April is a month full of birthday celebrations at the AoA! This week, we celebrated 3 of our own, Sam, Chloe, and Becky. We did a few other fun things, too, including starting our Spring session with the master gardeners and observing Army Rescue divers in training. Check out the great week we had!
We were celebrating Sam's birthday on Tuesday at Freedom Park, so the first thing we had to do was make his birthday cards! Our guys enjoy writing special messages to each other on their birthdays.
Tuesday was the first day of our Spring session with our wonderful master gardener friends! We were happy to see lots of familiar faces, and welcome a couple of new ones!
Barbara showed us a piece of potato that has sprouted eyes. We planted several of them in a "potato bag" that we brought back to AFCC.
Liz, Alexis, and Annmarie planted potatoes in the bag. We have never heard of planting potatoes in a bag, but Barb told us it could yield up to 5 or 6 pounds of potatoes in a few months! We're excited to put this in our garden area (outside the window) and watch the potatoes grow.
After potato planting, we went to several areas of the garden to start sprucing up. The Botanical Garden will be part of the Virginia Historic Garden Week Tour this year! If you're interested in the Williamsburg tour, check out this link: Williamsburg Historic Garden Tour - April 30, 2019
Kate helped Liz and Marcella remove the mustard greens so we could plant radishes and beets in this spot. We got to bring the greens back with us...yummy in our future!
Chloe and Laura helped Carolyn and Joanne clear the spinach bed so we could plant lettuce there. We also have another fresh spinach salad in our future!
Karen worked with Liz, Patrick and Kevin to add compost to this strawberry bed. There are several blossoms on the plants, and that means we will have strawberries soon. Unless the birdies beat us to them!
This is a package of seed tape, which is something else new we learned about on Tuesday! This allows the seeds to be evenly spaced and makes it a little easier to get the planting done.
Alexis, Kate, and Rick planted beet and radish seed tape. The white paper is biodegradable and won't hurt the soil. We'll be curious to see how the beets and radishes grow!
Linda told us about the "Herb of the Day," rosemary. She said back in "the day," it was believed that putting it near your head, such as in your hair, would help improve memory. So rosemary got the nickname, "Herb of Remembrance."
We will certainly remember how delicious the rosemary shortbread cookies were that Linda baked for us! Here, Kate, Carolyn, and our volunteer Pam W. made sure everyone got a sample, along with some water or lemonade! Thanks, MGs, for a great kick off to our season. We look forward to working with you again!
We celebrated Sam's birthday with a party at the park! The nice folks at the Interpretive Center let us set up inside since it was still wet outside from overnight rain, and Coach Teri treated us to pizza and cupcakes! Thanks, Teri! It was scrumptious and so much fun! We love pizza, and the cheesy bread was also a tasty treat!
You're looking good, Sam! Thanks for the Emoji lip balm party favors, too. They were adorable!
After a short walk at Freedom Park, we headed to Studio South for a fabulous yoga session with Kiley! She's always happy to see us, and we love seeing her, too!
Stretch it, guys! Doesn't it feel good to get those deep breaths?!
Here we are in various "stages" of frog pose... 🐸 Might need a little more practice on this one!
Our friend Kacie went to Hawaii last week! We were happy to have her back with us on Wednesday, and excited that she brought us a treat! Thanks, Kacie, for the macadamia and chocolate candies! They were as sweet as you are! We hope you had a great trip and made lots of wonderful memories with your family!
Wednesday is the day we work in the library at JRES. Liz, Alexis, and Kacie handled the duties this week. Our friend Bo, who also enjoys working in the library, went to Colorado last week to visit his siblings, and got stranded there for a few extra days due to a big snowstorm!
We miss you, Bo. But it looks like you are having a good time in Colorado celebrating your birthday a little early!
We had a special trip on Wednesday. Sam's dad, Tim, arranged for us to meet and see some Army Deep Sea Divers up close at the Yorktown Pier!
The currents on the York River are swift and that makes a good training ground. While we were there, the divers were searching for a "dummy rifle" that had been hidden.
We were told that in water that is not very clear, the diver goes to the bottom and makes "water angels" as a way to search for the object. Think snow angels, but under water!
We were curious to learn about the equipment and gear, because clearly the divers stay under a long time.
These tanks are heavy, but they have enough air to sustain the diver under water that isn't super deep for about 40-60 minutes. They also told us that if the diver is working extra hard, or moving around a lot, then more air is used. These divers do searches as well as salvage and repair operations. They can even weld and use blow torches under water!
If the diver is going into deeper water (up to 190 feet), they might wear this special helmet that has an "umbilical" cord attached for pumping air into it. There is also a great communication system in this helmet, so the diver can talk!
These guys told us about the very high-tech GPS system they use to map the bottom of the area where a dive will take place. This system can get measurements as accurate as within millimeters! These divers have SO many skills and are constantly in training to learn more and keep on the cutting edge!
WOW! The diver found the dummy rifle before we had to leave! We gave him a round of applause when he came up with it! 👏👏
Here we are with Tim after our visit with the divers. We can't thank you enough, Tim! This was a fun and educational presentation. We LOVE to learn new things!
It was a gorgeous day on Wednesday, so after our time with the divers, we went to the picnic area near Yorktown Beach. What a lovely view for our lunch! We're so lucky to live in an area with a lot of beautiful and accessible outdoor areas.
We spread out among a few picnic tables. It was a little breezy, but we didn't lose any of our trash!
Cheers from Yorktown!
A view like this, friends...and lunch. Does it get much better?!
After lunch we drove over to the Battlefield Visitors Center where we picked up a walking path that led us to the Yorktown Victory Monument. It was approved by the Continental Congress to be built shortly after Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in 1781, but actual construction didn't begin until 100 years later and it wasn't completed until 1884.
We gave Chloe the challenge of getting another group shot. It's hard to get everyone in, isn't it Chloe?! Still, it's a nice picture!
These friends take sharing to a new level when there isn't enough bench seating for everyone. Yes, those are very sturdy benches. No, we didn't let them stay like this for long! We had a fabulous day in Yorktown!
Easter is coming and on Thursday, we stuffed hundreds of eggs with candy for Jorie, our Eaton friend. These are for her neighborhood egg hunt and we were happy to help, especially since we got to sample the candy!
The eggs were several different sizes, so our guys had to figure out the best combination of candy to stuff into each one.
Some of the eggs were difficult to snap shut, but our guys stuck with it. We all agreed we were glad Jorie didn't ask us to hide them! That will take a while!
Not everyone worked on egg stuffing. We had some food prep to do since we were making a fresh salad with the last of the spinach we harvested at the garden on Tuesday. Devin and Kacie volunteered to work in the kitchen. Here, they are slicing strawberries to add to the salad. They also cut bread slices into cubes for our cheese fondue, which we were working on at the same time.
Liz also volunteered for cooking duty. She grated cheese and mixed spices and chicken stock into a base for our fondue. Thursday was National Cheese Fondue Day.
We moved the fondue to the main room when it was time to add the cheese. Everyone agreed it smelled delicious.
Patrick and Cameron were the first to try it. Doesn't it look gooey and creamy? It was very tasty and soon we had enjoyed samples with bread, apples, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. It was a hit, but we had a lot left over. We decided to boil some pasta we had on hand and make a small mac and cheese casserole that we'll eat tomorrow.
As always, our fresh spinach salad with strawberries and raspberry vinagrette was delicious. Can you see the little green leafy bits on top? That is mini-arugula that the master gardeners gave us. It added a delightfully peppery flavor to our salad. We will miss being able to harvest fresh spinach, but look forward to trying the lettuce we planted in its place.
After lunch we assembled the Arc's May newsletter! You know what that means: make your selections and return your sign up sheet to Bette Faye by the deadline date, which is April 22nd! The Arc is getting a little tough about the sign up sheets...if you don't return them, you can't call at the last minute and ask to join an event. Bette Faye and Sandy have everything planned ahead of time like supplies, transportation, and volunteers, so if you ask to come at the last minute it can throw things off for everyone. So, take it from Drew and Alexis and, PLEASE, return your sign up sheets on time!
At the end of the day on Thursday, we needed to make birthday cards for Chloe. We sent her out of the room so she wouldn't see our masterpieces until tomorrow. She went through a stack of Disney trivia cards and pulled out questions that she thought were best suited for us to use in an upcoming game. Chloe is one of our resident Disney experts!
It was a pleasant morning to be outside on Friday so we spent some time shooting hoops and walking laps. Patrick, Abraham, Alexis, and Devin had participated in The Arc's Basketball Clinic with the W&M Mary Girls' Basketball Team on Thursday night and here they were following up on some of the drills they learned. 😎
Xavier had this hoop to himself. He kind of likes it that way! Nice shot, Xavier!
We noticed a lot of pretty blooms in the community garden.
We had a mini-lesson about Thomas Jefferson, since his birthday is on the same day as Chloe's and Becky's, April 13th. Becky used to teach Virginia history and knows a lot about TJ. Here, she is pleased to hear all the facts we remembered from our lesson from earlier in the day.
Our favorite part of Friday was celebrating Chloe's and Becky's birthdays! They are great birthday buddies and have enjoyed celebrating together over the years. Chloe's family provided our lunch of homemade burritos and Mexican rice. They were delicious! We can see why it's one of Chloe's favorite dishes! Thank you, Florence and Ric, for treating us to such a tasty lunch for Chloe's birthday. We hope she told you about all the compliments her friends made about the food!
To accompany the delicious burritos and rice, we also had a fabulous birthday cake! Thank you, Becky, for contributing this beautiful and delicious cake! It was the perfect ending to our birthday lunch.
Celebrating three birthdays in one week is so much fun! We hope Sam, Chloe, and Becky felt the love! There will be more love next week as our marathon of April birthdays continues with our celebrations for Bo and Kate. Here's what you need to know for the coming week:
Tuesday: We're scheduled to visit the Mariners' Museum today for a lesson on the Titanic. We got late word that our museum instructor may not be able to make it, but we're going to make the trip anyway. If she isn't with us, she will reschdule our lesson. While there, we will check out an action photography exhibit and watch the movie SeaRex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World. We will picnic on the museum patio and explore the Noland Trail, as the weather looks great for Tuesday. Please wear Arc shirts, pack a lunch, and bring $5.
Wednesday: Yay! It's birthday time again! We will celebrate Bo's special day with a Taco Bar and Cupcakes for lunch. It's Ellis Island History Day so we will learn about that and the Statue of Liberty. We'll also have yoga with Patti, so dress to stretch.
Thursday: We will enjoy poetry today as we celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day. We'll also have fun with Animal Cracker Day. If the weather forecast holds, it will be a pretty Spring day so we will visit New Quarter Park after lunch for movement and fresh air. Lunch on your own.
Friday: Yay, again! It's time for Kate's birthday celebration! Her family will treat us to subs and cupcakes for lunch! We will also discuss the Easter holiday and try dyeing eggs for the first time ever. Earth Day is on Monday, so we will learn about that, too.
Upcoming Dates to Save:
May 4 British Car Show
May 27 Zumbathon hosted by Ironbound Gym
May 31 Jamestown Jams
June 22 Rotary Concert Series at The Kimball
June 28 Jamestown Jams
July 26 Jamestown Jams
August 3 Women of Moose Golf Tournament at Kingsmill
August 30 Jamestown Jams
October 5 10th Annual Williamsburg Landing 5k for The Arc
Also, families, please note that the Arc of Abilities will be closed the first week in July (July 2-5) for Summer Break.
Lisa, Carol, and Nan
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