Our first full week of 2019, found us with a lot on our agenda including a return to Studio South for yoga, a big work day at Eaton, and a few of our friends representing us in a big way! Here's a look at our week:
It had been over a month since we went bowling and the gang was ready to return to the lanes on Tuesday. Both Liz and Laura began the new year with new bowling balls! Aren't they beautiful? (Blue for Liz, pink for Laura!)
You may be wondering how the balls worked for the girls? Quite well! In fact, they each rolled strikes early on in game 1. They were happy!
In this picture, Kacie is waving her hand...trying to send some air to her ball to get it to head back toward the center of the lane! Does it really work? Not usually, but in this case, it brought her an "almost" spare!
Bowling wasn't the only thing that excited our guys today. Kate's family was sponsoring our lunch and instead of just pizza (which we enjoy very much), we had a choice of pizza, hot dog, or chicken tenders...and a few fries, too. Our favorite "chef," Tracy, got 19 orders correct and as always, the food was hot and tasty. It's fun to get to change it up every now and then! Thank you, Thompson family, for this yummy treat! We really enjoyed it! It got our new bowling year off to a great start!
We also enjoyed the bottles of sparkling (non-alcoholic) bubbly that manager Ed gave us so we could toast the new year! Thanks, Ed! You're so cool! (Wish we had gotten you in the photo!)
Of course we love to highlight how helpful our friends are to each other. Here, Patrick happily helped Devin change his shoes.
From bowling we made our way to Studio South, where we had a fabulous yoga session with Katy and Kiley! Our schedules (and theirs) had not worked out for us to be together since October, and we had missed them. That's Katy near the door. She got us started by having everyone share what we are grateful for in the new year, and then she led us through gentle stretches with her relaxing tone.
Kiley popped in for a few minutes and led us through some of our favorite poses, then she had to go to a meeting. She said she was disappointed she couldn't stay, and she looks forward to being with us next time! Both Katy and Kiley have a great rapport with our friends and make us feel confident and strong during our practice.
We can't wait to visit Studio South again next month. Thank you Katy, for offering this experience to our Arc of Abilities group. It's a wonderful partnership that we enjoy very much!
The highlight of this week was having four of our superstars - Sam, Devin, Drew, and Laura - represent us at the JCC Board of Supervisors meeting! The AoA was invited by our friend and Arc board member (and JCC Attorney), Adam Kinsman, to lead the pledge at the January 8 meeting. These four answered the call and did us proud!
Check this out! They practiced for a week (thanks, families!) and it showed!
They also got to meet some of the board members. Carol and Pam joined them, and reported that they gave great handshakes!
Of course, they had to pose with the board members and Pam and Carol!
Here, they proudly (and rightly so) show the certificates they earned. Each of them also got an "official" pin! Great job, guys!!!!
Sam's great evening continued when he and his parents stopped by Honey Butter's for dinner and he got to say "Hi!" to our favorite Moose, Patti!! It was a great day for the AoA!
Our upgraded internet access continues to make it easier for us to use all computers at one time. On Wednesday morning we made thank you notes using images from online searches for Kate's mom, who treated us to lunch yesterday.
Don't they look great?! Our guys are using many features from the word processing program, in addition to inserting pictures from online. Today we began to teach how to save a document.
Who knew Ninja Day would be so much fun (besides Sam!)? Even though it was officially marked on December 5th, we carried the celebration into the new year. We learned what Ninjas are, and talked about how they are mindful (ties in well with our yoga practice) and disciplined. We decided our Ninjas would be good guys! For fun, we learned how to make Ninja masks using t-shirts. Liz was our guinea pig as we figured it out!
Next thing we knew, most of our friends wanted to be AoA Ninjas! Sam even brought a pair of nunchuks, but we only used them for show!
We put on the jackets we used when we took Tai-Chi classes, and decided our Ninja style was pretty fashionable!
Our volunteer and friend Pam W. owns Ninja cookie cutters! She loaned them to us and we made Ninja cookies out of rolled dough. Here, Sam works up close to put some details on his cookie.
Thanks, Pam W.! We had a lot of fun using the cookie cutters for our Ninja Day event!
Yoga with Patti was different for us on Wednesday. We did a few stretches, then spent the rest of our session on a mindfulness activity that found us relaxed and seated while Patti guided us through visual imagery as a way to focus mind and body.
She gave each of us a drop of orange essential oil on our palms to inhale as we listened. We were surprised at how quietly focused (for several minutes) everyone was, but should we have been surprised? Our guys amaze us every day!
After yoga, we channeled our creative juices as everyone decorated a mitten which we would use to make a garland to hang on our board as a winter decoration. What a peaceful end to our day!
Thursday morning found us doing a short yoga session with online Jaime. We try to incorporate purposeful movement a couple of times each day, the first time being during our dance warm up first thing in the morning, and then again, usually before lunch.
When the weather is too chilly to go outdoors, and the gym isn't availabe, it can be challenging to get our friends moving within the confines of our room. After some dedicated practice, we have finally gotten to the point where they can quickly (and kind of quietly) move tables and chairs enough out of the way for us to spread out, without having to take them down like we do at the end of each day. When we're done, they efficiently move the tables and chairs back...which kind of qualifies as strength training, eh? 😉
Ahh, after an energetic yoga session with Jaime, we enjoy the well-deserved moments of shavasana...stillness and quiet.
Prior to our yoga, we had been busily working in teams to prepare today's lunch: Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo. With 17 on the roster, we have to divvy up the work creatively in order to include everyone. Today we had teams for cutting and sauteing chicken, preparing sauce (from scratch), assembling salads, setting the tables, and making decorations! We didn't take pictures of our busy workers, but here's the end result. As usual, our cooking skills yielded a tasty dish!
Our favorite Moose Lady joined us for lunch today when Patti stopped by for a visit! She also brought her dog, Cam. Cam's a certified Service Animal, but we would have let her in anyway!
Here's a sweet moment when Cam said "Hi" to Devin!
When it was time for Patti to leave, Chris reminded her that he will be leaving us next month as his family relocates to sunny Florida. He knew this may be the last time he sees Patti, so a hug was appropriate. 😍
Our afternoon educational time consisted of learning about static electricity, since it was Static Electricity Day (yesterday)! After a short discussion about positive and negative charges, we just wanted the balloons! Here, Laura rubs a balloon on Bo's jacket to collect some negative atoms which will then cause her ballon to stick to the wall as it attracts itself to the positive atoms there.
Hey, Xavier...don't just leave your balloon hanging!
Of course, no study in static electricity is complete without making someone's hair stand on end!
Our mitten garland adds a nice touch to our whiteboard as Becky, who is only a few years removed from teaching all about electricity to 4th graders, demonstrates that objects with like charges will repel each other. See how her hand seemingly moves the balloons from each other so they don't touch? It's not magic though, its science!
In this experiment, we mixed salt and pepper and then used static electricty to separate it. Since pepper is lighter, it will jump onto a negatively charged plastic spoon. Dev had just proved it and was saying, "WOW!" when we took this picture.
Our gang and balloons...always a good time whether it's science or just plain fun!
There is a great website called BrainPOP that Becky and Lisa are familiar with from their teaching days. It has lots of lessons, video clips, games, and extension activity ideas on all kinds of subjects. When Becky found out we couldn't find a suitable YouTube clip on static electricity...she suggested BrainPOP and signed us up for a yearlong subscription! Thank you, Becky! You know how much our guys like to learn, so we will get a lot of mileage out of this generous gift!
After science, we put together The Arc's February mailing. There are many events to choose from, including the Valentine's Dance, so make your selections and return the sign up sheet to Bette Faye by the January 25th deadline!! 💖
Our first work day at Eaton for 2019 was on Friday. Lisa wasn't feeling well and had to miss it, but Carol, Nan, Becky, Meemaw, and our awesome crew got the job done! Here are a few pictures from the day.
Our work day, and week, ended with a Frosty run at Wendy's! We remembered we still had some coupons for Frosties that Meemaw had given us for Halloween, so we used them today and will begin using our gift cards from Nina next time. Thank you, Meemaw! We love our Frosties. It's hard to believe we hadn't made a Wendy's stop since Halloween!
Another great ending to another great week! As we head into mid-January, here's what's up for next week:
Tuesday: We will remain at AFCC for the morning where we will make up Save the Eagles Day, which we didn't get to last week. After lunch on your own, we'll go to the Art Museums for a visit with Christina. While out, we will collect pine cones so we can make bird feeders to put in the Community Garden. Please wear Arc shirts!
Wednesday: Today we will welcome a Rotary volunteer and work together in our computer lab. Feel free to wear a hat, too, as we will celebrate Hat Day! Dress for yoga with Patti, and plan for lunch on your own. Finally, we'll also have fun with Ivory soap...and that's all we can say about that for now! 😜
Thursday: It's Popcorn Day so we are going to prepare soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, with popcorn for a side. We're going to celebrate Bird Day (Jan. 5) by making popcorn ball and pine cone bird feeders. We will also visit our BrainPop website for a fun lesson on birds and a game of Bird Song Hero! Thanks again, Becky, for the subscription! With our upgraded internet, using BrainPOP will be easy-peasy!
Friday: We will have history on our minds today as we recognize the contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. whose birthday is observed on Monday as a federal holiday. We will also get whimsical as we celebrate Winnie the Pooh Day, one of our guys' favorites each year. Feel free to wear Pooh or Disney clothes! Lunch on your own, but just for Pooh, we're going to make Peanut Butter Honey Truffles with Coconut - a simple, unprocessed, healthy snack (or dessert).
Please keep these dates in mind, as The Arc of GW has some great events coming up!
The Family Health Fair is always lots of fun, especially the dance and fitness breakouts and gathering up goodies from the vendor tables!
We're very excited to partner with the W&M Law School Special Education Advocacy Clinic to present the film "Intelligent Lives" this year! Come join us as we find out why the film teases with "You never know what people can do!" More info here:
Did you miss our golf tournament last August? It's time for another one, and this one is indoors! We're stoked to be partnering this time with Revolution Golf and Grille and Rotary Clubs of James City County to offer a fun tourney on February 23rd! Get a team togther and stay tuned for more info on times and registration.
Stay warm and have a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, and Nan
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