 26           Jamestown Jams

August 3       Women of Moose Golf Tournament at Kingsmill

August 30    Jamestown Jams

October 5    10th Annual Williamsburg Landing 5k for The Arc

Also, families, please note that the Arc of Abilities will be closed the first week in July (July 2-5) for Summer Break.

That's all for this week!  Thanks for your support of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and the Arc of Abilities day support program!  We appreciate ALL of you!

Lisa, Carol, and Nan

Spring Break Time!

It was a somewhat quiet week as JRES was empty because the schools were on Spring Break.  Parking was easier, we could be outside whenever we wanted, and the gym was available more than usual.  Those were the perks! 😄  We missed seeing the students, working in the library, and joking around with Mr. Stutt.  Plus, the cafeteria was not available for ordering lunches.  Those were the downsides.  😕  Still, we had a fabulous week!  Here's a peek at our time together during Spring Break time.

See that big smile on Moose Patti (the one in the Duke Blue Devils shirt)?!  It was finally Tuesday, April 2nd, and she and Shelly (behind Alexis) were excited to take us for a tour of Fox Wire Alpaca Farm in Toano, courtesy of the Women of the Moose Chapter 1755!  We had also been looking forward to it, and even though the weather was cloudy, chilly, and breezy, it didn't dampen our spirits.  We had a great day! 

Our guide was the very knowledgeable and friendly Ms. T.  She explained to us that Fox Wire Farm is friendly to the environment through their practices such as not using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.  They recycle "poop" from the animals for fertilizer!

We went inside the fodder house where barely is grown hydroponically (using only water).  It's raised as a treat for the alpacas.  Ms. T. told us that little green frogs live in here to "take care of the bugs" as another example of their environmentally friendly practices.

This is the bus Ms. T. drove us around in for our tour.  It was plenty comfy, and Patti even brought us pretzels and Twizzlers for snacking!  Thanks, Patti!  That was a nice surprise!

Abraham looks on as Liz gets "low" to visit with a minature donkey.  Ms. T. said the animals like it when we get closer to their level.

Laura enjoyed petting a miniature donkey named Betty Boop.  She had never heard of Betty Boop until today and she thought it was a funny name!  LOL!

Looks like Drew is thinking about going over...

Everyone enjoyed getting to know Stella, the miniature horse.  She had the most beautiful blue eyes!  Joining us today was Emmy, Becky's granddaugther and our junior volunteer, seen here on the left.  In between Cameron and Annmarie is Lydia, who is Shelly's niece.  Both were on Spring Break this week and we enjoyed having them hang out with us!

Our next stop was to see the Nigerian Dwarf Goats.  First, we had to help herd them to the middle of the pen, so none would escape as we came in. 

It was fun feeding them licorice treats.  Nan fed Zeus and Aries!

Patrick had a few treats and Orion appreciated them!

When Patrick ran out of treats, Orion found Annmarie!

  

The alpacas were happy to see us!  Ms. T. gave us some hay and they came running!  (Well, they didn't really run, but they came readily!)

Cameron made friends with these friendly girls!

Hard to tell who was happier, Abraham or the alpaca!

It took some persuading, but we finally got Xavier to try feeding the alpacas, and this pretty one came right to him.

Aren't they the cutest?  They will be sheared this weekend, and then they won't look so fluffy.  

Our last stop was to see the kunekune pigs. They loved having us visit and came right up to us.  Kevin petted this one very briefly!

Some of them would plop right down in hopes of being petted on their tummies.  Emmy didn't disappoint!

We were warned that they might try to untie our shoes!

After our fantastic tour of the farm, we had planned to stop by a park for lunch.  It was too chilly and the rain was about to begin, so Patti and Shelly brought us to the Moose Lodge where we enjoyed our lunch and lots of socialization in their warm and cozy dining area.  Thanks, Patti, Shelly, and all of the WOTM, for this special day.  We loved visiting the farm and eating subs and chips with you at the Lodge.  Your generosity knows no bounds and we are grateful for your friendship! P.S. The Girl Scout cookies were yummy!

This is us all smiles after our delightful time!  We'd also like to thank Becky and Pam W. for joining us and providing extra eyes and support.  We have the best village!

On Wednesday we worked on our April calendar.  Here, Laura, Alexis, and Drew were smiling and ready to go..before they encountered a slow-running computer.  Looks like #3 needs an update!

Our Rotary friend, Jeff, worked with us today.  We used the wall map to supplement the program we were using on the computer to learn about US Geography.  Devin was looking for a certain state so he could tell Liz how to spell it.

Having an "open gym" is always convenient.  Drew, Sam, and Devin had fun with the big ball and the basketballs.

We can really spread out in the huge JRES gym.  Kate, Cameron, and Abraham look far away!

Happy National Walking Day!  Since school was out and there was no traffic, we took a walk around the large JRES campus.

The weather was perfect.  Trees are starting to fill out, too!

Still walking!  We made it to the back field and were more spread out by now, but everyone kept moving and we all covered a good distance before lunch time!

During yoga with Patti, Liz was able to go into butterfly pose first, and then put her forehead on the mat and her hands behind her hips.  This was a great stretch and not as easy (?) as it looks!

Since it's pollen season, we had some friends who told Patti they were starting to have the sniffles.  She suggested this pose would open our airways and help with breathing.  Just put a pillow or two under your back to elevate your upper body.  Put the pillows vertical to your body.  Then, stretch your arms out to the sides and relax for several minutes while focusing on your breathing.  Patti used a rolled up mat because we didn't have a pillow.

All we needed were pillows!

After yoga we had a lesson on the silly "holiday" known as April Fool's Day.  We got with a partner to complete a worksheet that was just as silly!  Alexis and Drew high-fived their teamwork!

Liz and Abraham worked to crack the code for the silly message.  He found a missing letter.

These friends relocated to the foyer and did their work at the tables.  Everyone was tricked because the message had to be read backwards.  We gave them clues and they finally caught on! 

First thing on Thursday morning, Sam's dad, Tim, stopped by to give us an overview of what to expect when we go to Yorktown next week for an Army Rescue Dive demonstration.  Tim set it up for us and we are looking forward to seeing the divers in training for swift water rescue.  Tim showed us pictures of divers and equipment, and told us about many different tasks the divers perform.  Thanks for taking the time to give us this information, Tim.  We feel more prepared for our adventure on Wednesday!

Lisa and Carol needed to clean out our big closet, so for everyone else it was gym time with our #1 friends (according to Laura!)! 

So much room to run around in, and get a little bit loud!

Corn Hole with our AoA set!

Look who stopped by for a visit after lunch...Lexi's cousin, Haley, who just turned 1.  We've all heard so much about her that we think she's earned a picture in the blog.  Her usual big smile was missing since she's not really used to this many "friends" at one time.  😍 

Our educational lesson on Thursday was about how rainbows are made.  We watched a Mystery Doug episode and found out that the colors of the rainbow are inside the white light that comes from the sun!  If we used a prism (thank you to Laura's mom for sending us one) to separate the white light, we could see the rainbow colors.  So, we went outside and "found" a rainbow on the sidewalk!

Later, we watched a fun video song Laura's mom suggested. She used to teach 5th graders all about rainbows and light.  The song helps teach the colors of the rainbow by introducing us to Roy G. Biv...which our guys had never heard of!  They thought it was a catchy tune, though! 😂

We also did some Spring cleaning on Thursday.  Heike had gotten off earlier in the day, so we decided to take the trash and recycling out that we accumulated during our cleaning.  

Devin had the yucky job of holding open the dumpster lid.  Here, he's yelling, "Hurry up!" because it was kind of smelly there!  You're a good sport, Devin!

It was rainy for most of the day on Friday, and four of our friends were absent, making it a little less active than most days.  There were also a bunch of Parks & Rec kids in the gym all day, so we couldn't get in there to play games.  So, we decided to make it a laid-back kind of day.  We didn't even take any pictures before lunch, even though we were busy dancing and preparing thank you notes for Patti and the WOTM who treated us to the visit to the alpaca farm.  

We also listened to a few chapters of our new read-aloud about the Titanic, to help prepare us for our visit to the Mariners' Museum in a couple of weeks where we will see their exhibit about the doomed ship.  For lunch, we baked frozen pizzas in The Nina and added some fresh veggies and a mandarin orange Jello salad for sides.  It was a pleasant morning.

Here are the only three pictures we took all day:

We transplanted our cosmos to these larger planters and set them outside in our "garden" area!  We hope they will continue to grow and bloom into beautiful pink and white blossoms in a few weeks.

During Choice Time we had the quiet side of the room with Kevin, Cameron, and Xavier working on puzzles and Liz, Alexis, and Patrick checking their phones.

And then we had a noiser side, with Devin and Sam playing pool and Abraham, Laura, and Drew playing computer games.  Chloe was reading so she probably should have been on the other side! 

After Choice Time we finished a crafty project we started last week and went outside for a while during a break from the rain.  The sun actually came out for a few minutes, too!

Near the end of the day, we got more pictures, only these came in text messages on Lisa's phone.  We were thrilled to see that our friend Devin T. has arrived in his new home in Arizona.  He looks very happy, and Arizona looks warm and sunny!  We miss you, Devin! 

Our handsome friend sporting his new for Arizona shades!

We hope there will be more sunshine in Virginia next week.  We have lots of fun plans!

Tuesday:  First and foremost, we're celebrating Sam's birthday today! 🎂  We're having a pizza party in the park for lunch because we will be at Freedom Park for the start of our Spring sessions with the master gardeners.  We'll also go to Studio South for a yoga session with Kiley.  Dress in comfy pants or shorts, and wear your Arc shirts!

Wednesday:  We are lucky to be traveling to the Yorktown Pier today to see Army Divers in training for swift water rescues.  Sam's dad, Tim, set this up for us and it sounds exciting!  The weather forecast looks partly sunny (5 days out...), so please bring a bag lunch for a picnic in Yorktown.  Also, please wear Arc shirts again!

Thursday:  Today is Barber Shop Quartet Day so we will have musical and historical fun learning about this art form.  It's also Cheese Fondue Day!  Lunch on your own, but we will have a side of cheese fondue to sample!  We're also expecting to begin a special job for our friend Jorie, from Eaton.  She has enlisted our help in stuffing 1,000 Easter eggs with candy!  (We're doing it at AFCC.) 🐰

Friday:  We're ending the week with TWO more birthday celebrations for Chloe and Becky!  We'll enjoy burritos and Mexican rice for lunch, homemade by Chloe's family...and birthday cake for dessert, courtesy of Becky!  We will also finish our book about the Titanic and do an additional mini-lesson about it, in preparation for next week's trip to the Mariners' Museum.  We'll also prepare The Arc's May newsletter for mailing.  We'll be busy!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan