Iced Out Week!

After two days at home following the weekend's icy storm and the subsequent below freezing temperatures, we were happy to see our friends on Thursday and Friday for a short and chilly week!  Not everyone was able to be with us due to family obligations, travel, illness, and staying safe from a potential slip, but we understood and missed them all!  We hope everyone will be back next week!  

Thursday

We decided to get extra movement today since most of us were stuck inside for the past several days.  With school still closed, the gym was available, so after our dance warm up, we took advantage!  There were lots of large, bouncy balls lined up along the wall, and we felt certain that Coach Alex wouldn't mind if we used them.

In this game, we had 2 teams with each trying to get all the balls to the other team's side by chasing, kicking and throwing.  We got some movement, for sure!

We're going to Eaton tomorrow so we had to get some work done today.  While we checked last week's blog, a few of us worked on gasketing. 

We appreciate Eaton allowing us to bring some of our work, like gasketing, back to work on at our center.

In another movement break, we danced with DJ Raphi!

National Blueberry Pancake Day was yesterday, but we celebrated today!  Lunch prep included setting up for an impromptu birthday party.  Tracy was coming to visit today and her kids would be with her since there was no school.  We found out it's her daughter Heidi's birthday, so voila!

Thomas was in charge of the hash brown patties which he monitored in the oven until they got golden brown and crispy.  Xavier helped cook his gluten-free pancakes, and then heated the syrup in the microwave.  Drew worked on decorating the birthday table for Heidi.

Devin was the sausage chef today.  He had the room smelling so good!  Gail and Bryan worked on creating colorful napkin rings that said "Happy Birthday."  Carol and Liz were hopping at the griddle as they cooked a few dozen blueberry pancakes!  Lunch was very tasty!

Happy 9th Birthday, Heidi!  We enjoyed celebrating with you and know you were happy to not have school on your special day!!  We hope all your wishes come true!

Tracy and Heidi are in the middle, and Tracy's son Colby is on Heidi's right.  Over the years, we have watched Colby and Heidi grow up before our eyes!

Our afternoon ended with a "blueberry" movie...or at least one that had a reference to blueberries!  We watched the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in which Violet becomes a blueberry after chewing bubblegum she wasn't supposed to be chewing!  Everyone enjoyed this original, even though they also like the version with Johnny Depp.

Friday

The very cold weather didn't impede our trip to Eaton for a work day!  There were only 11 of us today, but that turned out to be helpful since there was less work than usual for us to do this morning.  We assembled 48 doors and unpacked plastic lenses during our 2 hours onsite.  We're proud of our work ethic!

We were all business and very professional at Eaton, but once we returned to AFCC, we observed National Have Fun at Work Day!  We originally planned to get Frosties from Wendy's, courtesy of our friend Laura, who had been saving a birthday gift card to share with us. 💖 However, Laura came down with the flu, so we unanimously decided to postpone the Frosty Fun until she's back with us.  Feel better soon, Laura!

Having access to the JRES gym when students aren't here is FUN! We can't wait until we move to McLaws Circle where we will have a "gym" space we can use every day!  This afternoon, some of us shot hoops during Choice Time.

Someone thought it would be FUN to bundle up for a brisk walk to find a photo spot for a picture to use at the top 🠉 of the blog for this week's post, which is titled "Iced Out Week."  It was 26 degrees and we lasted about 10 minutes!

Lisa had FUN coming after us with an ice claw!

We took a picture around this mound of ice, but with the shadow, it wasn't too great for the top 🠉 of the blog.

We walked back to the front of the building and ended up getting a nice photo for the top 🠉 of the blog!  Here's a smaller version.

Back inside we warmed up with a FUN lesson about Groundhog Day, which is Monday.  We made a quick groundhog craft that depicts the groundhog seeing its shadow, thus predicting 6 more weeks of winter.  Our "homework" is to find out if the groundhog really does see its shadow on Monday.  If it doesn't, we're going to cut the shadow off of the craft and celebrate that spring is on the way!

We forgot to get a picture of our cute groundhogs, but they look something like this!  What a FUN holiday!

Our final FUN of the day took place when we realized that both National Backward Day and National Opposite Day occur during the last week of January.  

We made up a silly way to play corn hole that involved playing from opposite side of the court, which is also kind of backward, and throwing the bags into hoops on the floor instead of the hole on the board.  It was silly and FUN, and we enjoyed getting to play it in the gym, too!

Congratulations to Team Backward who won today!  Happy National Have Fun at Work Day!

And with those silly faces...we called it a week.  Short, chilly, and so much FUN.  Here's a look at what's coming up as we welcome February next week:

Tuesday:  It's the first Tuesday of the month so we will go bowling and enjoy pizza for lunch.  Cameron is visiting so we'll also celebrate his birthday!!  In addition, we'll welcome Sara as our newest member, and Hannah for a weeklong trial visit.  After lunch we will make cards for Allison (knee replacement scheduled for today) and finally get back to our read-aloud about George Washington's socks!

Wednesday:  It's Service Work Wednesday so please wear Arc shirts.  We'll volunteer at GCOC and arrange flowers for CSL.  We'll also update our calendar for February and begin making Valentine decorations! Plus, we have a bonus visit from Marisol and the corgis today!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Spaghetti w/ Meat Sauce or Philly Cheese Steak (unless last week's closure changed things).

Thursday:  We will continue to decorate our room for February, and also begin preparing for tomorrow's Super Bowl party.  It's National Optimist Day so we will have an activity about that, too.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria lists Domino's Pizza or Deli Sub as lunch choices.

Friday:  We'll work at Pet Supplies Plus this morning, so please wear PSP shirts.  National Soup Day was on Wednesday, so we'll celebrate that and football today with a "Souper" Bowl Party!  We'll have Ground Beef Stew with Cheese Toast, Chips and Dip, and Football Brownies for lunch. We'll also make our annual Super Bowl winner prediction graph and end the day with Super Bowl themed corn hole.

Everyone have a great weekend!  Snow...or No??!!??!!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

We'll Miss Heike!

We had another fun and busy week, and it culminated with a sweet farewell/birthday party for our friend (and former custodian at AFCC), Heike.  She transitioned into a new job with the county, but we'll always wish she was still "taking care" of us!  In other news this week, we learned all about Newport News Shipyard during a visit to The Mariners' Museum, welcomed another year of literacy fun with our therapy dog friends, had a delayed celebration for National Popcorn Day, and finally got in a work day at Pet Supplies Plus.  There was more, so read on to see how we spent the 3rd week of January!

Tuesday

It was very chilly when we arrived this morning, with visions of a big snowstorm to come this weekend on our minds!  We kept our eye on the forecast all week...and managed to focus on our tasks at hand.  Today:  A visit to The Mariners' Museum for a lesson about an important industry in our region - Newport News Shipbuilding.

Wisteria, seated near Carol, and Erika, standing, gave us a great overview of the history of Newport News Shipbuilding.  But first...we were thrilled to find out that Erika is having her first baby, a boy, in April!

The shipyard was founded by Collis P. Huntington in 1886, and in 1891 it delivered it's first "ship," a tugboat named Dorothy.  Collis Huntington's philosophy was "We shall build good ships here.  At a profit if we can.  At a loss if we must.  But always good ships."  After he died in 1900, his nephew continued to operate by the same philosophy and the shipyard remained steady in business and as an employer, even through tough times in history, such as the Great Depression.

One takeaway for us from today's very interesting presentation was that Newport News Shipyard played a major role in the growth and development of what became the city of Newport News.  It even built the Hilton Village neighborhood to house its growing workforce!  

The shipyard also helped to build The Mariners' Museum in 1930 by providing workers.  This slide shows the president of NN Shipyard at the time, Homer L. Ferguson, who cofounded the museum with Archer Huntington (adopted son of Collis).  The Mariners' Museum and NN Shipyard continue to maintain a strong partnership to this day.

After the presentation, we went on a scavenger hunt through the galleries to find objects related to Newport News Shipyard.  Among the items we found were the hull plate from the tugboat Dorothy and Collis P. Huntington's desk.  

The Mariners' Museum is a stop on the Virginia 250 tour, which "encourages exploration of Virginia's rich history in celebration of America's 250th anniversary."  We got our passports stamped after our visit.  There is so much history to see in Virginia!

Our time at The Mariners' Museum is always educational and fun.  We had a great time this morning!  Thanks, Wisteria and Erika, for helping us gain an appreciation for Newport News Shipbuilding and its importance to Virginia and Hampton Roads!

Our engaging time at the museum ran longer than usual, so we had a late lunch and Choice Time, and then finished the day with a lesson for National Disc Jockey Day.  We watched a video clip about some DJs who were known for being fast talkers.  It was both interesting and annoying!  Haha!

This guy was once considered the fasted talking human on earth!

We took a few song requests to end the day.  Abraham got his groove on for Thomas and Devin's request of "Surrender" by Cheap Trick!

Wednesday

Talk of the potential big snowstorm this weekend was still on our minds as we focused on our Service Work Wednesday at the JRES Library and arranging flowers for Commonwealth Senior Living.  We didn't go to GCOC today because it was Therapy Dog Day!  What a fun morning!

Cheers to our Flower Power Crew this week:  Bryan, Kate, Allison, and Michelle!  They got right on the task and finished just as the therapy dogs were arriving.

So pretty!

Gail, along with a few others, worked at the JRES Library this morning where they also checked out lots of great books on the topic of "winter" for our reading time with the therapy dogs.  They did a great job!

We were blessed with 7 therapy dog handlers and 8 dogs today!  A few of our AoA members were absent, so we only had 2 in each group.  Everyone got lots of time and attention from our handler friends and the pups!

Lucy was under the weather, but Vicky brought Aubree and they read with Kevin and Kate.  One of our newer friends, Jennifer, came with Joey and they read with Thomas and Bryan.  Carol S. and Casey were joined by Allison as they read with Liz and Drew.  Kent, with Leo and Tavish, read with Erik and Gail.

Another newer friend, Lisa, brought Lola and they read with Xavier and Michelle.  Alexis and Laura read with Carol D. and Darby, while Abraham and Devin read to Nan, Marisol, and Tucker.

After a couple of reading rotations, we all gathered our groups in the main room where we played a snowman matching game.  This was challenging because of small details that we had to be very observant to!

Some of the snowmen had the same colors on their hats and scarves, but the stripes may have been different colors.  Others had same colored hats, but the button may have been different.  Everyone chipped in to help each other find the matches!

Yay!  Abraham and Devin made all the matches, much to Vicky's delight!

Before Allison left today, some of us gathered for a "so long (for now)" picture.  She's having knee replacement surgery on February 3rd.  We worried that if the winter storm is bad, we might not see her next Wednesday, which would be her last week for a while.  Allison, we hope to be here with you next week and the snow storm is long gone by then!  We'll even take another "so long" picture.  But just in case, we wish you all the best with your knee surgery, and we know you will do your best to bounce right back to doing all the things you love, including helping us!  💖💖💖

After lunch we visited our soon to be new home at 438 McLaws Circle.  Pam, and the entire Arc admin staff (Kellie, Caroline, Sue, and Kasey) were there to greet us and give us a tour and update about the planned renovations.

There will be a wall or two knocked down to make larger spaces, doors and windows added or moved, and a kitchen put in that will send us over the moon!  We're getting very excited about moving into our new forever home.  It will still be a number of weeks, as permits continue to be needed and then construction...but Pam says things are trending in the right direction!  Thanks, Pam for the updates and the tour....and the snacks!  We can't wait to be down the hall from you guys every day!  (Then it won't be so quiet in here!)

Thursday

It was sunny and pushing 50 degrees when we arrived today, causing us to wonder if a big snowstorm could really be coming!  We learned that the predicted snowfall totals had gone down a little, but that we might get ice, too.  We're not too keen about that, but it was still a little too early to know for sure.  So, we carried on and had celebrations for Popcorn Day and Popeye the Sailor Man Day, and even played corn hole outside!

National Popcorn Day was on January 19, but we don't mind delayed celebrations when they involve snacks!  Today we watched a video that featured the founder of National Day Calendar, Marlo Anderson (in the Celebrate Every Day shirt), who said Popcorn Day was his favorite day in the whole calendar!  Since we've used the National Day Calendar for ideas to plan most of our activities and lessons for almost 10 years, it was fun to see the founder up close.

In the video, Marlo visited a shop called Popcorn Girl, in Las Vegas, and we were surprised to find out her shop creates over 70 flavors of popcorn!  We thought Bacon Cheeseburger, Banana Pudding, and Green Apple sounded interesting!

We also celebrated National Popeye the Sailor Man Day, which was on the 17th.  Popeye loved spinach, and we're cooking with spinach this week, so it seemed like a good idea.  So, we set up a popcorn bar, and after everyone made their mix, we watched Popeye cartoons!

Thank you, Gail, for popping the popcorn for us this morning!

Our entry wall needed a decoration so it seemed like a good time to go with a snow theme!  We turned ourselves into "Snowmies."

Close ups!  Some of our snowmies were absent, but we will get everyone up here eventually!

Despite being on snow or ice storm watch, we were able to go outside this afternoon to play corn hole!  It was sunny and 59 degrees, and we really enjoyed it!!  We played Snow Guys vs. Snow Girls, and couldn't believe there was snow, ice, and seriously cold weather on the way!

Congrats to the Snow Guys on their win today!

Friday

It was another nice day as we ended our week with work at PSP and a farewell/birthday party for Heike!  The forecast was pulling away from a big snow over the weekend, too.  We were a little disappointed, but party mode eased the sting.

First, we had to do our work!  Carol took a group to Pet Supplies Plus for our first work day of 2026, and they were busy!

Devin and Liz say even dogs like treats, so they are always happy to stock them for the pups!

Annmarie paid close attention to detail as she placed dog shampoo mitts on the correct pegs!

Xavier also had to be attentive as he was placing dog toothbrushes on the pegs!

Later, Annmarie joined Gail to stock things on the reptile aisle.  Gail was holding a cat feeding container that belonged on another aisle.

Thank you, Roxanne and Scott, for another great work day at PSP.  We look forward to 2026 being our 5th year of working with you!  (We started in January, 2022!)

Our crew at AFCC was working equally as hard.  They had to prepare lunch so we could celebrate our friend Heike's farewell and birthday!  Heike began a new job as a supervisor for Parks & Rec way back in October, but it took until today before we could coordinate a celebration for her.  It was worth the wait!

Our menu was Spinach Salad with Quinoa and Tomatoes, Fruit Cups, Garlic Bread, and German Chocolate Pie.  Erik sauteed the diced chicken.  Laura and Drew whipped up the pie filling with Laura using our brand new mixer!  Tessa cut our napkin rings apart so Lexi and Kate could color them, and Patrick and Lexi prepared quinoa in the oven.

Tessa also assisted Nan with prepping grapes for the fruit cups.  Nan cut up apples using Lisa's Ulu knife (acquired on her trip to Alaska), and loved it!  Patrick microwaved chocolate for the pies, and Kate and Thomas assisted with the salad.

Everything came together right before Heike arrived!  It was a delicious lunch, perfect for a farewell/birthday party!

Once the PSP group returned, we finished decorating the room in colors of winter!  Here, Heike is seated next to Gail.  We are always on the lookout to see if Heike has changed her hair color, and today, we were delighted to see that its pink and purple highlights matched our winter decorations perfectly!  Time for a joyful time of lunch and fellowship.

Heike's birthday in on February 17, so we made today's party both farewell and birthday.  Of course, she promises to continue to visit us, even after we move to McLaws.  She has Fridays off, so that shouldn't be too hard!  Heike, we hope all your wishes come true!  We appreciate your love and friendship over the past 8 years, and we look forward to keeping in touch for at least 8 more!

By the time we finished celebrating with Heike, we had Choice Time and then ended the week with yoga with our favorite online instructor, Jaime!  We didn't get to it in December, so we did Jaime's "Grinch" episode and everyone really enjoyed the story and the stretching! (Patrick, so sorry to have cut off your left side, but what a great stretch with your right arm!)

Soon it was time for the weekend!  We checked the forecast one more time and realized that it's going to be very cold, but there might not be a lot of snow.  There may be some ice, and there may be some rain...  The forecast has changed all week!  We hope it's not too bad, and no one loses power.  We also hope to be back on Tuesday because we have some exciting trips planned for next week.  Here's a look at our schedule:

Tuesday:  We will welcome a new friend, Mike, for a trial visit this week.  He's interested in getting on the waitlist to join us.  We have an exciting trip planned for today, too.  Our therapy dog friend Marisol (and Tucker, the corgi) have arranged for us to take a tour of the Swem Library at William and Mary!  After that, we'll return to the center for lunch, Choice Time, and a lesson for National Opposite Day.  Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is serving Walking Taco or Pizza.

Wednesday:  We'll cook today as we celebrate Blueberry Pancake Day!  It's also Service Work Wednesday, so please wear Arc shirts.  One group will arrange flowers and the other group will head to GCOC to work in the Food Pantry.  After lunch, we'll watch the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie.  Blueberry (or plain) Pancakes w/ Sausage Links and Fruit for lunch.

Thursday:  We're headed to tour the Simulation Lab at Riverside Hospital in Newport News this morning!  Lexi's cousin Kelly suggested this adventure, and tells us we're going to be very interested in the machines and demonstrations we'll see!  NOTE:  We hope to depart from the center as soon as everyone arrives, but no later than 9 a.m.  Riverside could only accommodate us beginning at 9:30 a.m. and we don't want to be late.  We'll return to the center for lunch and activities for National Puzzle Day.  Please bring a bagged lunch.

Friday:  We will go to Eaton for a work day, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  It's National Have Fun at Work Day, so we'll have extra Choice Time and then visit Wendy's for Frosty treats, courtesy of our friend Laura who has been saving a birthday gift card just to share with us!  Thanks, Laura!  This will be a sweet ending to our week!

Everyone stay safe and warm this weekend!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang