Off We Go

Our guys enjoy going on outings and this week, they got three of them!  Every now and then it works out that we take our regular Tuesday trip, AND it's the first Thursday of the month when we typically visit Christina, AND we head to Eaton for a work day.  This reminds us of how thankful we are for the use of the vans from James City County Parks & Recreation!  Thanks JCC Parks & Rec, and Tracy, for this generous benefit.  Here's where we took the vans this week...

On Tuesday we went to Publix for a fantastic and informative tour of their huge grocery store!  We visited every department and learned a lot of interesting details about how they do things.  For instance, they have a "scratch" bakery, which means everything they bake is made fresh daily.  In the meat department, we learned the butchers will cut any of the meat into the serving size you need and they will also give you cooking tips and recipes.  One of the most interesting things we learned is that you can find orange juice in the produce section (not dairy) because...oranges are produce! Throughout our tour we were treated to samples of cookies, cheese, hot chocolate, and watermelon.  We were loving it!  At lunch, we enjoyed our subs on the freshly baked rolls and everyone agreed, we would recommend Publix subs!  Everyone received a reusable bag, too!  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures during the tour, so this group shot outside of the store will have to do.  But we had a wonderful time and were treated like rock stars!  Thanks to Mary Z., in the Event Planning department, for arranging our experience.  We highly recommend working with her for any catering/event needs you may have.

We had about an hour before our yoga class at Studio South, so we put on our jackets and enjoyed outside time at the WISC Complex.  It was chilly and the sun kept ducking behind the clouds, but we were moving, so all was good!  This group took a brisk walk around the newly refurbished athletic fields.

Most of our guys wanted to climb and slide.  It's a good workout!

Here's Katy from Studio South leading us in a yoga warm up that included plenty of deep breathing and stretching.  She was getting us ready for Kiley!

Here's Kiley helping us stretch our spines.  We love that she and Katy both worked with us!  They tag team very well!

Warrior One is a favorite pose of ours.

Cameron was positioned behind the photographer so she turned around and got a shot of him!

We were given yoga blocks.  Kiley showed us where to position it while Katy demonstrated how to lie on top of it with arms out to the side.  This was a challenging pose, but they were trying to help us open up our respiratory system since several of us were sniffling today.

After our session, we always enjoy hanging around for a few minutes and chatting with Katy and Kiley.  Here, chatting with Carol, is our volunteer, Pam W.  She surprised us by popping in for yoga today.  She said she loved it!  

Wednesdays are wonderful!  We were very busy on this one, starting with lots of work to do in the computer lab.  Dev, Kacie, and Chloe teamed up to write a thank you note to Publix for the awesome tour they gave us yesterday.

Sam, Alexis, and Cameron also worked on a note for Publix.  Sam was adding something about the tour being "fascinating."  😊

Devin and Drew were super-focused on their numbers game.

Laura and Annmarie worked with Carol on a tricky vocabulary puzzle.  Annmarie got excited when she aced it and called out to her friends across the room to share in her excitement! 👏👏

This was a big breakthrough for us...Kevin and Xavier took turns on connect the dots puzzles, and stayed on task for the most part when left on their own to keep working while staff helped others!

Meanwhile, down in the lunch room, our Rotary friend Jeff worked with Kate, Patrick, and Liz.  They went to the BrainPOP website and learned about jazz music, to go along with our lesson on marching music that was coming up after lunch.  Looks like they were having a good time!

March 4th (get it? March forth...) was Marching Music Day so we celebrated it on Wednesday by talking about things like jazz, New Orleans, Mardi Gras, and marching bands.  A top marching band in America is the one at The Ohio State University. We enjoyed watching a performance they did that was a tribute to Disney movies.  In this part, they were playing Hakuna Matata while forming Simba.  It was really fun to watch.

Liz was familiar with the movie, The Music Man, and asked us to play a clip.  These friends couldn't stay in their seats with 76 Trombones playing!

The music teacher at JRES kindly loaned us some rhythm instruments so we could make our own marching music.  It was a lighthearted and fun moment in our day!

Our yoga instructor Patti was under the weather on Wednesday, so we calmed things down after our marching music romp with our online yogi, Jaime.  She has a great routine told to the story of Trolls.

At some point in the routine, we found ourselves in "crocodile" pose!  Isn't it great?!

Just like in the movie, Jaime says learning to love ourselves is important, so we ended our routine, and our Wonderful Wednesday, with "hug" pose!

Kevin brought in an accordion on Thursday and we had fun learning a little about it and playing it, too!  Here, some of his friends gather around while Kacie plays and Kevin leads a few of the others in drumming on the table.  We were playing the "Beer Barrel Polka" in the background.

Sam thought Dev was pretty good at playing the accordion.  It sounded pretty smooth!

We had a fun lunch as we celebrated Cereal Day on Thursday.  We added grapes, bananas, and orange juice, but none of us felt stuffed after eating today.  😋  We had 13 different kinds of cereal in our buffet!  We had a few healthier options, including Shredded Wheat and Cheerios, but the most popular choices were Lucky Charms, Fruity Pebbles, Honey Comb, and Chocolate Toast Crunch.  Go figure!  

After lunch we went to the Art Museums where Christina read us Market Day: A Story Told with Folk Art by Lois Ehlert.  The illustrations in the story were vibrant and colorful, and reminded us of pieces we see in the Abby Aldrich Folk Art Museum.

After the story, we went on a hunt for snakes at the museums!  Kevin and Liz spotted a wooden one in this "pond" in the barn yard exhibit.

We easily spotted this snake made of iron, which we learned about in our last lesson with Christina.  The snake was the top part of a weathervane at one time.

When we came to this armoire, we had to search hard to find the snakes in the wood...can you spot them?  It's a little easier in the cropped picture than it was on the huge armoire!

After finding snakes, Christina explained how to play a game from the 18th century called "Huckle Buckle Beanstalk."  It involved hiding a small object (in this case a toy snake) in plain sight and then having your friends look for it.  When spotted, the friends would remain quiet about the whereabouts, and return to home base to say, "Huckle Buckle Beanstalk."  The first person back to home who successfully spotted the hidden object would get to hide it next. 

While waiting for someone to hide the object, we had to huddle up with our backs to the hiding area and sing "Yankee Doodle Dandy."  

Our guys caught on to this game very quickly and we played several fun rounds!  This is a game we will play back at the center, too!  Thanks for teaching it to us, Christina!

There was more fun to be had with Christina after the game.  She gave each of us a toy wooden snake which we got to color with Sharpies!  The creative juices were flowing!  Our guys were excited to take their snakes home and try to frighten someone with them. 😵 Hey?  What about the game...

Look at Laura's concentration as she colored her snake.  An artist at work!

Before returning to AFCC we stopped by Publix and sent this crew in to give Mary Z. a packet of thank you notes for the grand tour she set up for us this week!  She told us to come back anytime!

Friday found us on the road again, traveling to Eaton to lend a hand.  It was also Annmarie's birthday!  Yay!  So here are a few pics from work and some fun ones from the birthday celebration!

The big blue crate was filled with 3-piece parts that are attached and need to be pulled apart.  Sam, Dev, Chloe, and Patrick teamed up on this one, while Birthday Girl Annmarie organized the largest of the three pieces for placement in a packing box.

There is a lot going on here.  On the floor is Xavier, packing lids.  Standing are Devin, Drew, and Laura who sorted a huge bin full of parts.  Seated are Liz and Nan who were applying gaskets...not quite as quickly as the others were sorting, but pretty efficiently!

In the outer room, Meemaw, Alexis, and Kacie teamed up to unpack lightbulbs, which we do regularly on work days.  Eaton is officially named Eaton - Marina Power and Lighting, so it's no wonder they go through so many light bulbs! 

Kevin prefers working in a quieter area, so he was in the outer room, too.  He sorted and packed two different pieces into two different crates!  Nice packing, Kevin!

James needed a little help in the warehouse so we sent these friends over after lunch to unpack parts that had just come in and were needed in production ASAP.  👏👏

Sometimes we take birthday parties on the road!  Here's Annmarie in front of the birthday board we set up in the Eaton breakroom.  Happy Birthday!

Blowing out the candles!  Hope your wishes come true, Annmarie!

The friends gather for another birthday picture!  We're thankful to have frequent celebrations at the Arc of Abilities.

The fun continued back at AFCC with the birthday piñata!  Annmarie got us started with a few good whacks.

Would Drew be the one to break it open?  No, he would not...

How about Devin?  He's got his "concentration tongue" out...but it wasn't enough! 

We brought Annmarie back up after everyone had a turn.  She poked and prodded and finally may or may not have used her hand to pull the piñata apart!

Success!  And look how nicely everyone picked through the candy, making sure it was fairly divided.  😍  Thanks to Annmarie's family for sending the cupcakes and piñata for today's party fun!  We enjoyed it very much!

Finally, we have some bittersweet news to announce this week.  We just said goodbye to Chris, and now we find out that another friend will be leaving us soon.  Our Mr. Happy, Devin T., and his family are relocating to beautiful (and warm!) Arizona at the end of the month.  Devin brings us lots of joy with his big smile and enthusiasm for so many things.  We will miss him and his family very much.  We wish them all the best. 💙💚💜💛

We won't be on the road as much next week, but we'll still be busy.  Here's what's coming up during our Anniversary Week:

Tuesday:  We're bowling today and you know what that means...pizza and apples for lunch!  We are grateful to Kevin's family for this week's sponsorship of our lunch.  Let's hope for nice weather so we can visit the garden and take a walk at Freedom Park, too!

Wednesday:  We will make some decorations for St. Patrick's Day and our anniversary party, which we'll celebrate on Friday.  Dress to stretch because we should have yoga with Patti.  Also, this day might hold a fun surprise, but we can't say much more.  ❓❓❓ We're still working on the details as of press time... 😜  Lunch on your own. 

Thursday:  We will observe Butterfly Day by incorporating them into Springtime decorations for our room.  We'll create some posters for Coach Teri's neighborhood's Easter Party.  We're also going to have a visit from a potential new associate, so plan to socialize!  Lunch on your own.

Friday:  Happy Birthday to the AoA!  Today we will celebrate the 3rd anniversary of our program and St. Patrick's Day at the same time.  Wear green! We missed Meatball Day last week, so to celebrate we'll prepare Swedish Meatballs over noodles for an anniversary lunch.  We'll also use our good ole Pizzazz rotating "oven" to bake green St. Patty's Day cookies.  The Pizzazz was given to us by Drew's family and was the first "appliance" we ever got.  We used it on the second day of our program to bake cookies, and it's been a tradition ever since!

 

⭐⭐⭐ FAMILIES, don't forget:  Our Family Meeting is scheduled for THURSDAY, MARCH 21.  We'll meet at Legacy Hall in New Town at 6 p.m. for dinner, fellowship, and celebration!  We hope you will be able to join us as we celebrate 3 wonderful years of the Arc of Abilities. ⭐⭐⭐ 

Happy Weekend!  SPRING FORWARD!!

Lisa, Carol, and Nan