Happy Halloween 2019

Lots of fun and celebrations this week made it quite memorable!  Tracy filled in for Lisa (and Nan) on Tuesday and went bowling with us, Alexis had a birthday celebration on Wednesday, Thursday was our rocking Halloween party, and on Friday we wrapped up a busy October and kicked off November.  Here are the highlights of our time together!

We're very thankful that Tracy from Parks & Rec could fill in for Lisa on Tuesday, and that her new coworker, Kate, could help too!

Looks like Cameron had a strong throw during this turn!

Both Xavier and Abraham had two pins left after their first roll.

Kevin, Devin, and Kacie are concentrating...we can tell even though their backs are to us!

As always, we enjoyed our pizza for lunch!  Tuesday we were grateful to Kate's mom for treating us!  Thanks, Elizabeth!

The weather was warm so we stopped by the playground at the big rec center to burn off a few pizza calories!

Hi Kate and Patrick!  Our guys always love to swing.

Parks & Rec Kate joined Abraham and Devin on the drums.  They've got rhythm!

On Wednesday, we learned some things about cats that we didn't know when we marked National Cat Day, which was officially on Tuesday.  For instance, leopards sleep in trees and lions roar so they can tell where their families are!

Laura, Devin, and Annmarie wore cat-themed clothing!  Yay for their spirit!!

We were pretty good at identifying cats from Disney movies during a trivia game.  No surprise there!

It was a cloudy day, but the temperatures were mild so we spent a good chunk of time outside.  

You never know with Virginia weather when it will turn and be too cold (or hot!) to be outside.

That shot came up a little short, but Patrick persevered and made others!

Nice toss of the disc from Devin to Laura as Drew looks on before taking a shot with his basketball.

We celebrated Alexis's birthday with a spinach, tomato, chicken, and quinoa salad.  Yummy and healthy, too!  We reviewed that quinoa is a flowering plant with edible seeds that are full of protein and fiber.  This is the second time we have cooked with quinoa, but we need to use it more often.  It's also gluten-free, so our friend Xavier can enjoy it with us!

Happy Birthday, Alexis!  

Since tomorrow is Halloween, we have been working on "Thriller Yoga" with Patti.  She came today and we put all of our moves together!  First we did a practice run, and then the final performance.  Since our guys love to watch themselves, we're posting all the video snippets we took!

Thriller 1:

Thriller 2:

Thriller 3:

Thriller 4:

Thriller 5:

After yoga, we prepped some goodies for tomorrow's party.  These gals were trying to make witches' brooms out of mini-Reese's cups and pretzel sticks.  They also made peanut butter cookies with eyeballs!

These friends made Frankensteins and Jack-o-Lanterns, two last  Halloween decorations!

Kevin says, "Meet Jack!" What cute legs he has, Kevin!

We stuck these guys on the wall under the white board.  We have very little wall space left!  Time to party!

Thursday was all about our Halloween Party!  We spent the morning dancing, watching the movie "Coco" (so good!), and preparing our creepy lunch items!

Check out our amazing costumes!  We had two Wiggles, a Good Witch, and a Cheeseburger posing here!

Next up, Candy Corn Guy with Super Girl and Batman!

Woody, Horse Ridin' Girl, Knight in Shining Armor, and Maleficent gathered for this shot!

Here we have a Cat, Dorothy and Toto, and a Ninja Warrior!

The food we prepped earlier in the day made for a tasty lunch.  Here are the Mummy Dogs (or are they Hallo-weenies?!) and Bones w/ Slime!

We also had a bowl of cruncy Van Gogh Ears, Halloween Pretzels, Chompers (apples and peanut butter with marshmallows for teeth), Pumpkin Cuties, Monster Face Cookies, Witches Brooms, and Dragon Blood Punch!

Here's an up close of our Monster Face Cookies and Witches Brooms.  We didn't go overboard on the sweets this year, and we were OK with that!  Later, our friend Annmarie passed out goody bags with a few more sweets...that was so SWEET of HER!

We had a full house for our party, except for Cameron, who was traveling with his family.  We missed him!  Tracy stopped by, too.  That's her in the pink Pac-Man costume!

It was fun wrapping our friends up like mummies!  We only had 4 volunteers, though!  Here's Sam, who was wrapped by Kacie and Drew, with Nan's help.

Chloe and Laura did quite a wrapping job on Annmarie.  They had a little help from Carol!

Kate and Liz took care of "mummy-fying" Alexis!

Abraham, Patrick, and Kevin had an assist from Becky to thoroughly wrap Devin!

This was a Pin the Bowtie on the Skeleton game.  Kevin's pin was a little high, and it looked like he put a hair bow on the skeleton!

We also played the game where we tasted Jelly Belly jellybeans and hoped we got the "good" flavor versus the "gross" one.  Looks like good sport Liz got sour milk.  Yuck!

We always take our Bingo games seriously.  On Halloween, we play Disney Villian Bingo.  Chloe was getting close to a Bingo here!

Kate was a live version of one of the villians in the Bingo game:  Maleficent!  (Kate is much nicer!)

Lexi's cousin Haley, aka, Minnie Mouse, stopped by to party with us.  This was her first Halloween party, and she had a ball!  

 We knew Kevin and Cameron were traveling with their families and would be out on Friday, but we were surprised when 5 more were also absent!  We only had 8 until Xavier made it in around 11, after getting his haircut, but we still had a full day.

It was Tennessee Day as we were learning about the 16th state to enter the Union.  We learned that Tennessee is bordered by a whopping 8 other states and its nickname is "The Volunteer State."   It is divided into regions, east, middle, and west, and there are major cities in each.  One of the coolest things we learned is that Centerville, in middle Tennessee, is home to the National Banana Pudding Festival each October.  That's why we chose to make banana pudding today!  This is our "before" picture.  With only 8 associates at this point, we divided up the steps and got to work.

Kacie and Liz were in charge of mixing the pudding ingredients together.

Alexis cut up the bananas.

While waiting for their turn in the assembly of the banana pudding, Sam and Devin helped take down the Halloween decorations.

Drew's job was to layer the Nilla Wafers.

Laura and Patrick added the sliced bananas.

Next up, Sam had to add a layer of pudding mixture.

After adding more cookies, bananas, and pudding, we were ready for Devin to sprinkle on the cookies he had crushed earlier.

Here's the clean up crew!  Thanks, Liz, Sam, and Devin!

We took a walk on a refreshingly cool morning and ended up at the school's blacktop map, where we placed our feet on the first 16 states that entered the Union! 

After lunch we used the computer lab to get our November calendar ready.  Can you believe it's already the 11th month of 2019?

Finally, after finishing our study of Tennessee with our map skills page, it was time for banana pudding!  Thank you, Tennessee, for hosting the annual Banana Pudding Festival and inspiring our dish of the day!  As you can see in our "after" picture, we were excited to try our pudding.  It was yummy, and a great way to end the week!

As we welcome November, we have much to look forward to next week.  Here's what we'll be up to:

Tuesday:  It's Election Day, so schools are closed (but staff works, so the building is open).  We're going to visit Jamestown Settlement with the expectation that it won't be too crowded.  We took a vote, and, not surprisingly, decided we'd rather buy lunch in the cafe instead of having a picnic on the grounds. 😛  Please wear Arc shirt and bring $10 for lunch. 

Wednesday:  Our friend Chuck from The Rotary will be here to work with us in the computer lab.  We will also learn about saxophones since it's National Saxophone Day and we'll have Yoga w/ Patti, so dress to stretch.  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  We're learning about Ohio today!  It was the 17th state to enter the Union.  We'll try making a fun sweet called Buckeyes, too!  The Marine Corps has a birthday coming up on Sunday, so we will celebrate them today, too. Yesterday was National Nachos Day, but we try not to cook on days when our Rotary friends are here and set up in the lunchroom, so we're making nachos for lunch today, instead.

Friday:  Today is National STEM Day, so we are going to celebrate it with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math activities.  Since Monday is Veterans Day, we will include a lesson on that, too.  We will be busy!  Lunch on your own.

Reminder:  The AoA will be in session on Monday and Tuesday, November 25 and 26 during Thanksgiving Week, and will be closed Wednesday-Friday. 🦃🦃

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and The AoA Gang