Whirlwind Week!

As we mentioned last week, this week was busy and we liked it that way!  We had fun with birthday celebrations and we officially "opened" our Learning Lab and thanked the Williamsburg Rotary for the grant that made it possible.  We also went bowling and worked in the garden at Freedom Park.  In between all of that, we hung out at the center and enjoyed another week of nice weather!

On Tuesday, Lisa went to Ferguson Enterprises to relieve Pam at their Community Partner Day.  (Pam needed to go a function at the Williamsburg Community Foundation!)  The goal of the event at Ferguson was for their associates to talk with representatives from local nonprofit organizations and hopefully become inspired to be more involved in the community. Pam and Lisa spoke to hundreds of Ferguson folks and a number of them signed up to volunteer for The Arc!

While Lisa spent the day at Ferguson, the rest of the gang enjoyed a bowling day.  The pizza lunch was graciously provided by Josie's family...thank you so much!  

While we only got a couple of pictures from Tuesday, it's easy to tell from them that bowling is always a lot of fun!

On Wednesday we enjoyed the last of our Fall mini-sessions with our master gardener friends.  We really bonded with this nice group of folks, and we will miss spending time with them.

In our final session, we reviewed what we had learned about bulbs last time, and then we went into the garden to plant.  Here, Sam and Alexis plant onion bulbs while Xavier looks on.

Kacie and Devin were in charge of planting garlic.  Yum!

Cameron, Kate, and Laura were surprised at how large daffodil bulbs were as they planted them in this raised bed.

Patrick planted "mystery" bulbs!  We can't wait to come back in Spring and see what they are!

This week's education was about winter squash.  Here, we are learning about acorn squash with Liz.

Our friend Rick taught us about spaghetti squash.  We also learned about butternut and delicata squash, and we got to bring all of them back to the center with us.  We will have a Squash Day next week!

Our craft activity was adding dried leaves and flowers to mini-pumpkins.  What a beautiful decoration these turned out to be...and you will soon see that we used them as a centerpiece for our table on the day of the Rotary Club Reception!

After finishing in the garden we made our way over to a trail we had not explored before.  

It was almost a mile!

On Thursday morning we were getting excited about having the reception for the Rotary Club, but work came first.  James, from Eaton, delivered several boxes of work for us, and our guys were happy to help unload! 

It was also Alexis's birthday celebration and her Grandad delivered some delicious bbq sandwiches for our lunch.  Thank you, Gdad!  Lunch was soooo good!

Luckily, Alexis had enough breath to blow out her candles because we couldn't wait to have some birthday cake!

After lunch, we set up a refreshment table for the reception to thank members of The Williamsburg Rotary Clubs for our Learning Lab equipment.  The mini-pumpkins we decorated with the master gardeners added a beautiful touch to the table.

A nice-sized crowd turned out and included members of the Rotary as well as Arc board members, friends from Parks & Rec, WJCC School Board Member Lisa Ownby, and State Senator Monty Mason.  We are grateful for the support of so many from our community.  Here, a few associates show our guests some of the programs we are using on the new computers.

Our Executive Director, Pam, spoke to our guests about the benefits of using technology with our special associates and acknowledged the generous gift from the Rotary.

Arc Board president Andy D. thanked the Rotary, too.

These men are the presidents of the three local Rotary Clubs.  In this picture, they are holding the thank you posters we made for them to share with their individual chapters.

We even had a ribbon cutting!  The Learning Lab is a big deal!  We are thankful for the computers, printer, camera, software programs, cart, and storage cabinets the Rotary grant provided for us and look forward to the endless possibilities of using it all!

We were busy on Friday catching up on thank you notes.  Our master gardener friend Linda had let us use her basket for bringing our mini-pumpkins back to the center.  Nan lives in the same neighborhood as Linda, and was going to return the basket to her. So we decided to fill it with lots of appreciation that Linda could share with the other MGs.  Isn't it lovely?!  Everyone helped with planning, coloring, writing the notes, and assembling the final product.

We also worked together to create a thank you note for Josie's family.  They provided our pizza at this week's bowling.  We wrote a group note and attached some pictures.  Josie said she was sure her dad and stepmom would like it! 😉

The highlight of Friday was Kevin's birthday!!  We were on the receiving end of more generosity (sooo much this week...we feel very fortunate) when Kevin's mom treated us to Chick fil-A sandwiches for lunch.  Sam and Kevin couldn't wait to chow down!

After singing "Happy Birthday" to Kevin, we enjoyed homemade peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies!  Thanks so much, Ms. Debbie!

Our whirlwind week ended with a quiet Friday afternoon.  We listened to a couple of chapters in our read-aloud, Wonder, put the finishing touches on the plans for our Halloween party, and played a boys vs. girls version of Disney Movie Songs trivia.  This week was indeed a whirlwind, so a quiet afternoon was just the way to end it!

Here's what's up for next week:

Tuesday:  Halloween Party!  Games, crafts, music, and more!  Costumes are optional.  Mummy dogs, fruits/veggies, and chips for lunch!  👾🎃

Wednesday:  We will "examine" the topic of stress for National Stress Awareness Day and learn how to strive for balance in our busy lives.  We are also making it "AoA Squash Day" and we will cook the squash given to us by our master gardener friends.  Spaghetti for lunch (spaghetti squash with sauce)!

UPDATE:  We will not have Tai Chi today as Michael has taken on other responsibilities and will not be with us anymore.  This was an unexpected turn of events, but we are excited to announce that Parks & Rec is meeting with us this week to arrange for a new Tai Chi (or fitness) instructor as well as a trainer so we can commence the strength training program we announced last week.  Stay tuned for more details as they develop!

Thursday:  We will spend most of the morning working on projects for Eaton.  It's also the first Thursday of the month (already!), so after an early lunch, we will travel to The Art Museums of CW for our monthly visit with Christina!  Lunch on your own (bring from home or buy from cafeteria).

Friday:  We will begin our Bocce Ball league today!  Our friend (and Sam's mom) Teri is helping us with this so of course, it will be fun!  It's also National Sandwich Day so we will prepare sandwiches for lunch.  Not sure what kinds...we will consult with the associates and plan the menu!

Don't forget that the link for ordering shirts is open until the close of business on Thursday.  It will take about a week for the orders to be filled.  We'll pick them up to send home with the associates.  The link is Arc Shirt Orders .

Also, since November is almost upon us, remember we will offer the program on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving Week (November 20 and 21), and be closed Wednesday-Friday.

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan