Home Again!

This week we're excited to be back at the AFCC and in our regular space!  We did well in the library and at Freedom Park when we had to relocate, and we enjoyed our summer break time off last week.  But there's nothing like being back together, as we missed one another!

Our week actually began last Sunday, when a few of us were able to gather with Patti and our WOTM friends at the Williamsburg Moose Lodge for their annual July 4th picnic.  The WOTM has designated our day support program as the recipients of the proceeds from this event since 2016.  Patti says it's for our "Fun Fund" and we appreciate it very much!  Here are a few pictures from our fun afternoon:

Smiles all around when we get to hang with Patti!  

Superman is so tall we couldn't get all of him in this picture of his bouncy slide.  Sam, Alexis, and Patti climbed and slid down.  They made it look easy but admitted it's harder than it looks to make the climb to the top. 

Sam shows it's easy to come down!

Patti proves age is just a number!

Alexis felt like a kid again!

Our friend Chris, who is an Arc member, joined us again this year.   We loved seeing his swim medals that he proudly wore around his neck!

Here's our friend, Shelly, with Devin and Alexis.  She captured the spirit of the day with her pretty and patriotic outfit!

We missed having Sam and Devin for this group shot, and where was Patti?!  Many thanks to our AoA families who were able to stop by and enjoy some good food and great fellowship with us and our WOTM friends.  And thanks again, to Patti and company, for making us feel special and welcome, and for continuing to support The Arc and the AoA!

On Tuesday we went to the Watermen's Museum in Yorktown.  Our guys loved it!  Steve, the Executive Director, met us outside and began what was a very interesting tour.  

We learned about a few different kinds of boats.  The one shown here is called a deadrise, and it maneuvers through water kind of like a big truck, and handles waves well.

This is a replica of a colonial gun boat. It was designed by Benedict Arnold and thus was the only boat used both for us and against us in the Revolutionary War!

Since we've seen the windmill at the Watermen's in passing, we were curious about it.  Steve told us it is a replica (though one story smaller) of one that was used in the 1600s up on the hill across the street.

We went inside and saw the gear system in the ceiling.  Lisa and Carol were able to manually move the vanes (blades) on the outside for a few seconds so we could see the gears move!  This type of windmill was used to grind corn and wheat.

The Watermen's Museum hosts many events, programs, and camps for kids.  They built a stage that kind of resembles a pirate ship.

Inside the museum, Steve told us about this vase.  It's made of ceramic and the pictures on it depict the way of life for watermen (and nowadays, women, too)!

As we walked through the galleries, Steve referenced many events in history with which we were familiar from our AoA lessons!  From the Virginia Indians and Jamestown, to Colonial America, to the Civil War and beyond, our guys made connections with many of the facts Steve shared. 

This is Bruce Brown and he's a model ship builder.  There are a lot of model ships at this museum, and Bruce told us he had built all but 3 of them!  Wow!  The one he's working on now is a model of the ship that Captain Cook traveled on when he came upon New Zealand and Australia.

We also learned how important crabbing, fishing, and the entire seafood industry is to our area.  Watermen are very hardworking people, and this museum honors them in a fascinating way.

We told Steve our best group pictures are usually taken on stairsteps...as it's easy to situate us.  He remembered, and when we went inside the museum he suggested we take a group pic on their stairway.  It was a challenge!  This set of steps is a little narrower than others where we have posed, but after some creative maneuvering, we got everyone settled and snapped this shot.  It was a tight squeeze and we were getting quite warm at this point.  Doesn't a picture tell a thousand words?! 😎

After our museum tour, we went up Rt. 17 to have lunch at Arby's.  We didn't take any pictures, but we had a delightful time!  It was busy in there, so our guys dispersed into small groups and sat together, socializing and enjoying their lunch outing very much!

Back at AFCC, Kacie and Devin picked the lone tomato we had on our plant.  Before we went on summer break, we were worried it wasn't growing well.  When we got back today, we found it had not gotten bigger, but it had ripened beautifully!

The master gardeners told us to stop by the Botanical Garden whenever we get a chance and see what there is to harvest in the beds we helped plant.  Lisa took Drew and Alexis by after work on Tuesday and they picked a few small peppers.  We'll taste them along with our tomato during lunch later in the week!

First thing Wednesday morning, we sent Alexis and Patrick to the kitchen to prepare an angel food cake.  It was needed later for a recipe we got from Kevin's mom for a light summer dessert.  We were going to make it to take to Kevin's pool party on Thursday.

We also worked in the computer lab on Wednesday to prepare our July calendar.  Liz, Drew, Alexis, and Kevin were proud of the work they had done so far!

Patrick and Abraham made a good team and they had fun finding pictures for some upcoming events like bowling and pool parties!

Devin was hard at work finding pictures to represent yesterday's visit to the Watermen's Museum.  Even though that day was over, we wanted to include it on our calendar.

Look at the shiny floor in the gym!  It's always exciting to see how it looks after the fresh coat of wax (or whatever they use) goes down!  We love the way it makes our shoes squeak, too...

Heike is happy to have us back in our regular spot!  She missed us last week!

Now that Mr. Howard works all around the town, we don't see him as often.  So we had big smiles when he stopped by while we were in the gym!

Meanwhile, Kate and Liz were on lunch duty.  They breaded our chicken and got it ready to pop into the Nina for baking.  

We celebrated Fried Chicken Day (July 6), Macaroni Day (July 7), and the upcoming Macaroni and Cheese Day (July 14) with this delcious lunch.  Yes...Macaroni and Macaroni and Cheese each get their own day!  Crazy, right?!  We liked our healthier baked version of "fried" chicken as evidenced by the fact that there were no leftovers!  

We would like to thank Devin's family for donating a Food Lion gift card to us!  We used it to purchase today's lunch ingredients, and will use the balance to buy things for next week!

Later, this crew finished putting together the dessert we're taking to Kevin's pool party on Thursday.  In addtion to the angel food cake, the ingredients included graham cracker crumbs, vanilla pudding, whipped topping. bananas, blueberries, and strawberries!  We can't wait to try it!  Thanks for the recipe, Debbie! 😋

We ended the day with a Disney version of yoga, based on the story of Dumbo, with our video teacher, Jaime.  It was lots of fun and as usual, our guys really kept up with her!  We have missed Patti though, and look forward to seeing her again next week!

We received some donated appliances on Thursday!  Drew's beloved Grandma Wells (Donna's mother) passed away a few weeks ago, and his family thought we could give these kitchen items a loving home.  We are honored to accept them, and we hope Grandma Wells would be smiling to know they are being put to good use. 💙💙💙  Thank you to Drew's family for thinking of us during this difficult time.  

We also met a new friend on Thursday.  This is Gina, and she's on the Advisory Board for the Grove Community Garden.  We had been talking to Mr. Rob before he passed away about donating our worms and their compost to the garden, and he was excited about it.  Gina came in today and on behalf of Mr. Rob, helped us spread the worms and the compost into the part of the garden known as the Children's Area. 💚💚💚

Devin and Abraham accompanied Gina to the garden where they helped her spread the worms and the compost.  She told us that the worm compost, called "Black Gold," is very valuable, and that folks sometimes pay a lot of money to buy it for their gardens!

Abraham was tickled to see the worms squirming around on his spade.  We honor Mr. Rob, and hope he is smiling from above knowing that those hardworking worms and their amazing compost are going to enhance his beloved garden.

After our busy opening to the morning, it was finally time to head to Kevin's for our 4th annual pool party!  We LOVE Kevin's pool, with the beautiful James River in the background!  This year, we had the added bonus of two lifeguards, Sam and Anna, to help us keep an eye on things.  

Kevin was excited when his friends arrived at his house, and we were excited to see him, too!  He and Drew enjoyed hanging out on the deck, listening to rockin' music, and enjoying what was a wonderful and cool breeze!  We were so lucky because the air temperature was well above 90 degrees. 🌞🌞🌞

Kevin's pool is the only one we visit that has a diving board, and some of our guys love it!  Cameron prefers to leap high and remain vertical when he "dives," but the end result is still the same:  big splashes!

Here's a video clip and in this, Sam, Devin, and Kate also jump from the diving board.  Others are having fun with squirt toys and floats, while some enjoy the view from the deck.  There was something for everyone to enjoy!

The hot tub at Kevin's pool is popular, too!  Ahh, what a great day!

We also love coming to Kevin's pool because his dad, Wayne, and mom, Debbie, are the bomb as hosts!  They prepared a very yummy lunch for us that consisted of burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches, Debbie's delicious orzo, spinach, and tomato salad, sweet watermelon, and chips! We cannot thank Wayne and Debbie enough for continuing this fun summer tradition.  Our very first pool party was here, back in 2016, during our first year as the Arc of Abilities.  They welcome us and hang out with us, talking and laughing, and making memories.  It's a special day!  

Kevin's sister, Julia, also hung out with us!  We love it when our siblings join our activities!  Julia attends college at the University of Delaware, and our guys love talking to her.  She's seen here sitting beside Drew.

While we dried off for lunch, one of our favorite songs, I Like to Move It, came on and Devin, Abraham, and Kate couldn't resist jumping up and showing off their dance moves! 👏👏

Lifeguards Sam and Anna also enjoyed hanging out and chatting with our guys!  Everyone had fun socializing and being chill at Kevin's pool!

Here's our group shot for this year.  We included lifeguards Anna and Sam.  We missed Bo, Chloe, and Kacie. Thanks again, Wayne, Debbie, AND Kevin!  Your hospitality makes us feel at home.  We had a wonderful time!

We are lucky to have a lot of friends who support the AoA in many ways.  This week, the JRES assistant principal, Ms. Vallone, had a birthday, but we weren't aware of it.  When we found out, of course we had to make cards for her!  The school is closed on Fridays, so we will track her down next week and surprise her!

Kevin was "Best Dressed" on Friday!  We began our study of the fifty states with Delaware, so he wore his University of Delaware Blue Hens t-shirt!  His sister attends college there, and his dad is also from Delaware.  We love it, Kevin!

Delaware's nickname is the "First State" because it was the first to ratify the new constitution following the Revolutionary War.  We're going to study the states in the order in which they joined the union.  We learned lots of facts about Delaware today, and used a paper bag as a "folder" to hold our information.  (Today was also National Paper Bag Day, so there was that, too!)  Here, Drew is concentrating on getting the colors of Delaware's flag correct.

We had extra help today!  "Moose" Patti came to visit!  She helped this group with Delaware work, too.

We've often mentioned how much our guys enjoy history.  They had fun learning about Delaware today!

Their favorite part was probably learning about "Eating in Delaware."  We have a new book called United Tastes of America, which is an atlas of food facts from every state in our country.  We learned that Delaware has a lot of chicken farms, and you can even buy bbq chicken at roadside stands on your way to the shore!  We also learned that they grow more lima beans in Delaware than any other state, and have been known to eat grilled muskrat, along with lots of other fun facts.  In this book, each state has a featured recipe.  It turns out that Delawareans love strawberries, too, and the recipe in the book for Delaware is strawberry shortcake.

It happened that Kate's mom, Elizabeth, was bringing us lunch today:  burgers, stuffed squash, and her delicious homemade pound cake!  It also happened that Patti's birthday is next Friday, so we decided to include strawberries today and have our own version of Delaware's Strawberry Shortcake which doubled as Patti's birthday cake!  Thank you so much for lunch, Elizabeth.  You got to see firsthand how much we like burgers!  Your squash was tasty, too, and a healthy alternative to fries.  The homemade pound cake is just the best!!  We appreciate your generosity!

Patti was surprised that we turned today into a surprise party for her!  She came to help us...not party!  LOL!  We did both!

One last thing before we close out the week...this crew assembled The Arc's August newsletter so be sure to complete the sign up sheet and return it to Bette Faye by July 23.  Some fun events in August are the WOTM Golf Tournament (August 3...volunteers needed!), bowling (August 8), a very cool Arts & Culture Storytelling program (August 22), and popular jazz band GOOD SHOT JUDY at Jamestown Jams (August 30)!

Whew!  What a busy, busy week for us!  We have another one coming up next week.  Here's what you need to know:

Tuesday:  We're going bowling today at York Lanes in Grafton so we can visit our friend Dallas who used to work at the lanes in Williamsburg!  We miss him!  He's going to bowl with us, too!  Wear Arc shirts.  Pizza for lunch.

Wednesday:  Today's activities include fun with World Emoji Day and National Tattoo Day!  We will watch a Mystery Doug episode to find out how emojis came to be, and we'll be happy to apply emoji tattoos...free! 😃  Dress to stretch, as we will welcome Patti back for yoga!   Lunch on your own (meaning...bring from home)!  Microwave available whenever we are at AFCC.

Thursday:  Our lessons and activities today will center around the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which is on Saturday, July 20.  Lunch on your own.

Friday:  We will study Pennsylvania today!  We're going to try our hands at making Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches for lunch! We may also have some Eaton work to complete at the center. 

FAMILIES:  We still need associates to volunteer for the WOTM Golf Tournament on Saturday, August 3rd from 8:30-11:00.  Please let us know if your associate can help with this fundraising event.  Thank you! 🏌🏌🏌

Enjoy the weekend and try to stay cool!

Lisa, Carol, and Nan