This week the school was very quiet. The students and teachers are on summer break and we are pretty much the life of the building now. So far, there are no summer programs so we have been able to use the gym, and that's nice! Here's how our first week in the "quiet building" went down...
On Monday, The Arc of GW held a reception to christen the new vans and congratulate Mr. Mason on his 25 years as Transportation Coordinator! We celebrated the van we got last year, which was donated by a generous benefactor, and the two new vans we got last week. The new ones are able to accommodate wheelchairs. One is a 14 passenger bus and the other a 10 passenger van! The bus got the seal of approval from Liz, Lexi, Sam, and Nan!
We mentioned last week that our Executive Director, Pam, lead a fundraising and grant writing campaign which resulted in The Arc receiving the two newest vehicles. Thank you, Pam, for your dedication to this cause! Her work, and that of her team, continues this year as we work to raise our share of the funds needed to receive two more vans next year. The Virginia Gazette has a story about the new vans in Saturday's paper on page 21A! The link to that is here:
This is Mr. Mason posing with Liz and Alexis and the card the AoA made for him. We appreciate his hard work maintaining the vehicles and making sure they are comfortable and safe for us to use. During the summer, when Parks & Rec needs their vans most of the time for summer programs, we use the Arc vans. Congratulations, Mr. Mason! 25 years is a great accomplishment!
Speaking of cards, here are the ones we made last week for our Master Gardener friends. Aren't they the cutest?!
We must give another shout out to Kacie, Alexis, and Liz who drafted these thoughtful messages to put inside each card. Hopefully you can zoom in and read them!
On Tuesday we traveled to Freedom Park for the last in our Spring Sessions with the MGs. It was a record-setting day of heat and humidity, so we met inside at the Interpretive Center. Linda introduced a new friend, Dee, who delighted us with her presentation on lavender! Aren't she and Linda adorable in their lavender outfits?! 💜 Dee taught us a lot about the lavender plant, including that it likes to grow in sandy soil, doesn't care much for Virginia's humidity (so can be tricky to grow here), can be used in cooking, and things like soap, lotion, and candles, and that the scent is helpful in promoting calm and relaxation.
We each got a spring of fresh lavender which we rubbed between our fingers in order to release the fragrance. Lavender is very pretty and smells good! The MGs helped us use dried lavender to make sachets...and taught us what sachets are used for!
Dee treated us to delicious cookies made with lavender! We had lemonade, too!
But our MGs weren't done! After cookies and lemonade, "Krafty" Karen told us that she had seen in a recent blog that we were painting rocks. She then taught us another way to decorate rocks, and they turned out beautifully! We used Modge Podge (kind of like glue) to attach a picture cut from a catalog to our stone. The pictures were of veggies and herbs we had planted in the garden this Spring. After attaching the picture, we put more Modge Podge over it to seal it to the stone, and when it dried (very quickly), it was shiny and pretty! Fun!
Rocks representing basil, nasturtiums, strawberries, zinnias, and chives!
While it was too "hot" for us to walk over to the garden...our friend Barbara did and brought us back some cucumbers (yum! lunch tomorrow), garlic, and a great big sunflower we can set outside near our hummingbird feeder at AFCC. Maybe it will attract some goldfinches to eat the seeds inside. Here it is, outside our window. We hope the squirrels don't get it before the birds! By the way, we continued to see our three hummingbirds this week!
We were excited and proud to present our donation of $225 to the Master Gardener Program! Our MG friends were touched and surprised by our gift. They are already planning a fun and engaging Fall Session, which will begin September 11. We can't wait! Thank you, AoA families, for your generous support of this very worthwhile program!
We were fortunate to get to stay in the Interpretive Center after our session with the MGs, so we could eat lunch inside where it was cool. After lunch, we made our way over to Studio South for a relaxing yoga session with Kiley.
She led us through a great stretching session. Don't we look good?!
So, even though Tuesday was an extremely warm and muggy day, we enjoyed both of our outings and no one seemed bothered by the heat. We don't look forward to days like this, but we know more are coming!
Wednesday seemed to be a little less hot and humid, but it was still warm. Luckily, we had use of the gym so we were able to have an active day, despite the weather. We missed Flip Flop Day last week so we made up for it today with some fun games. Most of our guys wore flip flops or another type of shoe they could fling off their feet, and some of them brought extra, so we had plenty!
Our first game was the Flip Flop Relay. We mixed up all the shoes in the middle of the gym floor. Team members lined up on opposite sides of the gym and sent runners to get matching pairs to take back to their side. When the shoes ran out, each team counted how many pairs they had collected.
Excuse the blurry photo...Kacie and Patrick were in fast motion!
Devin grabbed a matching pair and ran back to his team.
Here comes Chris! This game had us running a lot!
In the girls vs. boys round, the girls won, 14 pairs to 9!
Another game we played was the Flip Flop Flip. We remembered playing this last year, too! Here, Kevin flipped Carol's slip on sandal (no thong between the toes since he wanted to keep his socks on) and landed it in the red ring for 1 point!
After all turns were taken, Alexis and Kacie were tied at 10 points each, so we had to have a Flip Flop Flip Off! In true sportsmanlike spirit, they held on to each other for balance as they flipped their flops...and Kacie emerged the victor, 10-6!
It was the popular PB & J or BANANA Day for lunch. This team took our orders and made tasty sandwiches for everyone. Most choose the traditional PB & J, but several enjoyed peanut butter with banana.
This is what we call Cucumber Salad. It's one of Nan's recipes and was a simple way to enjoy the freshly sliced cucumbers from the garden at Freedom Park, along with a few more from Nan's garden. She just mixed up a little vinegar, water, and sugar and then let the cucumber slices chill in the fridge. They were crispy and delicious!
Look at these fashion models!! Sam in his Flag Day shirt (we reviewed Flag Day today), Liz in her Flip Flop shirt, and Laura sporting a PB & J shirt! We love their spirit!!
After lunch we were thrilled to find out that one of the rocks we hid a few weeks ago had finally appeared on the Williamsburg VA ROCKS Facebook page! Here's Becky's reaction to finding out it was her rock!
This is the picture from Facebook. The poster said the rock was found in Colonial Williamsburg and re-hidden in North Carolina! You may recall, Becky took advantage of the shape of it and painted it to reflect parts of Virginia!
After our excitement at seeing Becky's rock posted online, we painted some more to hide in CW next week. We stuck with a patriotic theme this time, using red, white, and blue paint. Kacie, Bo, and Sam painted several layers of color. Kacie is seen blowing on her rock to help dry one of the layers.
We ended the day with a celebration of Ice Cream Soda Day. We talked about "the old days" when folks would order these at soda fountains in the local drug store. We made small chocolate ones, and the guys were impressed with all the fizz and foam the club soda produced!
Finally, we were asked by Pam to make a card that The Arc will use to welcome the new president of William and Mary, Katherine Rowe, who replaces the retiring Taylor Reveley on July 1. As most of you know, W&M supports The Arc in many ways...we depend on their students as volunteers for some of our regular events, and they also sponsor some of our biggest and most fun ones. Creating cards is a group effort among all of us in deciding which pictures, colors, and fonts to use, and this one turned out as nicely as all the others! Yay, us!
Our Thursday was a great day for showing the variety of activities we enjoy in the Arc of Abilities. We began the day over at Eaton, where we worked until lunch time on some assembly and unpacking. This highlights the vocational training aspect of our program.
Kacie showed Alexis and Liz how to attach a small piece to a larger one after removing both pieces from the wrapping. By attaching the two pieces, instead of just tossing them into the box, our guys save the Eaton assembly workers yet another step!
After today, we had Eaton well ahead on PowerSlide Doors. We won't be back for a few weeks, but the work done by Cameron, Chris, Sam, Xavier, Kevin, and Meemaw should tide them over!
Jorie sent Vicki over to work with us. We needed another "experienced" person who could use a box cutter. Vicki opened the boxes and Laura and Devin removed the parts. Laura also removed excess tape from the parts so Devin could pack them back into a bigger box. Thanks for your help, Vicki!
Here, Drew and Patrick are caught sitting around. 😮 Just kidding! They were empty handed because they are so efficient. They were ready to open another box of parts to unpack. They're a great team with Patrick removing small parts and Drew handling the
disposal of the excess packaging, after he makes sure nothing was left inside.
It's a multi-step
process to assemble Power Cell Plates, and Kate and Bo focused on a big box of
them. When verified by a staff member, every single one was correctly
assembled!
Chloe enjoyed
working quietly at unpacking these parts. She used scissors and cut open
at least one hundred packs so she could remove the silver bars from inside.
After eating
lunch in the Eaton break room, we headed back to the center where we had an
open afternoon and got to engage in a variety of favorite and relaxing
activities that highlights our social and recreational aspect of the program.
Kevin chose a
puzzle, Devin listened to music, and Liz colored a picture.
Cameron enjoyed
completing a few word search puzzles.
Laura, Drew, and
Patrick used the computer lab. In the background, Chloe listened to music
on her phone while Sam and Chris played at the pool table.
Alexis, Kate, and
Kacie painted more rocks, while enjoying conversation with each other.
Bo retreated to
the quietness of the foyer where he wrote two personal thank you notes to the
morning and afternoon bus drivers who helped find his phone, which he lost this
morning. Turns out it was on the WATA bus, down between the seat belts.
Carol had
communicated throughout the day with Debbie, the afternoon driver...who then
got in touch with Mark, the morning driver (we don't have his number).
Mark was able to find the phone and get it to Debbie, who then brought it to Bo
at afternoon pickup! A great team effort! The WATA drivers are wonderful
to work with and they take very good care of our guys who ride with them!
Bo was relieved, and very happy to have his phone back!
Pink Day only comes around once a year, so we make the most of it! Friday was bright inside, even if it was rainy outside! We began the day with our disco ball adding ambiance to our "pink songs" dance warm up. Here, our friends bop to the Pink Panther's theme song! Look at all the pink and "pinkish" in their outfits. We love their spirit!
Next, it was on to making fresh pink lemonade! We read the ingredients in the store-bought mix we usually use, and at first it scared us to hear words we couldn't even pronounce. Some of our friends thought the lemonade mix could poison us. Yikes! We reassured everyone that it is safe to drink, in moderation, and once in a while. (We make it occasionally, as we encourage lots of water intake every day.) But we all agreed that fresh is best!
Liz and Laura used old-fashioned juicers to help release all the juice from the lemons.
Sam kept tabs on our recipe so we added the right amounts of lemon juice, water, and sugar. He also informed Devin that we needed to add cranberry juice to give it the pink color. Drew stirred it all together. We put the lemon rinds in bowls (and later added pink grapefruit rinds) and let them freshen the room the rest of the day.
Cameron's hand was the first one up when we asked for a taste tester! He gave it a thumbs up. The rest of us had to wait until lunch, at which time we agreed with Cam!
Speaking of lunch, Friday was National Onion Rings Day, so Kevin and Kacie got ours ready to pop into The Nina!
We thought hot dogs would go well with onion rings, and they are kind of pink, so our lunch came together perfectly! Alexis and Drew were "hot dog helpers" and they made a great team. We added sides of pink grapefruit and more fresh cucumber salad, along with our fresh pink lemonade. It was all good!
While all that cooking was taking place, others were in the gym having fun with our new BIG balls. Heike and Mr. Howard even joined in the fun!
After lunch and Choice Time, we spent the rest of the afternoon on a science investigation. We have been enjoying a video series called "Mystery Doug" with a host who answers questions about things we've always wondered about. Doug has explained why zebras have stripes, how broken bones heal, why we have allergies, and how cotton candy got its name and was made popular by a couple of dentists (true!)...to name a few of the interesting "mysteries" he's unraveled for us. Today, we watched one of his longer programs, called "Mystery Science," which guided us through an investigation of the question, "How Can I Get More Birds to Visit My Feeders?"
We learned about types of birds and how they like to get their food from feeders in different ways. Some like to perch and nibble, some like to hover and sip (our hummingbirds!), and others like easy access to their food via tray-like feeders.
We thought about the types of birds we hope to attract, and then used a variety of materials we had on hand to create bird feeders. Kacie, Sam, and Cameron were working with paper cups, paper plates, Styrofoam bowls, string, foil, cardboard, and our "drumstick" ballpoint pens we used a couple of weeks ago (which had run out of ink and would now make nice perches).
Laura, Patrick, and Drew worked together to attach a couple of paper cups, punch holes in them to attach perches (pencils), and tie a string from which to hang it.
This group also used a piece of cardboard to make a tray-type feeder. Lisa was helping Laura punch holes in the cardboard when Patrick accidentally knocked the tub of coloring supplies off the table. That thud caused us all to jump. Alexis happened to snap the picture at the same time the tub was falling! No worries, though. Patrick, Cameron, and Drew sprang into action and picked everything up in no time.
This picture shows the focus and teamwork we all demonstrated today. Becky and Carol were helping Sam tie three pieces of string together so the paper plate feeder would hang in a balanced fashion.
We were really proud of our bird feeders! (And aren't we pretty and handsome in pink?!) When we return from our summer break (July 3-6), we're going to figure out a way to hang them outside the windows so we can see if any other birds make an appearance for us. We saw our three hummingbirds again this week. We've also had a couple of visitors to the bird feeder Kacie's dad hung for us, but we haven't been able to identify them yet. Our investigation will continue.
Next week we have to relocate to the JRES library while the gym and rec center have some work done to the floors. We ended our week helping to carry some of our "stuff" to the library since we won't be able to come in our room next week. We're grateful for our many hands that make light work!
Here's what we have going on next week:
The gym floor at JRES is being resurfaced and the fumes will be unpleasant, so we have to relocate to the library within the school.
Please drop off and pick up associates at the main entrance to the school. We will be looking for you in the circular drive!
The library is a small space, and we will have limits on how much movement and "messy" we can do, so we are fortunate to have several outings this week!
Tuesday: It's Bowling and Pizza for Lunch Day!! Many thanks to Cameron's family for sponsoring our pizza lunch today! Wear your Arc shirts! We will also take a walk to hide our patriotic rocks around CW on the way back to the center.
Wednesday: POOL PARTY! It's time for our 3rd Annual Swim Fun Party at Kevin's house! His family is welcoming us to splash in their pool and enjoy a yummy lunch of burgers and chicken sandwiches. Wear your suit (bring dry clothes to change into if you'd like), bring extra sunscreen, and a towel. The forecast looks fantastic! Thank you Kevin, and family, for this fun outing. We look forward to visiting with you!
Thursday: Today we will spend in the library doing some "simple" things. We'll dance, check out all the cool books, and play everyone's favorite game, Bingo! We're also planning to watch a movie based on the life of Temple Grandin, a woman with autism. (This is dependent on us being able to get the technology connections in the library to work with our computers!) Bring lunch from home and it needs to be ready to eat...no microwave available!
Friday: Weather permitting (meaning not too humid), we will meet Liz and her mom at Pirate's Cove for a round of miniature golf! Thank you, K family! We will surely have fun trying to hit holes in one, and not each other! What a treat! Wear Arc shirts, please! Lunch from home. We will return to AFCC to eat in the library, so no microwave meals! We will spend the rest of the day playing games and who knows what else?!
Don't forget! We will be closed the week of July 3-6.
Don't forget! Golf tournament is August 4th! (We hear there are a few dads in our midst who golf...wouldn't it be cool if they formed an AoA team?!!!? Maybe they will let us know if we can help organize that!)
Don't forget! 5K is on October 6th! We'd love to have sponsors with ties to our AoA families and friends!! And how about an AoA team? Lisa is going to create our team on the registration page soon. We will let you know when it's ready so you can join Team Arc of Abilities and walk/run with us!
Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, and Nan
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