Beautiful Birthday Week!

This was the view from underneath a lovely pink dogwood at the Noland Trail where we walked after our visit at the Mariners' Museum on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon.

Not only was it another fun birthday week, but it was also a beautiful Spring week!  We celebrated Kate's and Bo's birthdays and also spent a lot of time enjoying the great weather.

We began Tuesday by learning that April 16 is National Bean Counters Day and "bean counters" is a nickname for accountants. The day after April 15 (Tax Day) is designated for bean counters to take a day off and catch their breath after a busy tax season.  Since Carol's husband Gene is a bean counter, we decided to make him some "job well-done" cards as a random act of kindness.  We heard he's been working long hours for the past few weeks, so we hoped to make him smile!  Turns out, he loved them!  Hope your workload lightens up now, Mr. Gene!

On our way to the Mariners' Museum, we stopped by Eaton where Kevin helped Jorie unload the eggs we had stuffed with candy last week for her neighborhood egg hunt coming up this weekend.  That was a fun favor we did for Jorie!

We knew by Tuesday morning that our friend Wisteria wasn't able to be with us at the museum to teach us about the Titanic, but we decided to go anyway so we could watch the movie about prehistoric sea creatures and take a walk on the Noland Trail.  Imagine our surprise when we got there and found out the Explorers Theater was closed for maintenance!  We even double checked the website for the show time before we left, and didn't see any updates! 😳

Oh, well!  We looked around the museum for a bit and learned things we hadn't learned before, and then enjoyed our lunch on the patio.  It was too nice of a day to be disappointed.  We'll just reschedule our visit for Wisteria, the Titanic, AND the movie!  (We'll hold on to everyone's $ for next time, which will be May 7th.)

After our relaxing lunch, we hit the Noland Trail.  It's 5 miles round trip, and one day we will do it!  But for today, we only went about 1 and 1/4 miles.  There were a lot of other walkers and plenty of joggers on the trail today, so we got lots of practice "moving to the right" so they could pass us.

Drew posed at our turnaround point which was the Pine Tree Overlook!  It was really beautiful out there today.

Here was a little incline we navigated, being careful to dodge tree roots.

With the museum in the background, we posed for a group shot before heading back to AFCC.  We were missing a few friends today, and hope they are back for next time!

Our bookworms went to the library on Wednesday morning and not only shelved books, but worked on stamping old books for discard.  Good work, Kacie, Chloe, and Bo!

It was a beautiful morning to be outside.  Cameron and Kacie walked laps.

Cameron caught up with Kate and Alexis here, and there were some hoop shooters in the background, too.

Bo was the Birthday Boy on Wednesday, and he spent his outside time walking and reading his favorite book, Harry Potter.  It's kind of amazing how Bo does that!

For Bo's birthday lunch, we made tacos, and everyone had to chip in to get it done.  Kate and Cameron took care of setting the tables.

Laura, Chloe, and Devin prepped veggie toppings and also prepared chips and salsa.

Kevin colored a picture of tacos while Liz and Kacie cut lettuce.

Drew and Abraham were sent to fetch a cup of water!

The boys brought that cup of water to Bo and Alexis, where Drew added seasoning and Abraham added the water to finish up our taco meat filling.

Bo seemed happy with his birthday lunch, and so did his friends!

It's hard to tell from the picture, but we sang "Happy Birthday" to Bo and it sounded pretty good!  Then we ate the cupcakes, and they were really good!  Thanks to Bo's family for the treats!

Yoga Wednesday!  Stretch it out, guys!

Kacie had a stuffy head (and headache) this week so Patti told her not to lower her head below her shoulders, so the pressure wouldn't be as great.  Pollen has been rough on lots of us, so good for Kacie for hanging in there! 

We got our hummingbird feeder out on Thursday and after we filled it with sugar water, Xavier hung it for us.  Within one hour, a hummingbird was there!

If you look closely, you can see a red-throated hummingbird at the feeder! We know that hummingbirds will come back to the same spot year after year, so we hope to see more in the days to come.

Our potatoes are also growing very well in the potato bag!  The MGs told us to keep them covered with soil as they grew, so Kacie added more to cover the plants.

Thursday was Poem in Your Pocket Day, and we ran a little short of time to do all of the activities we had planned.  But we did enjoy listening to Shel Silverstein read some of his silliest poems online.  This one was called "Backward Bill" and it had a fun rhythm.

Taking advantage of beautiful weather, we headed to New Quarter Park after lunch.

We couldn't believe it, but there were no young children there playing on the equipment, so we got to climb, slide, and have fun with friends!

A few of us took a walk down a path we had not taken before.

It led to Queen's Creek and a dock where we posed for this picture!

Annmarie enjoyed playing in the sand.  Sometimes it's the little things that bring the most joy!

We also set up our corn hole game and brought basketballs.

Kevin and Abraham had fun.

Something new at the park was this bear.  He seemed friendly and only wants folks to put recyclables in his mouth!

On Friday, we celebrated Jelly Bean Day by trying to guess how many were in this jar.  We got a lot of clues, and finally Alexis won.  It was 297!  We then got to taste them!

We also did group Jelly Bean themed math work.  Devin is reading a problem and Kacie is using Bingo chips (aka, jelly beans) as counters to work out a multiplication question.

Kate and Sam also worked out some problems together.

Alexis and Liz were excited when they solved a tricky problem!

Laura, Xavier, Kevin, Drew, Abraham, and Annmarie (who we didn't get in the picture), worked together to count jelly beans on their worksheet.

Our fitness was indoors on Friday.  Here, we were on the floor doing some leg exercises along with a video instructor!

The best part of Friday was celebrating Kate's birthday!  Her mom treated us to meatball subs and cupcakes and they were fantastic!  Thanks, Mrs. T!  Kate's brother was home from college and he joined us, too.  We also listened to one of Kate's favorite stories called The English Roses, which was written by Madonna!  It's a story with a great message about friendship, and one of Kate's favorites. 

One thing we are trying to do more often, is perform random acts of kindness.  Today, we made cheery cards for Nan to take to her sister, who is in the hospital.  She lost her husband back in February, and has been sick and in the hospital a couple of times since then.  Nan said it will definitely cheer her up to hear from us! 💙

We dyed eggs for the first time ever on Friday!  For some of us, it had been years since we did this.

It was fun and the colors were so pretty!  

Kevin's mom gave us a couple of kits and wondered if we would enjoy dyeing eggs.  We wondered, too!  Turns out, it was a lot of fun...and our eggs are cute!  Happy Easter to all!

For Kate's birthday we played everyone's favorite game, Bingo, and then she gave everyone a surprise party favor.  The girls loved their bracelets and little horse figures, and the boys liked their whale and dolphin figures, too!  Thanks, Kate!  It was a fun birthday!  We hope your wishes come true!

Sam had one more surprise for us!  He traveled to Boston earlier this week so his dad could run in the marathon (Yay, Tim!), and he brought everyone a Pez candy dispenser depicting the Boston Red Sox!  Plus, he brought some goodies he collected at the vendor tables that we could put in our Bingo prize box!  Thanks Sam, and family!  We love these!

We may not know what to do with ourselves next week, since we aren't scheduled to celebrate a birthday...haha! (Don't worry, we have one more April birthday coming up...Devin's!)  We'll keep busy with other things.  Here's what you need to know:

Tuesday:  We return to Freedom Park and the Botanical Garden today for another session with the master gardeners.  We're going to learn about worm bins!  It's also National Picnic Day, so bring your lunch and we'll enjoy a picnic followed by fun in the park.  Wear your Arc shirts, too!

Wednesday:  We will work in the computer lab with our Rotary volunteer today to create thank you notes for Sam's dad and the Army Divers we saw recently.  It's also Shakespeare Day, so we will have a lesson about the Bard.  Dress to stretch for yoga with Patti, too.  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  We ran out of time last week so today is make-up day for some things we missed.  Lessons will include Earth Day and trying to write our own group poem.  We're also going to celebrate our custodian, Heike, on her promotion at JRES.  She took Mr. Howard's place and has a lot more responsibility now.  We're so proud of her!  Lunch will be baked ziti and lasagna (leftovers from Family Dinner) with a side salad, and a special treat for Heike's accomplishment!

Friday: Today is Audubon Day, which honors John James Audubon, a noted ornithologist. 🐦 So we will learn what that means, and see how many birds we can identify.  It's also Arbor Day, so we will talk about trees. 🌳  If we don't run short on time, we'll also do activities centered around baseball to celebrate Babe Ruth Day, which is tomorrow! ⚾ Lunch on your own.

Happy Easter Weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan