Happy New Year to all of the families and friends of the AoA! We hope you all had a fabulous holiday season that was filled with joy, fun, and relaxation. Everyone here at the center missed each other, and we were all happy to be back together on Tuesday morning!
Next, it was time for Drew to give Kevin the other part of his Secret Santa gift. Drew ordered a special puzzle for Kevin...it's a picture of the gang...and it didn't come in before the break began. Kevin was excited to get another puzzle. Very thoughtful, Drew!!
It had been one month since we last went bowling, and we were stoked to get back to the lanes! Here are a couple of pictures of us warming up before leaving.
We have learned that bowlers need to warm up and stretch. We don't want to throw anything out of whack, so we take this seriously!
Look at these happy faces! They are as bright as the bowling balls!
Here are even more happy faces! Bowling brings our guys a lot of joy!
In this photo, Laura had just bowled a strike, and her friends were happy for her. Devin even stretched his arm across the lane to shake her hand!
A little while later, Kate gave Alexis a hug when she had a good roll. If you ever want to feel good about your bowling skills (or lack of?!), join us one morning! It's very uplifting!
We grabbed this quick shot of Cameron heading off to eat his lunch. This guy loves pizza, and we love that we're able to provide it when we go bowling. Many thanks today to Cameron's family, who made this lunch possible for us!
Kevin, Abraham, Kate...really all of our guys...also love having pizza when we bowl. Maybe it's because it had been a while, but it sure was delicious today! We add apple slices and it makes for a great lunch.
Why would we insert a picture of chairs and a table?! Well, after we finish bowling, everyone gathers up their personal belongings and makes sure all the lunch "mess" is cleaned up. Then, they arrange the chairs back around each table that we used so they look like this. We pride ourselves on leaving the tables looking great!
When we returned to the center we wrote thank you notes for Carol for having welcomed us to her home back in December for a Holiday Movie Party. We ran short of time to get them done in the last couple of days before our break. We didn't get a picture, but we wrote some nice messages to Carol and Gene!
After that, we were chilling with a little Choice Time when Drew's sister Alex and her boyfriend Scott popped in for a visit! Everyone was very happy to see Alex, as she lives in Florida now while attending grad school and we hadn't seen her in a while. We were also excited to meet Scott as we had heard a lot of awesome things about him! He's pretty cool, and so is Alex. It was a treat getting to see them before they head back to Florida. (Scott is in grad school, too!) What a happy ending to a great first day back!
After that, we were chilling with a little Choice Time when Drew's sister Alex and her boyfriend Scott popped in for a visit! Everyone was very happy to see Alex, as she lives in Florida now while attending grad school and we hadn't seen her in a while. We were also excited to meet Scott as we had heard a lot of awesome things about him! He's pretty cool, and so is Alex. It was a treat getting to see them before they head back to Florida. (Scott is in grad school, too!) What a happy ending to a great first day back!
Wednesday morning began with Alexis covering library duty on her own! She said Carol helped her shelve about 40 books. Kacie was absent today and others who sometimes help were "unavailable" as well!
After our dance warm up, we had to work on our first calendar for 2020, January! While Liz and Alexis worked on the computer, Drew and Kevin worked on coloring New Year's pictures for our walls. We are working with them on using multiple colors when they color, and were proud that they made an effort to switch colors a lot today!
We didn't ask everyone to say, "Cheese" for this shot because they were too focused on their work!
Here's our beautiful and action-packed January calendar!
After all that concentrated seat work, we had to get moving. It just took a catchy tune about being "happy" and we got this great video clip!
Sam and Devin were supposed to be prepping our cheese toast for lunch, but who can blame them for keeping up with the beat?! They finished their task on time, by the way!
The cheese toast was to accompany the bean soup that was simmering away since we were celebrating National Bean Day, which was on Monday. Heike recently gave us a donation of several packages of dried beans, and she didn't even know her timing was perfect. We had a quick lesson on the MANY nutritional benefits of beans, and then worked on creating Bean Puppies as an art project.
We had several types of dried beans in different colors. We helped each associate draw a puppy (based on a picture we found online), and then they were able to glue beans on the paper to make a mosaic of the puppy. Laura carefully pressed some brown beans in place to make an ear.
Here are the finished products. We think our pups are cuter than the one from online!
By the time we finished the bean puppy mosaics, we were ready for our bean soup and cheese toast. It was sooo good, and sooo good for us! Thanks for the beans, Heike! We wish you had been here to enjoy the soup with us! (She's in Germany visiting her family.)
Yoga Patti was back on Wednesday! She reported that her lung surgery went very well, and while she still has a little trouble catching her breath sometimes, she will continue to improve with time. Yoga practice will be beneficial to her in her continued recovery!
Today Patti gave us tips for improving our endurance for holding poses such as downward dog. One tip was to stretch and massage our feet and toes before the pose, and another was to make sure to shift our weight so that our stretched feet were bearing the same amount of weight as our arms. We noticed improvements right away!
As she always does, Patti reminded us of the importance of "finding our breath" and using it to help us attain our poses correctly. We were happy to have our trainer back!
Thursday was a busy day for us. It was National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, and we love to show our appreciation for those who help us. We worked diligently on creating cards with sincere messages for the Williamsburg Police Department. Devin glued a picture he colored to the front of his card.
Alexis used her best handwriting on her card!
We bought some goodies like fruit bars, chips, cookies, and candy for the members of the Williamsburg PD. Here, Kevin and Drew fill bags with cookies and in the background, Liz unboxed all of the other goodies so we could fill a big blue gift bag with them.
This was the table full of goodies and our awesome cards before we filled the bag. We talked about the sacrifices members of law enforcement make, and that naturally led to a discussion about our "sacrifice" of not eating these goodies ourselves!
A few of our associates were able to stop by the police department before going home, and we delivered the bag of treats along with lots of hugs and kind words for the police department members. They recognized The Arc's logo on the front of the bag, and recalled that they have worked with us on programs before. We think they were surprised by and grateful for our kind gesture!
Part of our educational work today was completing a fill-in-the-blank activity about what police officers do. Some of the words could fit in more than one blank, and we had to figure out the best fit for each one, since the words could only be used once. We did this with partners and stuck with it, even though it challenged us! 👏👏
January 5 is one of several "days" designated for celebrating birds, so we turned to our BrainPOP account to watch an educational video. It was followed by a 10 question quiz, which, as you can see, we aced! BrainPOP is a program we use regularly for short, easy-to-understand lessons (and challenging quizzes, which the guys love) on many topics. It requires a yearly subscription, and our dear volunteer, Becky, provides it for us. This week it came up for renewal, and we are very grateful to her for sponsoring it for us for another year! We really love learning with BrainPOP's Tim and Moby, and you, too, Becky! Thank you so much!
After our lesson, we used TP rolls, peanut butter, and bird seed to make feeders. We enjoy doing this project several times a year.
Yes, Abraham! You may lick the excess peanut butter off your fingers after spreading as much as you can on the tube!
Becky is smiling because she knows how much of a stretch it is for Kevin to get "sticky" stuff on his hands. He did a great job with the peanut butter today, and as soon as he got his tube covered with seeds, he hightailed it to the sink to wash his hands! Great job, Kevin!
We don't know what prompted this group hug as we were cleaning up from making bird feeders, but the camera was in hand, so here ya go! 😍
We still had one more thing to do on our very busy Thursday! Yesterday we made the bubble letters for the month of January, and today we made snowflakes to compliment them. Nan said it made her cold to look at it! Some of us wouldn't mind a bit of snow, but instead we are anticipating possible record-breaking high temperatures for the upcoming weekend! 😵
Before we knew it, Friday was here! We had some work to do so we got right to it. One group organized the table tubs by sorting all the markers by color and then redistributing them so each tub had a nice assortment of colors. Great team work on this project!
We assembled The Arc's February newsletter. There are a lot of events to sign up for, including the Valentine Dance and a fun Folk Jam! Families, please note that The Arc is also sponsoring a Caregiver Focus Meeting on Feb. 10 that will address a group housing project idea.
Also in the newsletter is a front/back flyer with information on the upcoming conversation series, "Daily Work of Justice" and a Best Buddies sponsored Job Skills Workshop. Please refer to the flyers for more information, and take advantage of these informational offerings!
For our movement activity on Friday, we played one of our favorite games, Pool Noodle Volleyball. Our theme was Clemson vs. LSU as a nod to the College Football Championship game coming up on Monday night. Our friend Devin is the biggest Clemson fan we know, so we hope his Tigers win!
The first balloon to get popped "predicts" the loser in the game...but we've decided to ignore today's results! Good Luck to your team, Devin!
We learned about the state of Alabama today. Being a southern state, they eat lots of BBQ down there, so it was perfect that we had the precooked pulled pork that Heike had donated. We only had to heat it in the slow-cooker, add some baked beans and chips, and lunch was done. Thank you, Heike, for providing today's lunch! We loved it!
While we learned that Alabama's state bird is the yellowhammer (and is a type of woodpecker), and Montgomery is the capital but Birmingham is the largest city, we were most fascinated in learning about Helen Keller, who was from there. Most of us had heard of her and knew she was blind and deaf, but we were baffled by how she learned, with the help of her teacher Annie Sullivan, how to read, write, and speak in 5 languages!
A fun thing we learned is that Alabama is the home of Steel City Pops, a gourmet popsicle "restaurant" that makes their pops from fresh, organic ingredients. So for a treat, we enjoyed strawberry fruit pops. Ours came from a local market, but we pretended they were from Alabama!
It was a mild day and the sun was shining so we went outside to hang the bird feeders we made yesterday. Xavier led the way and picked the perfect spot on this tree to hang his.
We're pretty sure this is the first time one of our guys has climbed a tree! Well, sort of! Devin stepped up onto this one to hang his feeder a little higher than the rest of ours!
Cameron is tall enough to hang his on a higher branch without needing to climb the tree! We expect the bird seed will be gone when we return on Tuesday. Hope our bird friends enjoy our gift to them!
It was a quick week, and it looks like we're off and running for 2020! Here's a look at what's on our schedule for next week:
Tuesday: We're excited to be able to visit APEX Physical Therapy in New Kent again today. Alexis's cousins are the owners and they are supporters of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg. We'll take a Rock Steady Boxing class with Scott and learn how fitness and movement are key to maintaining good health as we age. No need for Arc shirts (you will need them Thursday and Friday). Wear workout clothes! Also, bring a bag lunch.
Wednesday: It's Hat Day so feel free to wear a hat (crazy or "regular") today! We instituted a rule as of 2020 that we aren't going to wear hats/caps in the building anymore, so this is a special occasion! We'll also work with a Rotary friend in the computer lab and learn why today is National Booch Day! Dress to stretch for yoga with Patti, too. We'll make PB&J sandwiches for lunch.
Thursday: We're going to learn about the 23rd state to enter the Union today, Maine. We will also brush up on the history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and after lunch, we'll visit Christina at the Art Museums of CW. Please wear your Arc shirt. We'll have Blueberry Pie in honor of Maine, but lunch on your own.
Friday: Time for a work day at Eaton! You know the drill: Wear your Arc shirt and bring a bag lunch! We'll have our first Frosty Day of 2020 at Wendy's after we work, too! Thanks, Nina!! 🍦
We hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and The AoA Gang
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