Birthday Bashes Continue

As our friend Laura would say, "But first...what happened to Spring?!"  We began the week on a chilly Tuesday with the first of two birthday celebrations we would enjoy in the coming days.  (We love April for all of the birthdays! 🎂)  This time it was Bo and we celebrated him at bowling.  Here's the Birthday Boy reading Harry Potter in between turns, something he actually loves even more than bowling!  Read on, Bo!

This picture of Kacie and Chris picking up their bowling balls looks like it would be the beginning of a showdown, but our guys always play in support of each other and for fun!

Even though we had pizza last Friday to celebrate Chloe's birthday, no one minded it again for Bo's!  Thank you to his family for providing our hot and yummy lunch AND for the equally yummy cupcakes afterward!

In the midst of our celebration of Bo's birthday, we found out our dear friend at the bowling center, Dicey, would be leaving for a new job opportunity.  We are going to miss her friendship very much.  She's just one member of the team that takes great care of us.  We certainly wish her well!  Can you spot her right in the middle of the gang?  💙💚💜

After bowling we headed to the Rec Center for a post pizza party walk.  When we arrived, we found out the cracks in the paved trail were being repaired and the path was closed.  So we decided to walk around the soccer fields instead. 

It was hard to get all of the guys in one shot since they walk at different paces.  The large field was actually a good fit for that aspect of our walking program.

And yes, we were wearing jackets...on April 17th!

Sam and Drew say starting the day with a dance always brings smiles to their faces!  Happy Wednesday!

Our friend Steve, from the Willamsburg Rotary, visited and worked in the computer lab with some of our friends.  Here, Kate and Patrick try to figure out a tricky question about fractions.

Eaton needs more Power Slide Doors so this group got the job done.  Carol, does Meemaw know you're using her power tool?! 🤣

We took time for a brisk (it was another chilly day) walk before lunch.  After hiking to the outdoor classroom, we climbed on the benches and struck yoga poses for this picture!  Namaste, everyone!

National Rubber Eraser Day is "celebrated" each year on Tax Day, which was April 17th this year.  We were a day late, but still enjoyed the challenge of using giant, neon erasers to find hidden words within a series of letters.  Any letter that didn't belong in the word had to be erased.

Chris and Kevin worked well together and quickly found the hidden word, "bowling."

Kate worked on her own since we had an odd number of participants today.  She was proud to find all the hidden words!

We thank Laura's mom, Lisa, who is about to retire from teaching and is cleaning out her room, for the donation of erasers!  

Our yogi Patti was much better this week and as soon as she arrived, we shared a video of our very own Kevin doing a plank at his workout session!  She was so excited to see him practicing this, and we are super proud of him!

With Kevin as inspiration, we worked our way toward the plank position, first by going into 3-legged dog!

We're getting there!!!!

Kacie, Kate, and Chloe can even do reverse planks!  WOW!

Thursday's library team consisted of Chloe, Bo, and Alexis.  Good work, guys!

We spent some time outside on yet another chilly April morning, but the sun was shining!  Sam and Kacie meandered through the community garden and stopped for a photo by the tulip bed.

Patrick and Alexis worked with Kate on her football throwing skills.

Speaking of Kate, we celebrated her upcoming birthday (Sunday) on Thursday by also celebrating Garlic Day.  Her favorite meal is spaghetti and garlic bread, so that's what we had.  Her mom added cupcakes and it was a delicious party luncheon!  

Shortly after lunch, we scooted over to CW to visit with Christina at the Art Museums.  We had time for a walk around Bicentennial Park where we stopped for a picture under this pretty dogwood tree!

We continued our study of magical, mythical creatures with Christina.  Here, we added a few pictures to our books with her ink stamp set.

Today Christina told us about dragons and unicorns.  We learned that in ancient Asia, dragons were a sign of good fortune but in Europe they were regarded as not so nice.  We also learned that unicorns were elusive, but if they could be caught, their horns could be ground into powder that would cure most anything.  In CW, the unicorn can be seen on the sign of the Apothecary's shop, as it represented medicine in years past.

After the lesson, we searched for magical, mythical creatures throughout portions of the galleries.  Christina pointed out a phoenix on the inside of a dish.

Kacie and Alexis found griffins painted on this chair.  It's fun to look at items in the museum with an eye toward finding details that Christina has taught us about!  Thanks, Christina, for enlightening us in your special way!

When we returned to the school, we were surprised to head to the back of the building where a Navy helicopter was parked!  Mr. Stutt told us the school had been working a long time to bring this for a visit.

When we arrived, it was almost time for the helicopter to return to Norfolk (a ten minute trip), where it is attached to the carrier George H.W. Bush, which is currently in port.  But our guys had a few minutes to chat with the pilots and the rest of the crew.

We learned that this helicopter was involved in the real life rescue of Captain Phillips, about whom a movie was made.

We also learned that the pilot today was this lady!

We had to stay behind the fence to watch the helicopter depart.  It was a little loud and quite windy.  Cameron decided to join Xavier, who was a little further back. 

Here's the takeoff!  This was exciting for our guys.  We are grateful to Mr. Stutt and Mr. Howard for inviting (including) us and making sure we didn't forget!  

Thursday was a lot of fun, but Friday was, too!  It began with this bunch of bakers, Sam, Chris, and Kacie, volunteering to prepare pineapple upside down cupcakes.  It was Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day, so we decided to modify the recipe to cupcakes so as to better control our portions, since we have been "celebrating" with a few sweet treats lately. 😊  First, we learned how Dole grows and harvests pineapples by watching a video.  It was interesting to find out that it takes over a year (up to 18 months) for pineapples to grow and ripen!  We also learned that it is a crop that does not do well with automation, so it is planted, cared for, and harvested almost entirely by hand.  (The workers plant, by hand, 5,000-6,000 plants a day...14 acres a week!  WOW!)

From this...

...to this!  Fresh out of The Nina, and they were delicious!

We made sure we got plenty of physical activity today.  Before lunch we grabbed our giant disk (which we haven't played with in over a year until Alexis dug it out today) and headed to the field.  It was just windy enough to get some pretty good lift as we tossed it about and, surprisingly (to staff), chased it all over the place!  

Most of our guys participated and we should have videotaped it to show them running!  🏃🏃🏃

Here, Devin got the disk and took off like a flash.  Alexis didn't catch him before he threw it!

It was so much fun!  Next week we may try Freeze Tag!

During Choice Time, Becky and Carol assembled some kites!  We would soon head outside again to run around and take advantage of the windy day.

Before flying kites, we had to do some educational work.  We had been asked by an acquaintance of Lisa's to write thank you notes to service members for her to add to a care package she was putting together.  Everyone was happy to contribute.  Devin and Sam drafted kind notes, and then colored an extra thank you page to include with it.

Kacie, Kate, and Alexis were proud (rightly so!) of their work.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but the flag page is the one on which they wrote their notes.

It was a sunny afternoon, and not as chilly as we thought, but still windy enough for us to get the kites up!  Here, Chris looks on as Sam lets the string get longer on their kite.

Becky and Kate persevered...and finally got this kite up high!

Devin held on to this one with intense focus.  Afterward, he was giddy with excitement!

Look how high Cameron's flew!

Do you see Kacie's?

Drew was amazed that the string he was holding had a kite flying in the wind above his head!  Everyone had a chance and most of them succeeded in getting at least a short flight.  This was a fun way to end the week, and they asked if we could do it again.  Of course!

And with that, we realized this third week of April had flown by! 😎 Here's what's up for next week:

Tuesday:  It's a day for peace, love, flowers, and deep breathing!!  First, we will garden with the MGs (master gardeners) at Freedom Park, so wear Arc shirts and bring a bag lunch.  After lunch, we will take a short walk and then head over to Studio South for a mindfulness/yoga session with Kylie.  As of the publication of this update, the weather forecast is calling for rain, but we can hope it changes.  If it's raining, we will see if we can eat lunch inside of the Interpretive Center.

Wednesday:  It's one of those awesome weeks when we get yoga twice!  Patti comes today so dress to stretch!  We will also make birthday cards for Jorie (Yay!  Another April birthday!) And, since it's only a couple of days after Talk Like Shakespeare Day, we will have some fun learning about the best-selling fiction author of all time!  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  We have a bit of Eaton work to finish at the center before going to their site tomorrow, so we will work on that in the morning.  In the afternoon, we will work on the books we started with Christina at the CW Art Museums, by adding more pictures and summaries of the magical, mythical creatures we learned about last week.  It's also close enough to one of our guys' all time favorite food holidays: Pigs in a Blanket Day, which was Tuesday,  so of course we are having pigs in a blanket for lunch. 

Friday:  We will spend today at Eaton working on a variety of tasks.  While there, we will celebrate Jorie's birthday!  Bring a bag lunch, and include some nutritious fruit or veggies!  We will add a birthday cookie for dessert. 

Reminder to plan ahead:  The AoA will be closed the week of July 3-6!  

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend,
Lisa, Carol, and Nan