We enjoyed a delightful springtime week! On Tuesday, we welcomed Cameron back as a full time AoA member, then we traveled to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg to see Christina. That was followed by a walk at Bicentennial Park and a picnic at Quarterpath Recreation Center, which was a new destination for us. On Wednesday, we completed our service work and then partied "wickedly" to celebrate Kate's birthday! Thursday was exciting as we got to meet Katie, who will be our new instructor when Lisa retires. We also met some other new friends, and they brought fuzzies! By Friday, we were geared up for our Eaton work day, followed by a relaxing afternoon at the center. Nan remained at home to rest this week, but we'll see her soon. Here's a look at our week:
Tuesday
Spending time with Christina is something we cherish. She's been enriching our lives for 9 years! Whether at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, at our center, or meeting at a park, it's always a good time with her.
Today was special for Lisa. Christina guided us as we looked for objects that could relate to Lisa's upcoming retirement. We found artwork depicting nature, the outdoors, and travel, which are definitely things of interest to Lisa. Who knew the museums could help with a travel plan?! We saw waterfalls, trails, mountains, lakes, and even ways to travel like by airplane, train, and boat! Christina told the stories behind each piece, and we wondered if Lisa would try to check out any of them on her travels? Wallowa Lake in Oregon, maybe?!
For our art activity today, Christina taught us about drawing landscapes. We learned some basics about placement of things like ground, trees, and clouds, and then we filled in with our own details.
We enjoyed using "color sticks" (kind of like crayons but cooler) as our artwork came to life. As Lisa walked around the room admiring our landscapes, she was imagining being in each place!
Thanks, Christina! It was fun to learn about places like Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, the Pacific Northwest, and of course, our own beloved Virginia! We hope Lisa will be inspired by our landscape drawings to visit some of these places, and we know it will remind her of how much we all love you!
We can't help but notice that the Colin G. and Nancy N. Campbell Archaeology Center is just about ready for its grand opening ceremony on Saturday! Christina said there will be a visit there in our future. Thanks, Christina. We can't wait!
It was a cool day, but with the sun shining and Bicentennial Park right where we were, we couldn't pass up an opportunity for a walk! It was just a little too early for lunch, anyway!
One of Lisa's favorite memories will always be the many walks we took over the years. She wants us to remember that it's one of the easiest ways to "keep moving" as we get older, and she looks forward to hearing that we will continue to get our walks in every chance we can!
For lunch, we stopped by the picnic area at Quarterpath Recreation Center, which is near Old City Barbecue. It is a nice pavilion with several large picnic tables, and a small playground, too. There are porta potties nearby, so we would have to keep that in mind if we decide to return. Today, we used the restroom and washed our hands before leaving the art museums.
Back at AFCC we made birthday cards for Kate and checked last week's blog post. We also enjoyed Choice Time. Welcome back to the Arc of Abilities for good, Cameron! We look forward to seeing you every day!
Nothing beats hanging around with our friends!
We also listened to our current read-aloud, Stu Truly, which is a hilarious story of a kid navigating puberty and middle school! (Lisa has never said the word "butt" as often as in this story!) 😂
Wednesday
Today was our favorite kind of Wednesday - work first and then party!
Our GCOC group was a little surprised to only have 3 cans of veggies and one bag of dried beans to pack into food distribution bags. Sometimes the USDA delivery is on the light side. We made quick work of it and also put a couple of rolls of toilet paper in other bags.
We worked with Joel, Peggy, and Ursula and it was great to see Ursula in a boot and not needing the scooter anymore. Her foot is healing nicely! We want to thank Peggy and Joel for the Reese's Cup treats today! We'll enjoy them tomorrow since we have cupcakes for Kate's birthday, today. It's fun to have another treat to look forward to! 😋💖😋
Back at AFCC we worked with Allison to make 12 flower arrangements with a smaller than usual donation from Trader Joe's. It's a little easier when we have more flowers, but we like a challenge! They turned out lovely, as usual!
Marisol, Tucker, Nellie, and Louie visited before lunch. We were honored to be the first to hear Marisol read her latest book, I Love My Tree! She was hoping it would be published by Earth Day, and it just arrived yesterday! It's a sweet story about why we need our trees, and has very pretty illustrations. Thanks for letting us be the first to hear it, Marisol!! You're a wonderful author!
Marisol has a couple of other books, including It's My Birthday, and we also enjoyed hearing Liz read it to the birthday girl, Kate!
We even had time to play Earth Day Bingo with Marisol as the caller! The pups were impressed with how much we know about what it means to reduce, reuse, and recycle! 🐕🐶🦮 Thanks for a fun hour, Marisol, Tucker, Louie, and Nellie! Happy Earth Day! (We love Marisol's Earth Day Corgi shirt!)
By the time we finished the Bingo game, our tummies were growling. Just as we got washed up, Sandra and Kate's parents, Mark and Elizabeth, arrived and the "Wicked Party" got underway!
Kate introduced us to Sandra several years ago, and she has become a beloved friend to all of us. She has cooked her specialty, Colombian pork in salsa verde with garlic rice, many times over the years, and it is so delicious! Thank you very much, Sandra, for cooking for Kate's birthday today! We appreciate you so much!
Kate's parents provided the "Wicked" decorations and later, delicious cupcakes so we could celebrate Kate with pink and green! It was a nice party, and so Kate! Thank you, Mark and Elizabeth!
Kate, we hope all your wishes come true! Happy 31st birthday to you!!
Tracy and her Parks & Rec coworker Conor joined us for Kate's party. Here, Drew was telling Tracy that he's an uncle now! His sister Alex had a sweet baby boy last week!
Kate requested a dance party, and we know how much Sandra loves to dance, too! In this video clip, we were listening to some Colombian music by an artist named Rodolfo. Look at our moves!
Such a fun afternoon! Sandra will be moving to Spain in July, and she will be missed. Thanks again, Sandra, for all the delicious cooking over the years. We will miss your spirit and friendship!
Thursday
Today was kind of a whirlwind with lots of visitors and exciting news! We canceled our trip to Yorktown so we could be here to meet someone special....
But first...
Speaking of special, we were surprised to see Heike back in the building! She needed to check on something at Abram Frink, so of course she stopped by for a visit! She continues to love her supervisor job that keeps her primarily at the Longhill Rec Center, and we're so happy to hear that. But, we really miss her! Thank you for the quick visit today, Heike! Please don't be a stranger!!
After chatting with Heike, we made cards for a special someone, and then had time for a game of Musical Chairs/Jammin' Hallway Walk. That's when we all start playing musical chairs, but as we get "out" we move to the hallway to keep walking to the jamming beat! We forgot to take more pics after this one of us setting up, but today's winner was Liz!
Katie got to see some of the work we do, such as preparing JRES library books for discard. Bryan, Gail, Devin, and Cameron got about 1/2 of a cart finished today!
Sara, Alexis, Erik, and Kate were working on gasketing parts for us to take back to Eaton tomorrow.
After lunch and Choice Time, we showed Katie around the center and tried not to overwhelm her by telling her most everything we do! She also got to listen to our hilarious read aloud, which she may have to finish because it's longer than Lisa realized!
After read-aloud, our next special visitors arrived. We met Lindsey, Cathy, Bria, and Peter (photographer) from Canon Virginia who brought us adorable keepsakes called "Fuzzies." They were made by a group of women at Canon called Women in Leadership Levels (WiLL) as a service project. Each Fuzzie came with an inspirational message, too.
Thank you, WiLL group from Canon, for this special gift. We appreciate you for thinking of us! Thanks to Annmarie's dad, Andy, too. He works at Canon and helped to hook the WiLL group up with us! (Annmarie has been under the weather this week and missed this sweet event, but we are saving a Fuzzie for her!)
Friday
It was off to work at Eaton for us this morning...until they called while we were in route to say we would be delayed from getting into our work room for about 30 minutes due to a maintenance issue! So, we took a detour...and a walk!
When we got to Eaton, we learned we would be working on some new tasks. One was assembling photo cells, which we used to do years ago. It involves putting two washer type rings on the photocell piece and tightening them. Another task involved making sets of 100 parts. There were a few different parts so lots of us were counting!
We're very proud of our Eaton work crew!!
After lunch and Choice Time, we did yoga with Jaime so Katie, who was hanging with us again this afternoon, could check it out! She kept up (and down) with Jaime, too!
And with yoga, we called it a week!
Next week we will say goodbye to Lisa, Nan, and Alexis and continue prepping Katie to step in and keep us going. From what we can tell, she's a quick study, very energetic, and ready to roll on May 5! Welcome, Katie!!
Here are our plans for next week:
Tuesday: We will join our master gardener friends for another session at the garden today where our topic will be "Mints and Mother's Day." After our lesson, we will return to the center to celebrate Devin's Big 3-0! His family is providing chicken nuggets and sides for lunch! Thank you to his family for planning a fun party for Dev and us! After lunch, we'll play board and card games.
Wednesday: Today we'll complete our service work at GCOC and in the JRES Library, and also arrange flowers for CSL, so please wear Arc shirts. We'll also begin preparations for Nan's farewell party and have a make up lesson for Read a Road Map Day! Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is offering Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Assorted Wraps. We also hope to see you tonight from 6-8 at our McLaws location for Lisa's retirement reception.
Thursday: We're keeping our eye on the weather forecast to see if we can make the trip to Yorktown we had to postpone last week. If not, we'll remain at the center and celebrate Bugs Bunny Day! Please bring a bagged lunch unless you hear otherwise before Thursday.
Friday: Today we'll celebrate Nan with a luncheon of Baked Ziti and Garden Salad. We'll also celebrate National Loyalty Day, and then spend the afternoon reminiscing about our time with Lisa, Nan, and Lexi. We'll play a game of Farewell Corn Hole, too.
Have a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
