Arc of Abilities: Happy Birthday, Nan!

It was a great week at the AoA, albeit a mostly hot and muggy one, which kept us indoors as much as possible. We were happy that our outings this week were a bowling trip and a visit with Christina at the Art Museums, which were indoors and cool. Oh, and we kept cool when we were at AFCC, too, as we studied our fourth state and celebrated a special birthday! Here's a look at how we said "good bye" to July and "hello" to August!

It was time to refill the bird feeders on Tuesday morning. Alexis and Kate took care of this task!

After our dance warm up, checking last week's blog, and stretching, we headed to Williamsburg Lanes where balls were rolling and pins were falling like crazy! Cameron and Patrick got us started!

It's more than bowling, though. Our guys really enjoy the socialization that bowling allows, and as always, encouraging and cheering for one another.

What happened to the pizza?! It's in our tummies and it hit the spot, thanks to our new friend and today's pizza maker, Andrew! That's him in between Patrick and Sam. We send a big thank you to Drew's Meemaw for her generous donation that sponsored our pizza today! Pizza lunch at bowling is definitely a highlight for us!

This is one of the bowling managers, Autumn. She said it must have been disappointing for us to not get to go to Surry for blueberry ice cream due to the president's visit that caused the ferry to be closed today. Imagine our surprise when she brought out ice cream with sundae toppings! That meant a lot to us, Autumn! It was very thoughtful of you! We loved it!

Back at AFCC, we talked about the reason for the president's visit to Jamestown: to commemorate the 400th anniversary of legislative assembly in America which first took place at Jamestown in 1619. Our area is rich in American history and we try to help our friends understand the significance of it. This group is spending the last few minutes of the day on Jamestown related worksheets.

Annmarie is making sure to choose colors for her picture of historic Jamestown that would reflect the time. She chose yellow for the thatched roofs on the buildings.

Liz chose a Jamestown Colony word search puzzle and is busy trying to find "James River" before time runs out and we have to go home!

We were excited on Wednesday to celebrate Nan's birthday! Everyone helped put together our lunch, starting with Annmarie, Abraham, Xavier, Laura, and Drew, who baked up a raspberry cake. (It was also National Raspberry Cake Day.)

Later, Sam whipped up the topping and spread it on the pretty pink cake! It had to be refrigerated for a few hours, so we would have to enjoy it after yoga.

Devin, Cameron, and Alexis were one of the teams that put together the taco casseroles. Dev browned beef while Lexi chopped onions. Cameron preferred to read the recipe!

On the other side of the room, Chloe, Kate, and Patrick also put together a taco casserole. Chole and Pat added salsa, black beans, and green chiles, while Kate stirred it all together.

Just as we were finishing lunch prep, our master gardener friends Karen and Linda stopped by to deliver our placemats! We used pretty pictures of flowers, fruits, and veggies to make a collage during our last visit with them. "Krafty Karen" took them home to cover with clear contact paper, so they would hold up as placemats.

They are so pretty! We aren't sure we can use them as placemats. What if they get icky?! By the way, it was great to see Karen and Linda...even though Linda was busy taking pictures herself and somehow managed to not get in any of ours. 😕 Thank you, Linda and Karen! We loved having you stop by and really appreciate everything you do for us!

After our tasty taco casserole, we enjoyed Choice Time and then had a "rigorous" yoga session with our online yogi, Jaime! (Patti was under the weather today.)

Jaime has us change positions often, so yoga with her is more of a workout than it is with Patti. But we don't mind, especially when we are trying to burn a few extra calories!

Today, Jaime was taking us through many positions as she also told us the story of "Alice in Wonderland."

We were aiming for tree pose here, near the end of the session.

Ahh, shavasana...just "being" after that great work. Our bodies are amazing!!

After yoga we got to sing to Nan and celebrate her awesomeness with the raspberry cake! It was good, but kind of tart and not as sweet as we expected. It was lighter and refreshing, so a perfect treat for after yoga. Happy Birthday, Nan! We hope you enjoyed your day! 😍

Our Thursday began with a scare...no internet! We were worried we wouldn't be able to dance or celebrate Georgia Day or create our August calendar because, well, everything is online, right?! We had to adjust our plans. We danced to a good old-fashioned CD played on a boom box, set up our tables and chairs, and put together our Georgia salad. Then, we checked and our connection was back! We could get on with using our technology and not have to play Bingo! 😉 Thank you, JCC Parks & Rec, for your speedy solution to our problem!

Part of our Georgia Day studies included learning about Vidalia onions. We learned they come from Vidalia County, and in Georgia, it's against the law to grow them anywhere but there or within the surrounding 20 counties. There's even a mascot, Yumion the Onion!

Since they are sweet onions, we had Devin go around and let everyone smell a freshly cut one, before we made our peach/Vidalia onion/ peanut salad. We didn't think it smelled super sweet, but we didn't think it smelled like the onions that burn our eyes, either.

For our salad, we sauteed the onions, so as to bring out more of the sweetness through carmelization (word of the day!). Liz, Alexis, and Drew were taste-testers who enthusiastically agreed that they were sweet!

Annmarie combined the peaches and onions and then threw in a handful of peanuts. Can you get any more Georgia in a recipe than this?!

We chilled it until lunchtime. It was very good! We would not have thought of combining these ingredients, but a recipe for peaches and Vidalia onions was in our United Tastes of America cookbook. It was our idea to cook the onions and add the peanuts. If you'd like our exact recipe for your next backyard bbq, just let us know! 😋🍑🥜

Thursday was August 1, so we had to put together our calendar for the month.

We love it when everyone is on task!

Our team worked so well together and the calendar looks amazing!

After lunch we continued working on our study of Georgia. This is what a busy "desk" looks like when we get into our work!

When we researched famous people from Georgia, there were not too many our guys had heard of, but when we played music from one of Georgia's musical legends, they jumped up to dance to a familiar song! (Devin does a great job announcing the song...it's by Little Richard!)

So, the first Friday of August is National Water Balloon Day. Our guys had a mixed reaction to it. Some of them came in swimsuits and went all out. Some brought an extra shirt to change into and went "half way" out. And a few stayed completely "out," of range, that is! We played a few games like this classic water balloon toss. It was fun, and no one got too wet at this point!

We had a relay with the water balloon being balanced on a big spoon. That was too easy...

But when Drew's balloon fell off the spoon and he got a little wet, his expression was priceless!

Hot Potato started off a little slowly, but as the number of safe players grew smaller, the excitement factor went up. Cameron was the ultimate winner...twice!

Finally, what Sam and Dev were waiting for. They were the only two who actually chased each other and threw the balloons. They got pretty wet!

Kate tried to make a basket, but her toss was a little short. The balloon didn't pop and she tried again and got a little closer, but her balloon busted on that throw. Good try, Kate!

We were THANKFUL for Chloe and Liz, who, on their own, picked up almost all of the broken balloon pieces! They were faster than vaccuum cleaners at snatching up those little pieces. Way to go, Chloe and Liz! Water Balloon Day was a wrap!

After an early lunch, we made our way to the Art Museums of CW for a visit with Christina. Before our lesson, she wanted us to peek through these windows and see the progress being made. That's where the new cafe will be when the renovations are complete sometime next year, hopefully! 🤞 Christina pointed out that we are some of only a few visitors who have been coming to the museum regularly during the renovations, and thus have gotten to see a lot of changes!

Our lesson today involved looking at five works of art that featured George Washington. We compared and contrasted them, noting the medium used to create each one, how Washington looked, what was included in each, and so forth. This is one of our favorite pieces at the museum, and it's an oil painting on canvas. That's junior volunteer Emmy raising her hand to answer a question. She will learn more Virginia History in 4th grade this year, but for now, she knows almost as much as our guys! 😉

Here's George Washington made of iron! The artist (1800s) wrapped him in a toga to signify that people considered him to be godlike. Christina said he would have been mortified to have been depicted like this!

In the Education Room, our task was to color pictures of George and change him up "a little," kind of like Andy Warhol may have done. (We'll have a lesson about him next week.) Christina knew that today was also Coloring Book Day, so she thought of a way to tie coloring in with our lesson on noticing how George Washington changes in art, depending on the perspective of the artist.

We colored four small pictures of George as Laura and Annmarie demonstrate. Next, we cut out and mounted them on colored paper.

You'll have to zoom in to see how we changed up ole George; it's pretty cool, and colorful! And speaking of cool, look at Christina in her Arc shirt! 🙋🙌😍

Another "colorful" week is in the books! Here's what we'll be doing for the first full week in August:

Tuesday: We're partying again...pool partying, that is! We will join Coach Teri and Sam at their neighborhood pool. It's hard to believe this is our 4th summer enjoying this event! Wear your suits and bring all your gear...lunch provided by Coach Teri (subs). Thanks, Teri! We are looking forward to another fun day!

Wednesday: We will celebrate Friendship Day and Coast Guard Day today. Dress to stretch for yoga with Patti. Lunch on your own.

Thursday: The 5th state to join the Union was Connecticut, so today, we will learn about it! Hot dog stands abound in Connecticut, so we will have chili dogs for lunch based on a recipe from Capitol Lunch in New Britain. It's also Rice Pudding Day, so we'll add that to the menu, too. (One of CT's nicknames is the Nutmeg State and nutmeg is an ingredient in rice pudding!) We'll also try to find time to celebrate National Dollar Day! It will be a busy one!

Friday: We're going to Eaton for a work day! Yay! Wear your Arc shirt and bring a bag lunch!

REMINDER: Our Food Drive to benefit the Salvation Army ends on Tuesday, so there's still time to contribute! Thank you for the donations so far!