November Ends

Since Thanksgiving was early this year, we still had a full week of November when we returned to the center on Tuesday.  We were busy with bowling, crafting, and planning for a fun December.  We also threw in a little celebration.  Keep reading to see everything we were up to as November came to an end!

On Tuesday we enjoyed our bowling league time.  Everyone is improving in different ways and it's fun to watch them support each other.  Here, Sam was a big help with setting up the ramp for Annmarie, and he cheered her every roll, too!

Kate encouraged Drew to keep his head up and look toward the pins when he throws his ball.  Guess who picked up a spare here?!

Someone finally had the camera ready when Alexis got a strike.  This is her signature reaction!

This is our group just hanging out together, waiting to jump up and give someone a high-five and or word of encouragement.  Bowling is definitely a highlight of our program.

Here's Carol after cutting up our apples.  She takes care of this task each time we go bowling, and we appreciate her for doing it!  Apples go well with our pizza...and speaking of our pizza, thanks again to Coach Teri for sponsoring our lunch this time.  We didn't get a pizza picture, but we promise everyone LOVED their lunch today!

We went to Freedom Park after bowling to check on the mustard greens and spinach we had planted in the garden back in September.  We're making a salad to accompany our lunch on Thursday and we hoped to harvest some greens to add to it.  Bo, Kacie, and Laura checked the spinach bed only to find out that there was very little to harvest, and it was quite small.

Chloe and Liz checked the mustard greens.  They were more plentiful than the spinach, but also very small.  We decided to pick a little bit from each bed, but we'll supplement our salads on Thursday with additional spinach.  We enjoy eating what we grow, even if it's not very big!

We were "commissioned" to make holiday party posters for Coach Teri's neighborhood association.  So on Thursday we began selecting and coloring Christmas pictures that will give the posters splashes of color. We make 4 posters, and since we cut the pictures out, it takes a lot of them!

We also kicked off our Holiday Food Drive for Grove Christian Outreach Center.  Sam, Kevin, and Devin were busy decorating our collection boxes with posters full of details.

The Food Drive continues until the end of next week.  Our goal is to collect 200 pounds of nonperishable food items (last time we collected 165 pounds).  Everyone is encouraged to invite a neighbor or other family member to help us.  😍  Thank you for all the donations that came in this week!  We are off to an AMAZING start!

 We spent our continuing education time working in pairs and reading a story about a family who needed help from a Food Bank.  After that, we talked about how fortunate we are to know where our next meal is coming from. 💙

It was a busy Wednesday morning!  While others were working on posters and Food Drive preps, this group was busy decorating a few ornaments for the Chamber of Commerce's Christmas Tree.  We were invited by the Chamber to help this year!

Aren't they beautiful?!  

Lisa was giving Devin and Liz a ride home on Thursday, so she took them and Alexis with her to drop the ornaments off at the Chamber.

If you have a chance, stop by the Chamber of Commerce office on N. Boundary St. (across the street from the Stryker Building), and see them on display on the tree in the lobby!

Patti came in on a chilly Wednesday afternoon and told us it's the season for holiday-themed yoga!  This week the focus was on balance work, and we all became Christmas trees!

Kate, Dev, Chris, and Sam reminded us of a Christmas tree lot...no two trees are ever the same!  But their balance is pretty good!

Here's what we love about Patti's instruction:  She teaches us to find our own comfort in yoga, and stresses that it often looks different for different folks.  That describes us!

After yoga, we were reminded that on Button Day a couple of weeks ago, we had not gotten to a little project of making a Christmas ornament.

In this simple (but not so simple!) task, we had to string buttons onto a pipe cleaner.  It's still a work in progress, but when we finally finish, it will be a cute Christmas wreath ornament!

We were crafting again on Thursday when we "celebrated" Mason Jar Day by using all parts of the jars to make holiday items.  First, we learned all about a man named John Mason, who first invented and patented a molded glass jar with a screw thread that would accept a metal ring, and thus better preserve food.  Any jar with a screw top is considered a Mason jar and many still bear his name.  Next, we used stickers and decorative tape to turn our Mason jars into future candy jars!

Chris, Kacie, and Devin can't wait for the jars to be filled with goodies!

Later in the day we used the rings and lids that came with the jars to create a couple of tree ornaments.  Here, Kevin is placing stickers on the lid...with a "hand" from Alexis to help steady his ornament.

The Mason jars were donated to us by Lisa's Aunt Peggy, who said to tell everyone that we did a beautiful job transforming the parts of the jars into cute items!  Thanks, Aunt Peggy, for the generous donation.  We enjoyed using them!

Here is Sam setting out the spinach salads he helped make to go along with our pizza that was being brought by Arc board member Adam Kinsman to celebrate our recent presentation to the James City County LEAD Team.  

Isn't this stunning?!  The greens on top are the baby spinach and mustard greens we harvested from "our" garden at Freedom Park!

Our Executive Director, Pam, and Adam, along with his wife Laura, treated us as a way to say "thank you" for how well we presented our AoA program when the LEAD team visited a few weeks ago.  They are proud of us!  Thanks, Pam, Adam, and Laura...for believing in us, AND for the pizza!

We love a celebration!

On Friday, we had quite a few absences, including Lisa who was out of town.  It didn't hamper our progress though.  Look at the posters for Coach Teri's neighborhood Holiday Celebration that we finished!  Lots of red and green along with the Christmas pictures we colored make them attractive and informative.

It's been a while, but we got to spend some time in the gym today during the PE teacher's planning time.  We enjoyed getting to shoot hoops, as usual!

Sam got out our oversized ball and had fun bouncing it around.  It's got some big bounce in it!

One of the special needs classes from JRES came in to play while we were in the gym.  We shared the space with them, and it looks like Kate and Laura even made a new friend!

Surprise!  Heike stopped by to see us today.  We were very happy to see her, but very sad to hear it may be after the holidays before she is able to come back to work.  Her ability to use her left arm/shoulder isn't improving as quickly as she would like, so she will continue with physical therapy and hope for the best.  We miss her!

We played a new Disney trivia game today.  There is a video called "Top 10 Disney Movie Songs" and we wanted to see if our favorites made the cut.  First, we brainstormed a list of our favorites.  Then we watched the video and found out that 4 of our favorites were on the Top 10 list.  We didn't necessarily agree with the choices on the video, so we had a nice discussion about it.  Good critical thinking skills!

We ended the week by making birthday cards for Carol, because we are celebrating her on Tuesday and we won't have time to make them before leaving for our trip to Mariners Museum.  Here's what you need to know for that trip, and the rest of next week:

Tuesday:  We are traveling to Newport News today for a visit with our friends at the Mariners Museum.  We're going to learn to make ornaments out of pine needles!  We're also celebrating Carol's birthday today!! 🎂 Our guys voted overwhelmingly (make that unanimously!) to celebrate with lunch at the museum cafe, so please bring $10 to help cover the cost of lunch and the admission fee to the museum.  And as always when we're out and about, please wear your Arc shirt!

Wednesday:  We'll spend extra time on the computers today because our Rotary Club volunteer will join us for extra support.  We are also having a belated French Toast Day (November 29) celebration and preparing French toast, eggs, and fruit for lunch.  Patti will be here for holiday-themed yoga, too, so dress to stretch!  

Thursday:  What a busy day this will be!  We'll travel to Eaton first thing for a HUGE celebration!!  Eaton Corporation awarded The Arc of Greater Williamsburg a $10,000 grant!  More details in next week's blog, but thank you Eaton!  This is an incredible gift to The Arc!  Lunch on your own.  After lunch, we get to visit with Christina at the CW Art Museums!  Definitely WEAR YOUR Arc SHIRT TODAY!!! 

Friday:  It's back to Eaton today, for a work day!  We are so thankful for this partnership.  Please wear your Arc shirt again, and bring a BAG LUNCH!  Rumor has it that there will be a treat today, too.  Courtesy of Meemaw! 😉

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan