Pickles and MREs

There were many highlights to our week, but one for sure had to be the fun we had with pickles and MREs! Here's what we were up to as November rolled along.

On Tuesday we made our way to bowling where we celebrated Patrick's birthday!  We would like to thank his mom for sponsoring our pizza lunch, and we also enjoyed cupcakes made by Alexis and Kacie and decorated with sprinkles in the colors of Patrick's favorite NFL team, the Carolina Panthers!  It was a great way to start our week.

Sam and Dev were ready with fist bumps when Bo scored an early strike in the first game.

Alexis likes to center her concentration by bringing the ball to her chin before beginning her approach.  

This was Chris's reaction to missing a spare by one pin!

And this was Kacie's reaction to scoring a strike!

Here's the birthday boy, Patrick, and his friends, just before they enjoyed the cupcakes!

We couldn't take a walk because it was drizzling rain after bowling, so we returned to AFCC where some of our friends prepared Arc's December mailing.  

BIG NEWS:  The Holiday Dinner and Dance is scheduled for December 15!!  Don't forget to complete your sign up sheet and return it to Bette Faye before the deadline.  You don't want to miss this wonderful evening with lots of FRIENDS! 

🎅🎄🎅🎄

It was National Pickle Day on Wednesday!  We had a rare morning snack when we celebrated by sampling dill, bread and butter, and sweet gherkins.  Most of our guys tried them and the bread and butter slices were the most popular.  We also did some worksheets with pickles for the theme!  So that's how pickles can make us smarter!

They can also make us sillier...as when we set up this experiment to find out how pickles would react to having Kool-Aid added to the brine!  We read on the National Day Calendar website that Kool-Aid pickles (or Kool-ickles, as we called them) are a thing!

So we added cherry and grape flavors to a couple of jars of dill spears and put them in the fridge to marinate for a few days.  We'll check them on Monday!  Yum...or not?!?!

Lisa recently traveled to the mountains of North Carolina where she spotted this brochure at one of the visitor centers.  Inside, it explains how certain forest animals move in order to hunt or escape predators. Then it shows how humans can incorporate similar moves into a fun workout.

We paired everyone up with a partner and taught the moves to each other.  Here, Chris and Drew demonstrate a move that represented how squirrels have great balance which enables them to dash along tree branches without falling.  We know balance exercises are good for us, too!

These friends are practicing push ups as a way to strengthen their arm muscles.  Ants can carry things that weigh more than they do, and humans need arm strength to help with lifting as well.

Laura and Devin taught us the hummingbird arm swing.  Even though we can't do 50 flaps a second, like hummingbirds, we can do a lot in a minute and that's a good cardio exercise!

We took time on Wednesday to reflect on the meaning of Veterans Day.  We watched an informational video, completed educational worksheets, and shared personal stories about veterans we know.  For fun, we got to learn about the military's MREs!  Sam's dad was able to send us a few samples of these complete, ready to eat meals.

This is an example of what came in the vegetable lasagna package.  The green pouch will heat up and warm the food when the white part inside is activated with water (there is a chemical reaction).  It got pretty hot, too!   

Here, Sam and Dev check out the beef patty meal.  They can't believe the included heat pouch could warm up the beef!

Even though the beef patty didn't warm all the way through, those who sampled it gave it a thumbs up.  Kacie and Alexis liked the bbq sauce for dipping, and despite Kevin's look of apparent apprehension, he said it was "really good!" 

Annmarie and Chris (and many others), said the best part of the MREs was the Skittles that came in one of them!

Patti was back this week for yoga and she led us through a great routine that included a lot of deep breathing.  We were kind of wound up from the excitement of the pickles and MREs from the morning, and this session of yoga helped to settle us significantly.

Look at these strong "warriors" grounding themselves in calmness!  Thanks, Patti.  We enjoyed our yoga practice!

By Thursday morning, we were ready to cook!  Our recipe for the day was a breakfast casserole that we would make in a Bundt pan (to celebrate Bundt Pan Day - which is a thing just like Kool-ickles are!).  We also decided to bake some of the casserole in muffin pans, since we couldn't fit two Bundt pans in the Nina.

First, ingredients had to be gathered, so armed with a checklist, Annmarie and Sam made a trip to the fridge.  We needed ham, eggs, milk, cheese, biscuits, and hash browns.

Liz made sure to preheat one of our toaster ovens, so we could bake the casserole we put in the muffin pans.  We make good use of both the toaster oven and the Nina!

Drew and Dev had to line the muffin pans with papers; the hands belong to Kacie and Liz who wanted to help "speed" them along!

Devin helped Alexis measure and add cheese.  Those who weren't working on their part of the casserole recipe worked on word puzzles and coloring pages.  It was a quiet, focused, and well-paced morning for us.

 

Bo, Laura, and Kacie made a plan for cracking eggs and cutting up biscuits.  In the background, Chris and Becky were preparing to cut ham.  We were excited when Becky came in early to help.  She wanted to check out this recipe for use later.  We were happy to teach Becky one of our favorite recipes!

Our efforts yielded a beautiful (if only half "golden") Bundt pan casserole and some single-serve muffin-sized ones as well!  We added bananas for a side, and it was another hit with our gang!

During Choice Time, Dev helped Drew with a new math program we added to our laptops.  It's based on the game of Plinko, which is one of Drew's favorites on the show, The Price is Right. 😊

During our group work, Nan and Carol led this group in a fun vocabulary game.  They had to be quick to find the answers!

Becky and Lisa led these groups through some word skills with Veterans Day as the theme.

After group work, we finished the afternoon with some crafts.  Patrick and Chris worked on the weaving project we started when we visited Christina at the Art Museums earlier this month.

Kacie and Alexis also worked on weaving.  Christina wants us to bring them back next month and she will show us how to take the finished project off of the small loom.

Other friends worked on Thanksgiving crafts, like these friendly scarecrows Sam and Devin are showing off!

Kevin added colorful "feather" stickers to a turkey he made!

We had saved some of the samples from the MREs so on Friday morning, we set up a buffet!  This time we sampled veggie lasagna (very tasty), mango-peach applesauce ("tastes like baby food!"), marble pound cake (very crumbly, but sweet), raisins and peanuts (good), wheat bread (not bad), and crackers with jalapeno cheese spread (yum!).  We also tasted "orange beverage" and lemonade, and they weren't too bad, either.  These samples helped us appreciate our military men and women just a little more as we realized how lucky we are to have access to fresh, tasty food whenever we want it.  😌

After our MRE buffet we had fun with this craft.  Turns out Bette Faye couldn't use all the TP rolls we collected, so we made these cute turkeys out of them!  Thanks to everyone who donated!!

Friday was National Button Day and we played an old-fashioned game to celebrate. Some players had a button tied to a string, while another player had a lid to a pot.  When a certain number was rolled with the die, the object was to yank your button away before the player with the lid captured it.  Sam was pretty quick with the lid, surprising Annmarie, Laura, and Kevin!

Looks like Liz and Patrick were pulling their buttons away in time, but Devin probably got caught by Kacie!

After lunch, we went to the park for a nice long walk/hike.  The weather was perfect.  Saturday is Take A Hike Day and we encouraged our friends to gather family this weekend and hit another trail!

We walked on the paved path at New Quarter Park for our hike, but they have lots of wooded trails, too.  We always have a great time when we come here.

As we finished a four day week, we're looking forward to a change in our usual schedule and a two-day week coming up.  Remember, we are going to be open MONDAY and TUESDAY next week, and closed Wednesday-Friday for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  

Here's what's up for Monday and Tuesday:

Monday:  Our favorite mouse, Mickey, turns 90 years old on Sunday, so we will spend today celebrating him and other things Disney, which we love!  Feel free to wear Disney clothes!  We'll make a special Mickey Mouse treat, but lunch on your own!

Tuesday:  We will reflect on the meaning of Thanksgiving and look into its history.  Weather permitting, we will take a short drive down to Newport News Park for some afternoon fresh air, and a pre-Thanksgiving feast walk to burn a few calories!  Lunch on your own.

So glad to hear that most of our guys (and staff/volunteers) have gotten their flu shots!  Thanks, Everyone! 👍

We'll see our friends on MONDAY!  Don't forget!!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan