Fun with Cereal and Meatballs!

When you start the week with a birthday party, you know it's going to be a good week!  When you also get to have fun with cereal and meatballs...it has to be a great week!   

Tuesday morning we got busy making birthday cards for Drew.  Our tradition is the birthday person can't be with us during card-making time so we find other things for them to do while we create.  This time, we sat Drew with his back to us and had him sort cereal into green and orange flavors (for an upcoming craft) and told him not to "peek."  He took us seriously...as you can see by how hard he is working! 

Next, we headed to the bowling center.  Look at these girls in action!

While the bowling was fun, what everyone really wanted on Tuesday was lunch!  For Drew's birthday, his family treated us to "special orders" from the League Bowlers Menu (we are a league, you know!).  Everything from chicken strips to cheeseburgers to pizza to cheese sticks was offered.  The birthday boy was very happy with his choice of pizza and fries!  Thank you to Drew's family for this very generous treat.  

These girls showed with their faces and thumbs how they felt about the birthday lunch!  And Patrick, in the background, threw up a couple of thumbs, too!

After bowling we stopped by the garden at Freedom Park to see if anything else had bloomed or if there were more buds on some of the trees.  Right away we saw this pretty bush which we found out is baby's breath.

Xavier spotted a hyacinth.  These were "mystery" bulbs when we planted them last October!

Kacie and Alexis checked out the very small buds on this tree and decided that they will keep tabs on its progress over the next few weeks.

Kevin and Laura will be in charge of checking this one next time.

Back at the center we finished our celebration of Drew's birthday with cake!  Wonder what he wished for?!

Friends!

Tuesday morning found Chloe training Alexis in shelving books in the JRES library. 

Steve from the Williamsburg Rotary was on hand to volunteer in the computer lab.  Here, he assisted Cameron and Chloe with programs on counting money and estimating numbers.  We appreciate the Rotary members spending a couple of hours each week with us!

We brought out the paints so we could make rainbows.  We're almost finished decorating our room for St. Patrick's Day!  Good thing, too...it's only about a week away!

Since Wednesday was National Cereal Day, we decided to use cereal for crafting.  Here the guys are using orange cereal to make beards on the leprechauns.  We thought this was silly at first, but ended up having a lot of fun "celebrating" Cereal Day this way!

Carefully applying one piece of cereal at a time is good fine motor practice.  Drew persevered!

Check out our decorations! 😊

During computer time, Laura worked on a sight word game.  Look at her concentration!

Earlier in the morning, Chris pulled out our yoga mats and arranged them in numerical order so it would be easier to set up once Patti arrived.  That was a big help!

Patti taught us a pose called Sleeping Swan during yoga.  Chris and Kevin worked on it...it was hard!  We are pleased that our friends are attempting these challenging (at times) positions.  They are listening, focusing, and stretching all at the same time!

Devin was very engaged with yoga on Tuesday.  Here, he is getting into the Tree pose.  This requires a lot of balance and he was determined to do it without using the wall for support!

We celebrated National Meatball Day (a day early) on Thursday by making meatball subs on a stick!  It's much less messy than traditional meatball subs.  Everyone was able to prepare their own by alternating meatballs and bread dough on a skewer, which we then baked.

Sam made sure to center his skewer for perfect formation of his sub!

Before...

After!  Golden brown yumminess according to these taste testers!!

The perfect ending to our subs was pound cake!  Thanks again to Kate and her mom for baking a scrumptious pound cake so we could celebrate National Pound Cake Day, too!

It was a chilly March day on Thursday but we needed some movement, so we stayed inside and got our paper balls out again.  This time we threw them at our partners who held bowls and tried to catch our crazy tosses!

After lunch it was off to the CW Art Museums to see Christina.  This time, she took us on a "Magical Creatures" tour in the gallery.  We even had little stools to sit on at each stop!  Christina told us stories about how creatures such as griffons, sphinxes, and phoenixes came to be.  We enjoyed the change up on our usual routine!

It was interesting to learn how sometimes the furniture is just a "backdrop" for the artwork.  On this card table are phoenixes, which we learned are creatures with body parts of many different animals and who lived in a nest that burst into flames...killing the phoenixes...who then rose from the ashes to live again!

Christina gave us each a book in which we could draw some of the magical creatures we saw on our tour.  Drawing is something that challenges, and can frustrate, many of our friends, so we decided to bring them back to the center and do more research to try and find pictures we can print and glue in our booklets!  When we return to see Christina next month, we will continue our magical creatures tour.  There are so many and finding them on pieces of art is fun.

We made the short trip over to Eaton on Friday morning and put in a great day's work!  We are so proud of our guys.  They can do a variety of tasks, and even when Jorie introduces new ones, our efficiency remains high.  

We have a few specialty teams, like Laura, Cameron, and Kevin, who are whizzes at assembling photo cell plates.  We have a few extra special shout outs this week!  Laura moved between two stations, and worked meticulously at each.  After her first rotation, she took the initiative the rest of the day to cover both stations!  Kevin, who enjoys working on puzzles during Choice Time, "refused" to do one on Friday, insisting that he wanted to work instead!  🙌

Chloe and Alexis work with Nan to label power slide doors.  This is a "sticky" job that not all of our guys are suited for, so it usually falls to this team to get it done.  We applaud their willingness to work at the same task for most of the day.  (Sam was helping out by carrying doors with labels to the next table in the assembly process.)

Xavier and Drew are two of our top sorters!

Chris enjoys working on unpacking boxes.  Here, he worked with Lorenzo from Eaton to unpack all the boxes you see in this photo!

Chris took the parts he unpacked to Sam, who was inside the bin today arranging them so he could fit a lot of them in the bin.  He used his feet and legs to straighten the parts and make more room.  Lorenzo said Chris and Sam are "his guys!"

Another step in the power slide door assembly is inserting screws around the windows.  This takes coordination and Patrick and Bo do it with precision.

Kacie was back at work using the electric drill to release the screws on these parts.  Over her shoulder is Devin.  We also want to give him a big shout out this week. 🙌 We noticed he took it upon himself to go to another station and chip in when he got "ahead" at his station!  We even caught him waving his hands and encouraging one of his coworkers to "keep working!"  Way to go, Devin!

In this photo, Jorie is showing us where some of the work we were doing today ends up.

Here's a close up of the parts.   It's exciting to know we are an integral part of the assembly of these!

We left Eaton feeling pretty good about our teamwork.  Our guys made us, and themselves, proud!  It was a great ending to our week.

Here's what's up for next week:

Tuesday:  We will spend the day at the center today, working on the Arc April mailing and some other work for the library at JRES.  We will also began preparing for our anniversary party to be held on Thursday!  If the weather is nice, we will travel to CW for an afternoon walkabout.  No need to wear Arc shirts.  Lunch on your own.

Wednesday:  Firefighters from Station 10 in Williamsburg will visit us today to discuss fire safety.  This is in advance of a visit we will make to their station next week.  We'll also have yoga with Patti and continue party preparations.  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  It's Party Time!  Our AoA celebrates its 2nd anniversary tomorrow, so we will have a fun day with BBQ for lunch provided by Lexi's grandad.  Thanks for our anniversary lunch, Gdad!  We will also celebrate St. Patrick's Day with special treats, games, and activities.  

Friday:  Please wear Arc shirts and bring a bag lunch as we will spend the day at Eaton.  We'll officially celebrate our 2nd anniversary with mini-ice cream sundaes, too!🍨

SAVE THE DATES:

- This Monday, March 12:  Arc Caregivers Focus Group at the JCC Rec Center, 7 p.m.  Lucy Cantrell from The Arc of Virginia will speak on navigating the process of accessing services in our state.

-Sunday, April 15, 2 p.m. at The Kimball theater:  You won't want to miss The Arc's screening of the documentary, "Life Animated."  It's the real-life story of Owen Suskind, son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind. Owen is a young man with autism who, according to the website lifeanimateddoc.com, "was unable to speak as a child until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films."  The screening will be followed by a community discussion led by Owen's brother, Walter.  This is a fundraiser for The Arc and ticket prices are $10 for adults, $5 for Arc clients/students.  Invite your friends and family and plan to join us.  Our AoA associates will love this story!  

-Saturday, October 6: The Arc's 5K at Williamsburg Landing!  We hope to have a team representing The AoA!!!  ALSO, it's not too early to seek sponsors.  Please ask anyone you know in a position to sponsor to consider supporting this event.  Let us know if you need sponsorship information!  Thank you in advance!! 

Once again, we thank all of our families and friends for your ongoing support of our 2 year old program! You are very special to us! 👏👏👏

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan