Here Comes April!

As we often wonder, where does the time go?  We couldn't believe this week was April already!  There was a lot going on with us, as usual.  Carol picked a nice week for a vacation in the mountains, and we welcomed Allison to fill in for her.  On Tuesday we had a blast bowling and being pranked at lunch by Lisa for April Fool's Day!  Wednesday found us volunteering at Grove and finishing the egg stuffing job for Powhatan Secondary.  By Thursday we were ready for a movie day and enjoyed comparing the film version of The Wild Robot to the book we recently read.  Our week wrapped up on Friday with a PSP work day and a celebration of Burrito Day for lunch!  We did much more, too...read on to see the rest of the story!

Tuesday, April 1

One of our favorite days each month is the first Tuesday when we go bowling, and then have pizza for lunch.  We were happy to welcome Gail as our newest member to the Arc of Abilities today, and we found out that she loves bowling...and pizza!  

Kate, Gail, Emma, Abraham

Cameron joined us for a couple of days this week.  He bowled on Lane 1 with Laura, Liz, and Xavier.

Devin, Bryan, Sam, Erik

                                                        Drew, Annmarie, Alexis, Patrick

Carol told everyone to bowl spares and strikes while she was gone.  She would be proud of us!  We had 16 bowlers today and they combined for 17 strikes and 28 spares!

Allison gives Laura high fives for her strike; Xavier was thumbs up for a spare; Michelle noticed some new stuffies in the arcade!

Due to the chances of pollen covering tables at the park, we took our pizza back to the center for lunch.  We are super grateful to Kate's mom, Elizabeth, for sponsoring lunch today...what a treat that she included enough for us to add Sprite and Pepsi, too!  Thank you very much, Elizabeth.  You know how to put smiles on our faces!                 🍕😋🍕😋🍕😋

After lunch, Lisa said she had made brownies for us.  We rushed up to get one from the box, only to be pranked for April Fool's Day...there we brown E's in the box, made from paper!  We laughed and were good sports about it, but we were very happy to find out that Lisa had another box to share and inside of it were chocolate brownies!  (She also pranked us at lunch by swapping out Cheetos for carrots!) Happy April Fool's Day!

Later, we watched a video about the history of April Fool's Day and did some coloring and brain work.  It was a fun afternoon!

We also received our copy of MG Carolyn's Journal Page highlighting last week's luncheon!  What a great time we had, and Carolyn captured it so beautifully!

Wednesday, April 2

This morning began with some of our hardworking library leaders taking care of business in the JRES Library.  Carol is away, but her workers don't play!

Alexis, Bryan, Emma, and Laura showed Allison, who is filling in for Carol, how they shelve books in the JRES Library each week.  Allison said they did a great job!  👏👏

After our dance warm up, Lisa took a group to volunteer at GCOC while Allison and Nan stayed at AFCC with the others to finish the egg stuffing job. 

We were happy to see Peggy, Joel, and Tom back at GCOC this week, along with Thom, who was there last week.   But we missed Ursula, who had to leave before we arrived.

Ursula left a tasty treat of chocolate dipped strawberries, which Peggy served us!  They were soooo delicious, and perfect for toasting Joel, who had a birthday last Friday.  We sang to him!  Thank you very much for the strawberries, Ursula.  They were kind of fancy, and made us feel very special!

Meanwhile, at the center...

Bryan cut hundreds of stickers apart while Gail, Erik, Liz, Laura, Kate, Devin, and volunteer Destiny stuffed hundreds of eggs with candy.

Nan, Emma, and Michelle stuffed stickers and tattoos into the hundreds of eggs the others had stuffed with candy.  Later, Allison, Emma, Alexis, and Bryan took inventory so we would know how many small eggs we stuffed.  Altogether, we stuffed a little over 700 large eggs and about 400 small ones!  It's going to be a nice egg hunt for the kids at Powhatan Secondary!  Thanks again, Coach Teri, for hooking us up for this job each year!

After lunch we finished our read-aloud, The Wild Robot.  Tomorrow we are going to watch the movie, and then compare the two.

Our last activity of the day was a lesson about ferrets because....believe it or not...it's National Ferret Day!  We learned that black-footed ferrets are the only species native to North America, and they are endangered with less than 500 left in the wild.  This surprised us because when we work at Pet Supplies Plus, we sometimes see ferrets for sale, and we don't think of them as a wild animal.  After our video, we completed brain work.

The scientific name for ferrets is mustela putorius furo, and our video said it can be interpreted as "mouse-killing stinky thief!"

Emma found ferrets to be an interesting animal, and also a very "cute" one.  She took extra notes, writing all over her brain work page!  

Thursday, April 3

We had a great day!  First thing this morning, a few of our early bird arrivals took it upon themselves to do some Eaton work!  Liz, Alexis, and Emma got started with applying gaskets.  Soon, they had Bryan cutting more gaskets off the big roll, and Drew and Kevin sorting parts!  Carol was not here to ask them to do this extra work during what is usually free time while we wait for everyone to arrive, but she would be so proud of them!  👏👏

Once everyone had arrived, we had an active dance warm up, and then it was time for The Wild Robot movie.  Destiny and Liz handed out popcorn, which Allison had popped and bagged for us.  We all got comfy and settled in for the film.  We were looking for differences between the book and the movie, and there were quite a few, but the essence of the book came through, and everyone agreed it was a very good movie.  That made us happy, because the book was very good, too, and we had high expectations!

After the movie we went outside to celebrate National Walking Day, which was yesterday, but it didn't matter to us.  We usually get in at least a short walk each day, so we know we're doing well at keeping ourselves moving.  Today, we did several laps around the garden, and then headed toward the camera for this official "Walking Day" photo!

Another celebration today was for Find a Rainbow Day.  Emma, aka, Lady Rainbow, read about it from the National Day Calendar website, and then we watched a video where we learned how rainbows form when white light is separated into colors through refraction.  We spent some time on what that meant, and then learned some fun facts: there are 9 different types of rainbows; a rainbow at night is rare, but it's called a moonbow; and rainbows are actually circular, and the only way to see one in its entirety is from the air.  Emma saw a full rainbow when she was flying last year.  Check it out!

We couldn't find our prisms, so we didn't go outside to try and "find" a rainbow, but we did do a fun demonstration in which the colors of Skittles candies dispersed in water and made what looked like a rainbow.  That was fun!  We also went on a rainbow scavenger hunt to find things that matched the colors in a rainbow (ever heard of a rainbow's best friend, ROY G. BIV?).  Finally, we ate the leftover Skittles so we could "Taste the Rainbow!"

Will it work?

WOW!  That was fun!

Lady Rainbow spotted a rainbow bracelet on Patrick!  We love it when our guys have fun with our lessons by dressing the part!

Friday, April 4

Our morning was super busy with some of us working at Pet Supplies Plus and others delivering the stuffed eggs to our friends at Powhatan Secondary.  The egg delivery crew also prepped lunch.  The AC in our room was not working today, and it was a bit warm and humid, so we took it as easy as we could the rest of the day and wrapped things up after lunch with indoor corn hole because there were too many bees swarming around our outside spot!  Here's our Friday:

Thank you, Powhatan Secondary for trusting us with the job of stuffing over 1,000 eggs for your Easter egg hunt!  It was fun delivering them and getting to meet Bree.  We are looking forward to our celebratory pizza party!

Our PSP crew was busy, as usual, stocking shelves, dusting, and folding towels.  All with big smiles on their faces!!

Our crew wants to remind you that it's time to do Easter shopping for your favorite furry friends.  PSP has a great selection, but get there soon or it may all hop away with someone else!

Thank you, Tracy, for taking a group of us to work at Pet Supplies Plus while Carol was on vacation this week!  We really appreciate your willingness to help us out when you can!!  

We continued working on preparing books from the JRES Library for discarding.  Michelle showed Nan and Gail the process, and the three of them made a dent in the remaining books!

Our room smelled like a Mexican restaurant by the time we finished cooking chicken burritos for our celebration of National Burrito Day.  It was officially yesterday, but we celebrate when it fits our schedule!  Thanks again to Allison, who substituted for Carol all this week.  She's a keeper!!

Spring Bingo!  Listen carefully to the clues...

Corn hole to end the week (and a giant fan blowing in the background, which helped).  The boys won today!  Abraham is missing from the photo because he volunteered to play on the girls' team so we would have even numbers.  Despite him scoring 4 points for them, they came up short, 23-22, against the boys' team.  The girls didn't mind...and we don't think Abraham did either.  😜  All of our players were good sports! 😍

Next week the WJCC schools are on Spring Break, but we'll be at AFCC as usual.  Here are our plans:

Tuesday:  We'll begin our spring sessions with the master gardeners today at Freedom Park!  We'll discuss soil and nutrients, conduct a soil test, and plant onions, radish, spinach, and lettuce.  The herb of the day will be chamomile.  We'll return to AFCC to celebrate Sam's birthday with a hot dog luncheon sponsored by his parents! 🌭🌭🌭  Yum!  It's going to be a happy day!  Arc shirts optional.  Feel free to wear spring/garden attire if you'd like!

Wednesday:  It's GCOC volunteer day, so please wear Arc shirts.  Some of us will work in our herb garden with Allison and Carol as we prepare for planting this year's herb crop with our MG friends.  We'll also have fun celebrating Unicorn Day and begin a fun Easter craft using pasta.  Lunch on your own.  NO JRES CAFETERIA because the schools are closed for Spring Break.  Microwave available.

Thursday:  Today is National Farm Animals Day so we will learn some fun and very interesting things about a few of them.  We'll finish the Easter pasta craft we began yesterday and also make birthday cards for Jorie, our first friend at Eaton!  Breakfast for lunch today:  pancakes, sausage, boiled eggs (that we will have fun shelling using various techniques), and orange juice.

Friday:  Today is an Eaton work day, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  We'll watch the weather (and pollen) and hopefully enjoy lunch and a walk at the park.  There will also be farm animal themed yoga with Jaime!

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

 

A Beautiful Spring Week!

 

As we said good-bye to March, we enjoyed another beautiful week of spring weather!  We spent the day outside on Tuesday, visiting the Youth Art Show and Waller Mill Park.  On Wednesday we volunteered at GCOC, began our egg stuffing job, and welcomed visitors from the Arc Board of Directors.  Thursday was the highlight of our week as we welcomed our master gardener friends for our annual spring luncheon!  By Friday, we had to report to work at Pet Supplies Plus, but we didn't mind since it's a fun job!  Here's a peek at our week: 

Tuesday, March 25

Today we visited the Youth Art Show which is taking place at the Stryker Building through Friday and features the art of local students in grades 6-12.  We were totally impressed with their creative talents!  We also welcomed Gail for a weeklong visit to see what our Arc of Abilities program is all about.  Gail is a longtime member of The Arc, so she knows a lot of our guys!  Welcome, Gail!  

Gail, Alexis, and Patrick admired a watercolor painting of a mother polar bear and her two cubs.

Thomas thought a sculpture of an instrument made from cardboard was interesting.  Devin and Sam found Abraham and pointed out a watercolor of an elephant, since they know he likes elephants!  Michelle liked a drawing of a house with a front porch, as it reminded her of her grandparents' home, and Emma thought an abstract portrait of a girl's head surrounded by hands was unique!

We would have loved to take pictures of all of the entries, but there were a lot!  We're happy for all of these student artists, and really amazed by their talent and creativity.  We look forward to coming to this show again next year!

From the art show, we headed over to Waller Mill Park, which we had not visited in a few years.  We were lucky to get a shelter for our picnic, and luckier still that the tables weren't covered in pollen!

We'd like to thank Gail, and her sister-in-law, Zelda, for bringing us a treat of colorful spring cookies!  We appreciate your thoughtfulness, and the cookies were delicious!

Our friends made sure that everyone who wanted to swing got a turn.  Here, Devin and Emma were flying high, but soon Annmarie, Erik, and Sam did the same!

Of course we found a trail and took a walk!  Some of us even made it up an incline to a lookout over the reservoir.

We couldn't have ordered a more beautiful day to start our week!

Wednesday, March 26

We were very busy this morning.  One group went to GCOC to pack food distribution bags and the other remained at the center to stuff plastic eggs!  We were done with all that by 11:00, and then we welcomed visitors, got some exercise, and learned about manatees!

Before going to volunteer at Grove, Bryan cut apart stickers for us to put in the eggs we were stuffing.

For the fourth year in a row, the Arc of Abilities has been hired by the wonderful folks in Sam's neighborhood of Powhatan Secondary to stuff eggs for their annual egg hunt.  We'd like to thank Sam's mom, Coach Teri, for being our "agent" for this job each year.  Not only do we have fun with it, we also earn a stipend that we spend on a pizza party!  

Step 1: A runner (Annmarie) makes sure the stuffers have a steady supply of empty eggs.

Step 2: Stuffers (Erik, Alexis, Sam) fill each egg with three pieces of candy.

Step 3: More runners (Abraham and Drew) bring candy-filled eggs to stuffers (Michelle and Nan) who add a sticker and a tattoo to each egg.

Step 4:  Baggers (Thomas and Annmarie) carefully put the stuffed eggs in packing bags so they won't come open and spill the contents!

This week's egg stuffing crew was about half-way finished when they had to dash outside for a fire drill.  Once they returned inside, they finished the job of stuffing over 500 eggs!  Next Wednesday, when this group goes to Grove, the other group will stuff another 500 or so eggs, and then we will arrange to deliver them.  Thank you, Powhatan Secondary Community Association, for trusting us with this important job!  We all felt like Easter Bunnies today!

Meanwhile, down at GCOC, Carol's group was surprised to learn that Joel, Peggy, Tom, and Ursula were all traveling this week, and only Thom was on hand to work with us today.  No worries, Thom...Arc of Abilities to the rescue!  This situation required us to really step it up, and we came through like rock stars.  (A couple of GCOC staff helped with set up, but it was Thom and us who filled over 140 bags.) Way to go, us! 👏👏

We also learned that Gail is a hard worker.  She seemed like a natural!

We're so proud of our gang!

We squeezed in some extra movement after our work with eggs and canned goods was finished!  We spun the online wheel and visited 10 fitness stations (based on which number we spun) for extra stretching and a little bit of cardio.

For National Manatee Day, we watched a short video and did brain work.  We learned that manatees have no natural predators.  Water pollution and human behavior (hitting them with boats) can threaten them.  They are mammals who spend their entire lives in water, but come up for air and are capable of staying underwater for up to 20 minutes at a time!  They are also herbivores who spend 8 hours a day grazing on sea grass, which is why they are nicknamed sea cows.  Early explorers (who may have been a bit tipsy from drinking ale or rum) that saw them thought they were mermaids!

We welcomed Arc board president, Sue Hassan (middle right) for a visit and she brought new board member, Kristin Doherty, to meet us!  We enjoyed showing Kristin around, and catching up with Sue, who visits when she can.  They helped us with our manatee brain work.  Sue, it's always nice to see you, and we appreciate you bringing Kristin to see our program.  Thanks to you both for your friendship and support!

After lunch, Choice Time, and read-aloud, we put the finishing touches on a congratulatory card for the William and Mary Women's Basketball Team, who recently made school history when they won the CAA conference tournament and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament where they won their first round game!  We also took a walk on another beautiful spring day!

Thursday, March 27

In case you haven't noticed, we love a party!  Today we welcomed our dedicated master gardener friends for a spring celebration as we get ready to kick off our 9th season with them!

We were very busy working in small groups this morning to clean, cook, bake, and decorate for our luncheon.  We decided to take 3 photos to show our room transformation instead of the usual pictures of groups doing the various tasks.  Thank you, Allison, for switching your volunteer day to today and pitching in to help us organize our luncheon!

Before...when a lot of our "stuff" is all over the place!

During set up when we worked together to cover the tables and set out centerpieces and other small decor!

After...as we eagerly await the arrival of our special guests.  Doesn't the room look lovely?!

After cleaning, cooking, and baking, we spent time outside on yet another pretty, but cooler, day.  We wanted to introduce Gail to cornhole, but she was already familiar with the game, and she had quite a good aim, too!  Today's teams were the Flowers and the Bees.  The Flowers won, and the Bees came in second!

We suggested everyone try and wear spring colors for today's luncheon, and our guys delivered!  We thought Emma and Thomas looked exceptionally nice!

Before we served lunch, Thomas gave a welcome speech.  He said he wanted to "speak from the heart" and he aced it!  Without prior practice, he said we enjoy working with the gardeners and we were excited to welcome them to eat lunch with us!  After lunch, Emma, Alexis, Devin, and Liz volunteered to share memories of working with the gardeners, and to thank them for their continued friendship and partnership.  They also had no prior practice, but aced their remarks!  So proud of them all!

To reinforce what Thomas, Emma, Alexis, Devin, and Liz eloquently said, THANK YOU, our beloved master gardener friends!  We cherish our times with you, and are grateful for the wonderful things you teach us, and for your genuine friendship, too.  It's hard to believe we first started working with you in April of 2017!  It's really true that time flies when you are having fun.  We can't wait to spend this spring and fall with you.  See you on April 8th!

It's hard to get all of us in a photo sometimes, so today we took two pictures.  Here we have Lisa, Xavier, Annmarie, MG Barbara, Nan, MG Karen, Laura, MG Joanne, MG Carolyn, Kevin, Patrick, Erik, Thomas, Alexis, Emma, Carol, and Gail.

Here we have Sam, Lisa, Xavier, Michelle, Liz, MG Barbara, Devin, MG Karen, MG Joanne, MG Carolyn, Bryan, Abraham, and Carol.  A BIG Shoutout to Karen's husband, Steve, who took the photos for us.  Steve joins us at the garden from time to time, and we consider him a friend, too!

Here's a throwback to our first visit with the master gardeners in April, 2017.  We have so many great memories with them!!

We received more good news about our friend Tessa's journey to regaining her strength.  She took some steps with support from her dad, Chris, and he also reported that she was able to get up 4 stairs today, with assistance.  What a difference a week makes.  Tessa, we are cheering for you every day!  Keep pushing and never give up!

 

Friday, March 28

As we wound down the month of March, we had a busy Friday work day.  One crew went to PSP, and the other crew worked at AFCC.  Check out our progress from this morning!

We took Gail to work at PSP along with Kevin, Alexis, Erik, Sam, Kate, and Bryan.  Her friends showed her the ropes, and she did very well!  She said she likes to work.  😊  Scott, shown here with Erik and Sam, was pleased with how well our crew stocked and straightened shelves today!

Brittany let us pet the kitties.  Puffin is the tuxedo kitty and Lil' Bear is the black one.  They were so lovable! 💖

Thank you, Pet Supplies Plus and Scott, Roxanne, Brittany, and all of the other team members with whom we work!  This is a great vocational experience for us and we are grateful for what you've taught us!

We were busy at the center, too.  We updated our calendar for April, prepared books from the school library for discard, and prepared a lunch of Sloppy Joes (no photos of Sloppy Joes, though)!

Laura and Abraham colored some pictures for decorating and also prepared our large APRIL letters with pretty spring colors.  Michelle and Drew reset the calendar so the dates would line up correctly, and also helped with other tasks as needed.  Thomas and Xavier took down all the decorations from St. Patrick's Day and Mardi Gras, and Liz and Pat used the laptops to add clipart to our calendar squares.

Devin and Emma stamped "discard" and crossed out bar code numbers on JRES library books that are no longer in circulation.

When the PSP group returned, we played Disney Movie Trivia with an app called Baamboozle.  We didn't get all of the answers correct, because this game is quite challenging!  We liked it!

We ended the week with yoga.  Jaime had posted a new episode called "Three Little Pigs" and even though we knew the story, we didn't know the yoga poses for things like pig, wolf, and big pot!  It was fun, and of course, a great way to stretch and relax.

As we watch March fade away, we look forward to welcoming April next week.  Carol will be on vacation and Allison is going to substitute for her all week.  Rest up, Allison, because we'll keep you busy next week!  Thanks for filling in for Carol!

Here are our plans for the first week of April:

Tuesday:  We welcome Allison to fill in for Carol this week!  Since it's the first Tuesday of the month, we'll go bowling and enjoy pizza for lunch!  We'll also "celebrate" April Fool's Day... 🤔🤔🤔 Arc shirts optional.

Wednesday:  This morning we will send one group to volunteer at Grove while the other group stays at the center to finish the egg stuffing job.  Please wear Arc shirts.  Later, we'll learn about ferrets since it's National Ferret Day.  It's also National Walking Day, so there's that, too!  (It seems like every day is Walking Day for us!)  Lunch on your own.  You can order from JRES Cafeteria, but the menu isn't posted yet.  (Wednesdays usually have tasty offerings!)

Thursday:  By now we will be finished with our read-aloud, The Wild Robot, so we will watch the movie and then compare the two.  We'll also have a lesson about rainbows since it's Find a Rainbow Day.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is available and they usually serve Domino's pizza or sub of the day on Thursdays, but the menu isn't posted yet.

Friday:  Due to a schedule change, we are working at Pet Supplies Plus again this week, so please wear your PSP shirt.  The group that does not work at PSP will deliver the eggs we stuffed to our friends at Powhatan Secondary, and then return to the center to make lunch.  We're celebrating National Burrito Day, which was yesterday, so we will make chicken burritos and rice for lunch.  After lunch we'll start a new read-aloud...what will it be?!  The forecast looks good for ending the week with cornhole and bocce, too!

Coming Soon!  Share with all pickleball players you know, or sign up yourself!  

We hope everyone has a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang