We could describe our Thanksgiving Week as short and sweet! Our "tradition" at the Arc of Abilities has become meeting on the Monday of Thanksgiving week, in addition to Tuesday (as usual) and taking a holiday on Wednesday-Friday. We would like to thank our families for supporting us in this change to our schedule, and we hope they enjoy the extra time with their loved ones!
Meanwhile, here's what we packed into a couple of beautiful November days...
First up on Monday morning, we had to give a big hand to our Special Olympic bowlers, who competed in a tournament last Friday night. They all earned medals, even thought they didn't all wear them to the center. We're so proud of them! Our own Coach Teri, Sam's mom, along with his dad, Tim, coach the Friday night bowling league for Special Olympics. We're sure they are proud of these friends, too!
First up on Monday morning, we had to give a big hand to our Special Olympic bowlers, who competed in a tournament last Friday night. They all earned medals, even thought they didn't all wear them to the center. We're so proud of them! Our own Coach Teri, Sam's mom, along with his dad, Tim, coach the Friday night bowling league for Special Olympics. We're sure they are proud of these friends, too!
Everyone knows how much our guys love all things Disney, so on Monday we spent the day celebrating the one and only, Mickey Mouse! He turned 90 years old on Sunday, so a day devoted to him was a pretty easy choice for us. Here we are in our Mickey birthday hats!
We watched a video on the history of Mickey Mouse and found out that Walt Disney originally wanted to name him Mortimer, but Disney's wife said that was too hard for kids to say! After changing the name to Mickey, Disney set about making movies and in 1928, Mickey Mouse found stardom in Steamboat Willie.
At mid-morning we took a break to check on the Kool-ickles (aka, dill pickles marinating in Kool-Aid) we set up last week. We had put some in grape and others in cherry Kool-Aid and left them in the fridge for about 5 days. This is how they looked on Monday! The cherry ones were red all the way through. The grape ones looked almost black.
We watched a video on the history of Mickey Mouse and found out that Walt Disney originally wanted to name him Mortimer, but Disney's wife said that was too hard for kids to say! After changing the name to Mickey, Disney set about making movies and in 1928, Mickey Mouse found stardom in Steamboat Willie.
At mid-morning we took a break to check on the Kool-ickles (aka, dill pickles marinating in Kool-Aid) we set up last week. We had put some in grape and others in cherry Kool-Aid and left them in the fridge for about 5 days. This is how they looked on Monday! The cherry ones were red all the way through. The grape ones looked almost black.
Karen, our substitute custodian, stopped by just as we were about to taste them, and she joined us. Our consensus was that the Kool-Aid changed the tartness of the dill pickles to a slightly sweeter taste, and, we could also taste cherry and grape flavors.
Next, we had to prepare a birthday treat since it was Mickey's birthday. We turned mini-Moon Pies and chocolate-dipped vanilla wafer cookies into Mickey pops! Kate and Dev were waiting for the ears to complete their pops.
Drew and Patrick were also waiting for ears, and they weren't too sure where this "recipe" was taking us!
They turned out something like this...but tasted great! (We noted that at Magic Kingdom a treat like this would cost you at least $5.95!)
We ended our day with a video version of Disney trivia called Disney scene it?, which is a game we haven't played in a long time. It was fun and since it's an old game, it includes questions from some of Disney's movies that go way back. It was hard to stump our guys, though! What a fun day!
What better way to start the day on Tuesday than with our dance warm up AND Karaoke?! We were having so much fun with this, that we have not one, but two videos to post this week!
After all that fun, we got serious for a while and discussed the meaning of Thanksgiving. We watched a video that explained the history of this holiday and learned that the author of the children's rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb," Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned diligently to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She wrote letters to five presidents before Abraham Lincoln was persuaded to support legislation establishing it as a holiday in 1863.
Next, we shared things we are thankful for, and wrote them on our pumpkin! This is something we should have done a week ago, however. Our pumpkin was too far gone to save, so after we listed our gratitude, we had to chuck the stinky thing into the woods. Hope the deer enjoy it!
It wasn't as warm as we hoped it would be, but it was still a nice afternoon outside so we took the short drive down to Newport News Park to take a pre-Thanksgiving feast walk.
It is supposed to be quite chilly on Thanksgiving, but we hope our guys will be able to get some outside activity during our time off. They really enjoy walking!
In the past when we have walked across this bridge, we've seen fish and turtles in the water. Today we saw seagulls, which surprised us since they are usually spotted at the beach!
Here, we stopped for a group shot near a cannon. If you look carefully, you can see one of NN Park's Celebration in Lights display pieces, a Civil War soldier, near the cannon. Workers were on scene at the park testing all the lights, so we got to see a preview of the big event. This year, the Celebration in Lights begins on Thanksgiving night, and it will cost $12 per car to drive through the display.
On the way out of the park, we stopped at the playground near the Ranger Station to meet Kevin's mom, who was meeting us to pick up Kacie and him. Noticing there were no little ones playing, our guys seized the opportunity to climb, swing, and slide for a few moments!
Kevin's mom arrived with his sister Julia in tow. She's home from the University of Delaware, and enjoyed chatting with a few of Kevin's friends.
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Drew enjoyed having the slide all to himself!
Xavier and Devin had the swings all to themselves!
Tuesday: We will go bowling today and that means pizza and apples for lunch. Many thanks to Sam's mom for sponsoring today's pizza lunch. She is treating us for having made posters for her neighborhood Halloween party! If the weather is good, we'll visit the garden at Freedom Park to see if any spinach or mustard greens are ready for harvesting! Please wear Arc shirts.
Wednesday: Tuesday was "Giving Tuesday" so we are going to start a Food Drive today. We hope to help our friends at Grove Christian Outreach replenish their shelves for the Christmas season. We will collect nonperishable food items this week and next week! Look for a list of most-needed items to come home with your associates today. (By the way, we're still collecting gently used clothing for Grove for those of you with closets to clean out!) We'll also enjoy yoga with Patti, so dress to stretch. Lunch on your own.
Thursday: We're going to transform donated Mason jars into a few useful items today in honor of Mason Jar Day. This will kick off our Christmas decorating season! We'll also celebrate our successful event when the LEAD team visited by having pizza and salad for lunch, provided by The Arc's Executive Director, Pam! Thank you, Pam and YAY, us!
Friday: It's history time today! Rosa Parks' birthday is coming up on December 1, and she's one of our favorite icons to study. We will also look ahead to December as we plan our calendar for the month. Lunch on your own.
🦃 Finally, from us to you, our Turkey Trot 2018 Happy Thanksgiving wish! 🦃
Lisa, Carol, and Nan
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