It was great to get back to "normal" with a regular, four day week. We were excited this week because we welcomed two new members to the AoA gang!
Dev just moved to Williamsburg from Pennsylvania on Monday, and didn't get into town until the wee hours of Tuesday morning, so he decided not to join us until Wednesday. But Annmarie began on Tuesday and got to spend her first official day with us at bowling! We will work with her on throwing her ball with more strength, but for now, she did very well using the rack!
Chris, Patrick, and Alexis wasted no time shining their balls with the "magic" towels Nina gave them last week. We could probably call them "lucky" towels, too. All three of these amigos made strikes and spares, and Alexis had her highest game ever: 130! We think our friends who forgot their towels may want to bring them next time! 😉
Xavier had his highest game ever today, too! He rolled multiple strikes and scored a 133. He got lots of cheers from his friends, including Chris!
The strikes continued with Drew! Here, he gets a handshake from Liz and a big congratulations from our volunteer, Pam!
Back at AFCC, Drew helped Liz cut apart the sheet with everyone's bowling scores. The scores were great today!
We enjoyed a tasty lunch of pizza at bowling, which was sponsored for us by Meemaw. We made her a thank you note that had the sentences written on pepperonis, which we mixed up on the rough draft. This group of editors arranged them so they would make sense!
Cameron glued the pepperoni sentences in place for us. Thanks for lunch, Meemaw! We enjoyed it very much!
On Wednesday morning, we had some vocational tasks to complete. Annmarie, Drew, and Devin worked on sorting and assembly, while singing along to Disney tunes on the boombox!
Over in our big room, a crew worked on assembling Power Slide doors for Eaton. Patrick and Dev unpacked new doors and Liz inserted a window piece on each one.
Nan, Kacie, Kate, and Alexis worked the label table and Chris transferred the doors that were ready for the finishing table.
The last step in Power Slide door assembly is inserting several screws and making sure they are tight. Sam, Xavier, Cameron, and Kevin remained focused and finished the job quickly.
Our friends in the JRES library asked us to prepare some new books for checkout. They needed to have slips inserted inside the back cover, and then several pages needed to be stamped. We gave this job to our resident bookworms, Bo and Chloe, but they kept trying to read the books instead of stamp them! 😜
Later, we worked on our Virginia salt-dough maps. We looked at Virginia maps online and discussed the geographical features of our state. Using several different colors, we painted each region.
They look pretty good! We hope our friends understand that our state is flat in the east and gradually becomes higher as you head west...except for the valley area between the mountain ranges! Next week we will add more features to them.
Patti gave us a good workout in yoga! Look at everyone participating.
We worked on strengthening our cores, and that challenged us. Thanks for pushing us to do more, Patti!
Even though September 11 was last week, with our missed days due to the storm, we had not had a chance to discuss the events and review the history. On Thursday morning, we took time to watch a somber video segment that explained the events of that day in terms that were easy for us to understand.
We followed up with group work and small, quiet discussions. September 11 is now referred to as Patriot Day, with the motto "Never Forget."
Sam and Nan led a discussion with this group that highlighted symbols from our country.
Here, Kate and Cameron worked on alphabetizing words that related to the events of 9-11.
Thursday was also a good day to get outside, which we hadn't been able to do in quite a while. These friends enjoyed walking around and chatting with each other.
Patrick and Dev tossed the football.
Xavier must have missed being outside. He shot basket after basket!
Sam and Kacie looked around the community garden and found some pink zinnias still in bloom.
We had to prepare lunch so we could celebrate Fried Rice Day! Alexis and Patrick sauteed onions and chicken and got the veggies ready.
Kacie and Chris scrambled up some eggs!
Chris also assisted Sam and Devin as they mixed up a sauce to add to the fried rice.
Meanwhile, in the other room, a crew was making egg-drop soup! Bo snapped this picture of Liz and Kate pouring egg over the tines of a fork, so the egg would fall into the broth and form ribbon-like strands.
Everyone was pleased with how our lunch turned out! Easy-peasy, and so tasty!
As this blog post is being written, it becomes evident that we were quite busy on Thursday. After lunch and Choice Time, we had fun with a craft involving shaving cream and paint. We needed to begin decorating for Fall, so we made some leaves. Sam and Chris were amused that Carol would use her hand to smooth the shaving cream in the pan.
After adding paint in the colors of Fall, and swirling it around, Kacie demonstrated the next step, which was placing a leaf cut from card stock face down so it could absorb some of the shaving cream and paint mixture.
We then used a ruler to "squeegee" the excess paint and shaving cream off, and our leaves looked like this! We're going to make a garland out of them. What a fun, and simple, craft. We might have to do this one again when the holidays begin to roll around!
Friday was one crazy day. It began with an accident on 64 eastbound that caused traffic to detour onto Rt. 60. As we all know, Rt. 60 is the only way we have to get to AFCC. The traffic jam was pretty intense, and most of us coming from Williamsburg did not arrive until 9:30 or later. By the time we all settled in, it was going on 10.
So we felt like we were in a "spring ahead" time change all day. We just rolled with it, and got as much done as we could. We marked Talk Like a Pirate Day, which was Wednesday, by learning some very interesting facts about them. These friends enjoyed coloring pirate pictures.
These guys kicked back and watched a clip from "Pirates of the Carribean."
But the highlight of our day was celebrating Kacie's birthday, so we made her some lovely cards! When it was time to set up for lunch, there were lots of helpers.
Speaking of lunch, it was fabulous! Kacie's family treated us to sandwiches from Panera, along with chips and fruit. Everyone enjoyed their choice of sandwich very much, but NO ONE grabbed the camera for a picture! 😮 That's not like us, as we usually take WAY more pictures than we should. But it tells you how delicious our lunch was! Thank you, Stacey and Frank. Your generosity made our day!
Despite the shortened schedule, we managed to get pumpkin whoopie pies made, which Kacie chose for her birthday dessert. They were pretty tasty, too. But with it being Crazy Friday, no picture! Instead, we got a picture of Kacie and her friends just before they sang "Happy Birthday to her!"
We ended the day trying to add to our pirate vocabulary, so we could "talk" like them using more words than "Shiver Me Timbers" and "Arghh!"
When his team mates abandoned him, our new friend Dev persevered and completed the matching activity. Now he knows that a "poop deck" has nothing to do with bodily functions... Yes, it was a crazy Friday!
We made it to the end of our crazy day, but not before we snapped a shot of these friends posing under our leaf garland. Happy Fall, Y'all!
We will officially welcome Fall next week. Here's what's on our agenda for the last week of September:
Tuesday: Today we will work with our Master Gardener friends at Freedom Park in the Botanical Garden. Wear your Arc shirt AND bring a bag lunch. If the weather is favorable, we will enjoy a picnic and walk after our session!
Wednesday: Fall is officially here, and that brings Johnny Appleseed Day! We will have activities centered around that today, including peanut butter/apple butter sandwiches for lunch (or jelly if you prefer). For sides, we'll cook our potatoes from the garden and also prepare healthy apple-cinnamon chips. It's also Yoga w/ Patti Day, so dress to stretch! (We ran into a delay getting our flower-arranging project up and running...but that may happen today, too! 🎕)
Thursday: Time to whistle while we work! We're going to Eaton today so bring a bag lunch. Also, wear your Arc shirt!!
Friday: We're going to work on our Virginia salt-dough maps today, adding rivers and cities. While we have the paints out, we will decorate some rocks with a Fall theme. Since tomorrow is Ghost Hunting Day, we will explore the topic of ghosts, too! Lunch will be casserole combo: veggie/pasta and lasagna with a side of garlic bread. The casseroles were given to us from the United Way of the Virginia Peninsula as part of a community service campaign they sponsored called "Stone Soup." We appreciate their support of The Arc and our AoA!
Reminders:
CAREGIVER FOCUS GROUP MEETING - Monday, Sept. 24!!
Join Pam McGregor and a special panel for information on applying for the Virginia Individual Family Support Program's $1000 grant. The meeting will take place at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church at 6:30. More information can be found at this link:
SAVE THE DATE: Remember when our friends, The Women of the Williamsburg Moose, sponsored a golf tournament for us in August? It's time to join them as they present us with a check to benefit The Arc and our AoA! Everyone is invited to meet at the Williamsburg Moose Lodge on Wednesday, October 3rd, at 5:45 p.m. The tournament was a huge success, so let's join Patti and the others as they present this generous gift to us!
For all who ordered t-shirts, we should have them by the first week of October. Remember, Lisa will pick them up and send home with the associates. 👕👕👕
IT'S ALMOST HERE...
We hope everyone has a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, and Nan
IT'S ALMOST HERE...
We hope everyone has a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, and Nan
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