Happy Birthday, Pam!

Pam was delighted to see us when we stopped by the new building on Tuesday to wish her a "Happy Birthday!"

Tuesday

We were happy to be back this morning since the weekend snowstorm didn't really amount to much. We're still counting on Chesapeake Chuck's forecast, and looking for that early spring! 

Our morning was spent at AFCC where we got the day started with our dance warm up and blog check.  After that, we made get well cards and pictures for one of our dog handler friends, Vicky.  She recently had surgery and is doing well, but we thought some cheer from us might speed things along!

There wasn't much to celebrate on the National Day Calendar, so we watched a Mystery Science lesson about how telephones work.  It's hard to believe that our voice vibrations can be turned into electrical signals and sent all over the world via today's technology.

We tried to imagine sending voice vibrations by making and testing cup and string telephones, like our parents might have done when they were in school "back in the day!"  As long as we could keep the string taut, most of us could receive the sound of our friends' voices.  That was kind of cool!

Next we tried playing Telephone, the old-fashioned game where messages were whispered from friend to friend, and the last person hopefully heard the same message as the first person spoke.  We got a few laughs out of this!

We had better luck playing a game of pool noodle volleyball, which got our heart rates pumping before lunch!

The highlight of the day came after lunch when we took a trip to Wendy's for Frosty treats!  Our friend, Laura, received a Wendy's gift card for her birthday a while back, and she chose to treat us to Frosties.  It just took us a while to coordinate the trip!  Thank you so much, for your generous treat, Laura!  It was very thoughtful of you to share your birthday gift with your friends.  

Some of us chose chocolate and some vanilla, but most chose the limited edition Girl Scout Thin Mint Swirl flavor.  EVERYONE loved them, even on a chilly afternoon!

After our Frosty stop, we went to the Arc office on McLaws to deliver a Frosty to the birthday girl, Pam!  🥳🎉🎈

Pam, we hope all your wishes come true!  Thank you for being an amazing leader for The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and for all you do to make it the best Arc ever!  We can't wait to be in the new building and get to see you every day!  😉💞

We also began our move in today!  We dropped off some of our seasonal items that we won't be needing until after we move to the new space.

We have a lot of "stuff" to move, but a lot of helpers, too!  Thanks, everyone!

Wednesday

There was a lot going on for our service work morning.  First, we sent this lovely group to work in the JRES Library where Mr. Nonnemacher had a big stack of books for them to shelve!  Thanks, Sara, Liz, Lexi, and Laura for your efficient and accurate work!

Next, we sent Devin, Liz, Xavier, Bryan, Erik, Annmarie, Laura, and Kevin to work at the GCOC Food Pantry.  They worked alongside Peggy and Joel today, while Thom and Ursula worked in another part of the building.

Kevin placed filled bags of groceries on the shelves.

Thanks Peggy and Joel for the Rice Krispie treats!  You guys are always so thoughtful...and we appreciate the treats you give us.          💖💖💖

Back at the center, we appreciated Drew and Thomas for making sure our green beans would be cooked to perfection.  We were grateful to Gail for washing the sweet potatoes (and later peeling the mandarin oranges), and we were thankful to have Pat to cook the meatballs.  Today's lunch was so tasty!

In between cooking duties, there was time for a friendly game of War!

At the same time cooking was taking place, Gail (she's everywhere!), Tessa, Alexis, and Sara handled flower arranging duties.

Today's arrangements were particularly colorful.  Commonwealth Senior Living will be very pleased with these "bursts of spring" this week!

We can't forget to mention that Kasey was helping us today.  She led the flower arranging and was very impressed with our skills!  Later, we did a lengthy Go Noodle workout followed by a balanced breathing exercise, which Kasey really enjoyed!

After lunch Kasey led us in an engaging lesson for National Pink Shirt Day.  This day recognizes kindness, inclusion, and antibullying.  It was easy for us to share ways in which we practice kindness, inclusion, and antibullying each day, as shown by Erik's and Dev's examples here.

We even designed our own pink shirts!  Thanks to our friends who wore pink shirts in support of today's lesson, and thanks to everyone for being kind every day, no matter what color our shirts are!   Thank you, Kasey, for a lesson that is always a good reminder of what we stand for at the Arc of Abilities!  We had fun hanging out with you today! 🩷

Thursday

The rainy weather came back today, but we had sunshine anyway in the form of Moose Patti!  She's been able to squeeze in some volunteer time during Allison's absence, and we have enjoyed having her!  This rainy morning seemed like a good time to play board games.

Patti taught Alexis, Patrick, Sara, and Bryan the ins and outs of Yahtzee, a game we have not played before.  They stuck with it, and paid close attention to Patti's lessons on strategy, while they hoped for luck!

Nan, Kevin, Laura, and Gail played Candyland, which is one of our all-time favorite games.  Gail was excited to have drawn a lollipop card so she could advance several spaces on the board!

Xavier, Drew, Tessa, and Thomas played Chutes and Ladders with help from Carol.  The counting wasn't so hard, but following all the chutes and ladders on the gameboard was tricky!

Liz, Devin, Erik, and Lisa played a card game called Garbage, which also involved some tricky strategy.  It was frustrating at first, but after the first round, they wanted to play again!

After card games, we showed Patti how to make bird feeders with TP rolls and peanut butter.  This is always a good activity to do when we have an extra set of hands!  We didn't hang them outside due to the rain, but hopefully we can put them out tomorrow.  Thanks for spending part of your day with us, Patti!  We love catching up with you.  You put lots of smiles on our faces!

After lunch we listened to our read-aloud and then did "random" math brain work.  One group worked on solving multi-step word problems and the other learned about 3D shapes like cylinders, cones, and spheres.

Near the end of the day Pam stopped by to introduce us to Gretchen and Dan from the Williamsburg Eagles Social Club - FOE 4548, who wanted to meet some amazing Arc clients as well as see our Arc of Abilities day program.  The Eagles recently held an inhouse fundraiser and chose The Arc as the beneficiary.  What a joyful surprise to receive a donation of over $3000 from Gretchen and Dan on behalf of the Eagles club members!  Thank you very much, Williamsburg Eagles, for your generous and thoughtful donation.  We are touched by your kindness and value your support!  What a bright and wonderful ending to a rainy day! 

Friday

Today began with clouds, but at least it wasn't raining as we arrived ready to head for a work morning at Eaton.  Before heading out, Alexis, Liz, and Bryan filled our birdfeeder and also hung the ones we made with TP rolls yesterday.

Later in the day we noticed a number of chickadees eating from our TP feeders.

Our tasks at Eaton today were packing something we'd never seen before called "beauty plates" and unpacking fragile lightbulbs.  

There were four large bags of yellow plastic parts called "beauty plates," but the parts in each bag looked slightly different from one another.  We set them up at four different tables for packing into gray bins, which Gail, Tessa, Laura, Kevin, and Patrick are shown doing here.  We apologize to Bryan and Thomas who had the fourth bag and were overlooked by Lisa who was taking pictures.  Also shown here are Drew and Xavier who worked on unpacking a large tub of white plates, also putting them into gray bins.

At the other end of the room, Carol, Nan, Alexis, Erik, Devin, Liz, and Sara carefully removed light bulbs from the packaging and layered them in boxes with bubble wrap in between them.  With 4 of our friends absent, we had a smaller crew today, but we got the job done!

After lunch we returned to our read-aloud, George Washington's Socks.  In today's chapter, our time-traveler Matt runs into a couple of "Indians" before being reunited with a couple of his friends, who inform him that one more friend and his little sister have been kidnapped by Hessians.  Devin, Patrick, Bryan, Thomas, and Erik helped read and act out today's part of the story!  Patrick was perfect for the part of one of the "Indians" since the story said he was wielding a tomahawk, and Patrick had one on his Braves shirt!

 

We ended the week with a brief lesson about it being National Pokémon Day!  Only a couple of our guys had memories of collecting Pokémon cards, playing the games, or watching the movies, but it was interesting to learn about how the character came to be.

Our online yoga instructor, Jaime, has a segment based on Pokemon, so we finished our lesson with a relaxing yoga break!

It feels good to stretch!

We left feeling very excited about coming back on Tuesday!  We've got some celebrating to do next week.  Here are our plans:

Tuesday:  It's time to kick of Spring Birthday Season!  Today we will celebrate Drew at bowling and with pizza and cupcakes for lunch, courtesy of his family!  Thank you, Andy and Donna, for celebrating Drew with us!

Wednesday:  It's Service Work Wednesday so please wear Arc shirts for volunteering at GCOC and arranging flowers for CSL.  We will also work on our March calendar, make thank you cards for the Williamsburg Eagles who gave The Arc a generous donation last week, and celebrate National Marching Music Day.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Asian Chicken w/ Veggies and Rice or Flatbread Sandwich.

Thursday:  Today we'll spend time selecting our favorite dance songs so we can create a playlist for Jeanne, one of our friends at Williamsburg United Methodist Church who requested it so she can be ready for our next visit!  We'll also celebrate National Cheese Doodle Day with a small snack sampling, and a quirky craft to "share" with our bird friends!  We'll also celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday (March 2) so feel free to bring your favorite Dr. Seuss books or other items.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Domino's Pizza or Assorted Wraps.

Friday:  It's PSP Friday so please wear your Pet Supplies Plus shirts.  We're also celebrating our next spring birthday for Annmarie!  Her family will join us and provide a tasty fried chicken and fixins lunch!  Thank you, Andy and Teresa, for celebrating Annmarie with us!  We'll end the day with a game of birthday corn hole!  Note:  Feel free to bring a shirt to change into for the party if you'd like.

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

 

Warmer This Week and King Cake!

This week we enjoyed somewhat warmer temperatures, even though there wasn't a lot of sunshine.  That's ok...we'll take it...last year during this week we only made it on Tuesday before 3 snow days grounded us! We enjoyed a busy week, visiting with Christina at The Art Museums on Tuesday and with our therapy dog friends on Wednesday.  On Thursday we returned to Williamsburg United Methodist Church for another visit with those new friends and there was a lot of musical fun!  We worked at Pet Supplies Plus on Friday morning and then celebrated the Lunar New Year with Chinese takeout for lunch.  That's always a fun time!  In between those adventures, we learned about Presidents' Day and Mardi Gras (King Cake!) and celebrated our favorite pets.  It was a great week!

Tuesday

Our first highlight of the day was a lesson about Presidents' Day.  We learned that it is observed in February because that's the month in which George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were born.  However, there were two other presidents born in February, William Henry Harrison and Ronald Reagan.  We also learned that not every state recognizes it as a federal holiday!

Not sure if it was a highlight, but after most everyone said it was still too chilly to walk outside, we cranked up the tunes and hit the hallway...

Visiting Christina after an early lunch was definitely a highlight!  Today was the first day of the Lunar New Year and she gave us some great info about that, and then more great info about porcelain dinnerware that was exported from China to the American colonies as far back as 1607!  That's right...we've been importing goods "Made in China" since the first colonists arrived in Jamestown!

China has some of the best type of clay for making fine porcelain dishes which were popular in Colonial America.  The remains of many of those dishes have been found by archaeologists in Colonial Williamsburg.

This plate that was "Made in China" was part of a set belonging to the last royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore.  He fled Williamsburg in 1775 as the Revolutionary War was getting underway.  Later, the things he left behind at the Governor's Palace were sold in an 18th century version of a "yard sale," and many of his dishes were unearthed by archaeologists all over CW over 100 years later.

It is the Year of the Horse in the Lunar Calendar.  Christina showed us a wooden horse toy on display that was also "Made in China!"

We learned that long ago, and even now, other countries were influenced by Chinese style.  We saw a bookshelf, a tiled art piece, and a chair that were all made in England but based on Chinese culture and design.

We went to the ed studio where Christina said we were going to get to design our own Chinese porcelain plate.  We were only going to use shades of blue, as that was a very popular color during colonial times.

Christina gave us some tips for drawing things like flowers, trees, birds, and Chinese buildings., which were often drawn on porcelain.  If you start with a couple of J's written backward, you can create the look of Chinese architecture!

We worked quietly, but encouraged each other in our designs.  It seemed strange to just use shades of blue, but we got into it!

Christina finds it relaxing to create, even if just with blue colored pencils on a paper plate.  Isn't her design lovely?

We were proud of our plates, designed and made right here in Williamsburg, VA!  Thanks, Christina, for another interesting and engaging lesson!  What a fun way to combine history and art!!

Wednesday

This morning we welcomed a small, but mighty, group of therapy dogs and handlers.  Sometimes we have as many as 8, but today only 4 could make it.  So, our literacy groups were larger with four or five of us in each, but our enthusiasm for spending time with these special friends was strong!

Xavier was up front when Caroline, Pip, and Indy arrived so he was the first to greet them!

Before we began our literacy groups, we gave a shoutout to handler Carol Downey, center in beige sweater, who is co-chair of the Night to Shine committee that hosted an amazing night for us last Friday!  So many of our friends attended and had many, many great stories to share, including how nice it was that several of our therapy dog friends were in attendance as well.  👏👏 and 💖💖to all of you for a night we will remember for a long time!

We enjoyed reading the books we had checked out from the James City Country Library last week.  Alexis, Tessa, Drew, Xavier, and Erik read with Lisa and Lola while Gail, Kevin, Bryan, and Liz read with Carol D and Darby.

Carol S. and Casey read with Patrick, Michelle, Devin, and Laura.  Caroline, Pip, and Indy were all ears for Kate, Thomas, Sara, and Annmarie.  After reading, we played Lunar New Year trivia.  Thanks therapy dogs and handlers, for another engaging and joyful time spent reading and learning!  We appreciate you!

We appreciate Carol and Nan for finishing up the flower arranging service work after the dogs arrived so we could read and play games!  This week we had enough extra flowers that we were able to give our 4 handlers beautiful bouquets!

A beloved tradition we have is celebrating Mardi Gras and enjoying authentic King Cake delivered straight from New Orleans, courtesy of Moose Patti and her father, who lives in the Crescent City!  We were a day late for our lesson and observance, but with an acknowledgement that today is Ash Wednesday, we carried on with our celebration.

Drew and Gail assisted Carol with icing our King Cake.

This year's cake was strawberry!  Here's how it looked before and after decorating.  The plate of cookies we decorated are gluten-free, for our friend, Xavier.  

We decorated masks and had a little dance party before indulging in the cake!

The online wheel spinner chose Laura and Bryan to be our King and Queen, so they got to select the first pieces of cake.  This year, we had 4 little plastic babies to hide in cake slices and 1 silver coin.  Tradition says, that whoever finds the babies or coins will have good luck and prosperity in the year to come!

Hmm....it seems Annmarie may have found a trinket in her cake slice!  It was the silver coin!

Along with Annmarie who found the lucky coin, are Drew, Bryan, Nan, and Michelle who each found a little plastic baby in their pieces of cake!  Congrats to you guys, and here's to a year of good luck and good fortune!!

  Thank you so much to Moose Patti and her dad for sending us the delicious King Cake all the way from New Orleans!  The only thing that could have made it better would have been if you could have joined us!  We love you, Patti...and Patti's dad, Richard, too...for loving us, and for this generous and tasty King Cake treat!!  What a fun afternoon!

Thursday

The weather was dreary today, but our time with the women's group at Williamsburg United Methodist Church couldn't have been brighter!  The theme was "Music" and we danced and sang our hearts out!  This is a great time to let the pics and videos tell the story...might want to grab a bag of popcorn! 😜

Today's session was led by Jeanne, with support from Gayle, Renee, and Linda.  Jeanne had loaded her phone with great music (we knew it all!) and we followed her moves and also made up some of our own.  We got a great workout!  Jeanne is an inspiration at 84 years young!

We took a break from all the dancing and singing to play a game of "Hot Potato."  

Next, we had a special request session.  Liz took over Jeanne's phone and quickly pulled up some of our favorites!  Check out the singing and dancing and pure joy that ensued!

Thank you, Jeanne, from the bottom of our hearts for getting us moving today with your contagious enthusiasm!  We had so much fun with you, Gayle, Renee, and Linda this morning.  The rain could never compete with your sunshine!!

We returned to AFCC for lunch, Choice Time, and read-aloud.  We ended the day with a celebration of National Love Your Pet Day!  This group brought pictures and stories of their beloved dogs and cats, some of whom had crossed the rainbow bridge, but still live in their hearts. 💙💚💖💜 💛We enjoyed every photo and story, as this is a favorite "celebration" each year!

Friday

Another rainy day greeted us as we ended the week with work at Pet Supplies Plus and a fun time celebrating the Lunar New Year!

At PSP, Sara, with the help of seasoned veterans like Gail, is really getting the hang of stocking products, being careful to match the bar code numbers.  Behind her are seasoned veterans Liz and Kate, too!

Bryan, Devin, and Erik can be counted on to focus and work efficiently on their job of stocking products for all kinds of critters!

Devin and Erik also worked with Ryan, a PSP employee, to stock dog food products.  Our guys enjoy working alongside members of the PSP team.

Today's crew couldn't resist highlighting some of the stuffed toys available for our furry friends!  Thanks to Erik, Bryan, Kate, Sara, Devin, Liz, and Gail for your professional and hard work today!

Back at the center, it was time to decorate for our celebration of the Lunar New Year.  We pulled out our trusty dragon decoration, which we have been decorating with since 2017!

Can you spot the dragon, Nian, in this throwback from 2017?  We were temporarily relocated to the Rec Center on Longhill that week due to a broken water pipe at AFCC.  This was our first celebration of Lunar New Year, and we were making Chinese lanterns!

We were too busy decorating and working on some special cards for special friends, to get any other pictures, but our crew of Tessa, Kevin, Drew, Alexis, Patrick, Xavier, Laura, Michelle, Thomas, and Annmarie were busy all morning taking care of business!

Thanks to Lexi and Nan for picking up our take out order from Hong Kong Restaurant in the James-York Plaza on Merrimac Trail.  Thanks also to Lexi, for sharing her collection of stuffed horse animals which added to our decor for the Year of the Horse! 🐎

Once again, as for many years past, Hong Kong got every order correct, and today, we had 18 of them! 😋

We ended our day with the movie Mulan, which we all enjoyed, both for the story and the great soundtrack!

Our week ended with sunshine outside, but we hear we may see snow this weekend??? That seems crazy since it was above 60 degrees today, but you never know.  We certainly hope to see everyone on Tuesday, and here are our plans for the last week of February! 

Tuesday:  We'll keep our eye on the forecast and hopefully be able to visit the park for a walk today.  We're also going to visit Wendy's so Laura can treat us to Frosties.  She's had a birthday gift card she's been wanting to share for a while!  Thanks so much, Laura!  Speaking of birthdays, it's Pam's today, so we also hope to stop by our new building to give her some happy wishes (and maybe a Frosty, too!)  In other activities today, we'll learn how telephones work, make our own string telephones, and play the telephone game!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Chicken Fajitas or Pizza.

Wednesday:  It's Service Work Wednesday so please wear Arc shirts OR pink shirts (keep reading).  We're also celebrating Cook a Sweet Potato Day (it was on the 22nd) by making a baked sweet potato bar, with sides of meatballs, green beans, and fresh fruit for lunch. The Arc's Kasey is joining us today, and she'll lead us in a celebration of National Pink Shirt Day, which recognizes kindness, inclusion, and antibullying.  Feel free to join Kasey in wearing pink today if you'd rather, instead of your Arc shirt.

Thursday:  Moose Patti is volunteering today and we're going to play board games and corn hole with her.  We'll also work on creating cards and posters that we'll present at a future JCC Board of Supervisors meeting.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Domino's Pizza or Deli Sub.

Friday:  We will work at Eaton this morning so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  After lunch we'll have a lesson for Pokémon Day (bring your Pokémon stuff if you'd like) and enjoy a Pokémon version of yoga with Jaime to end our week, so dress to stretch.

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang