Catching Up!

Hi Everyone! We have been busy at the AoA these first two weeks of February! Lisa and Alexis were away on their family trip to Disney World last week, and they came home not feeling well, so they missed this week, too.  Several of their family members were diagnosed with the flu, but they were spared. Instead, they had bronchitis and couldn't stop coughing. Nan was exposed to all of it, so she stayed home out of an abundance of caution so as not to expose us to the highly contagious flu.  Luckily, she did not come down with it!  We missed them and they missed us, too! Liz was able to bring Lisa the camera on Friday afternoon (thanks Liz and mom), so what follows is her attempt to share our adventures from the past couple of weeks!  Everything should be back to "normal" next week, we hope! 🤞🤞🤞

Week of February 4-7

On Tuesday we went bowling. We were thankful to have Katie from Parks & Rec meet us to lend a hand in Lisa's absence.

Looks like we had lots of friends waving to the camera!  Things must have been going well!

Everyone knows we love our pizza lunch!  Today we were  surprised when Laura's mom, Lisa P., popped in and paid for it!  Thank you, Lisa P., for your kindness and generosity!  (Wish we had gotten a picture with you!)

The weather was nice so we stopped by Freedom Park to see what was going on at the garden.  Look at these daffodils in bloom the first week in February!

Wednesday found us shelving books in the library, working on our February calendar, talking about Groundhog Day, enjoying yoga with Patti, and starting on a cute umbrella/rain boot craft.  We also welcomed Becky, one of our dedicated volunteers, to fill in (full days) for Lisa all week.  Thank you so much, Becky!

Kacie and Kate getting it done!



We had a little trouble at first with the computer program and printer when we worked on the February calendar, but we figured it out and here's our finished product.  Lisa is very proud of what we accomplished in her absence!



We watched an informative video about groundhogs, since Groundhog Day was a couple of days ago.

Our substitute teacher, aka, Becky, had us brainstorm all the things we hoped to learn, and afterward, made sure we had the answers!

We worked in partners on a groundhog color-by-number picture.  Isn't Drew's just excellent?!  By the way, the groundhog predicts an early Spring..and by the looks of those daffodils at Freedom Park, we think he's on to something this year!

Yoga with Patti was a great stretch, as usual.

We love our cats and cows poses!

We always benefit from balance work, too!

After yoga, we learned that National Umbrella Day is coming up on February 10, so we learned about umbrellas.  One would think Umbrella Day would fall in the Spring, but we all know we have needed them often this Winter!

Here is part 1 of our cute craft!  We had just enough time to get it done before the day ended.

 The 26th state to enter the Union, Michigan, was our focus for most of the day on Thursday.  We also finished the umbrella/rain boot craft and assembled The Arc's March newsletter.

We were pretty busy learning all about Michigan, with it's two peninsulas, and beautiful lakes.  We learned that Detroit is the home to Motown, and enjoyed listening to some great music.  We also learned about the auto industry and Henry Ford.  So much coolness from Michigan!  Their state flag looks like this:

We didn't get lots of pictures while working on Michigan, probably because we were busy, well, working!  But here's Cameron showing some of his work.  Beginning with Michigan, we're going to put the rest of our state information on/in manila folders, instead of paper bags.  Just to change things up a bit!  It looks great, Cameron! 

We learned that both Kellogg's and Jiffy Mix are headquartered in Michigan, so what else for lunch, but Kellogg's cereal and Jiffy mix biscuits?  We had sides of sausage and bananas, too...hey, where are the 🍌🍌🍌?!  Nan reports they almost forgot to serve them, but remembered after the picture was taken.  LOL!  

This is everyone with their completed umbrella/rain boot projects.  Lisa was happy to see good attendance while she and Alexis were absent!

How cute are these?  And now you know, National Umbrella Day is in February!  

We always focus our attention to detail when working on the Arc newsletters.  It's a job we take seriously.

Be sure and check your newsletter to see what you want to sign up for in March...like the AWESOME Spring Carnival!!  Return your sign up sheet to Bette Faye / Eva by the deadline of February 21st!

Friday was fun as we celebrated Send a Card to a Friend Day and Fettuccine Alfredo Day!

First, we watched a video about building healthy relationships.  Becky led us in a warm discussion about being friends.  (We're pretty good at it, by the way!)

Our guys love to get a "secret" name, and write nice messages to that person.  Here, Kacie made Liz smile with her kind words. 💙

Liz, in turn, made Drew's day with her thoughtful message!

Here's the whole gang, wearing red to show support for raising awareness of heart disease in women, and wearing smiles for being friends with one another!

Speaking of friends, Tracy, Katie, and their intern, Emily, stopped by to say "Hi" on Friday!  We didn't know it at the time, but Tracy and Emily would be back next Friday to fill in for Carol!

It was National Fettuccine Alfredo Day, but before we could dig in, we had some work to do.  We made words using the letters in FETTUCCINE ALFREDO.  

This gives the guys a chance to look for patterns in words, make words that rhyme, and build longer words out of shorter ones.  

That was a lot of letters and they made a lot of words!

The other work that had to be done, was a workout before eating noodles and Alfredo sauce!  Nice job, guys!

This was what they worked so hard for...and by all accounts, it was one of the best dishes we ever made...😋

What a fabulous week it was!

Week of February 11-14

We began the week on Tuesday with a planned trip to see Christina at the Art Museums of CW, but canceled that when we found out Lisa was going to be out sick this week, and Nan was also staying home since she had been exposed to the flu.  We welcomed Coach Teri, who was able to spend the day helping us!  Thank you, Teri, for being available on short notice! 

We gathered up some wipes and decided to give our rooms a good cleaning.

Annmarie, Abraham, Devin, Xavier, Drew, and Liz worked with Carol to wipe down the tables in our main room.

Patrick, Sam, Cameron, and Kevin worked with Tracy to clean the lockers.

Coach Teri worked with Laura, Kacie, and Kate in the lunchroom.

Meanwhile, Alexis was at the doctor's office!  At least the mask was purple, her favorite color!

Believe it or not, this was us getting a workout!  

We also made some sweet get well cards for Lisa, Alexis, and Nan.  They loved them! 💌  

On Wednesday, our Rotary friend Dave came to work with us in the computer lab.  We also had fun with activities for Inventors Day!

Dave's groups worked on making a poster with facts and pictures about their favorite states.

Meanwhile, the rest of us worked on making appreciation cards and letters for the Rotary guys, who were coming tomorrow for lunch.  

In this shot, we had seen a BrainPOP video about Thomas Edison, since it was his birthday and also Inventors Day.  We were getting ready to use an assortment of materials to make our own inventions!

Annmarie and Laura came up with a fancy bird feeder!

We will have to ask Devin and Kacie for a little more explanation, but this is definitely a double-decker balloon something!  

Kate decided to make a hat, and Sam created a bird feeder.  

Liz, Kevin, Patrick, and Drew used the balloons to make a take on Edison's light bulbs! 

With Valentine's Day coming, we learned about our real hearts!  Mystery Doug had a great episode this week about how our hearts pump blood.

There was a bonus feature about see through creatures.  These are Ghost Ants that were given colorful sugar water to drink.  We thought it was cool how we can see the colors inside them!

  

Thursday was exciting since we celebrated National Tortellini Day AND our Rotary friends who help us in the computer lab.  There are three of them, Jeff, Dave, and Chuck, who take turns coming a couple of Wednesdays each month to assist our guys in improving their computer skills.  It was the James City Rotary Club who donated the computers and printer to the AoA in October, 2017.  Our associates' computer literacy skills have grown by leaps and bounds since then.  Our guys love the individual and small group attention they get from Jeff, Dave, and Chuck, and look forward to their visits!

Unfortunately, Jeff couldn't make it for the luncheon due to a death in his family, but we celebrated him in spirit.  We are sorry for your family's loss, Jeff.  💙  

Here's a picture of Jeff from a recent session with Kacie.

This is how our lunchroom looked after we set up for the luncheon.  We had pretty red centerpieces, and we decorated the white board with the appreciation pictures we colored.

This is Chuck, listening intently to a note of appreciation being read by Liz and Drew.

Devin read another special note for Chuck!

This is Dave, taking a picture of Kacie as she reads an appreciation note for him!  (Can you spot a proud Becky in the background?!)

Dave also snapped a picture of Sam reading a special message.  We are proud of all of our guys for writing and reading the kind notes for our Rotary friends!

Since Thursday was National Tortellini Day, we made a chicken tortellini dish with a creamy sauce, and added a spinach salad and bread stick for sides.  Chuck and Dave loved it!!  When Lisa heard about how very tasty it was, she made a mental note that we will have to make this again soon! 😋😋

Chuck and Dave loved our brownies, too!  We want them, and Jeff, to know that we appreciate their support and friendship very much!  The luncheon was just a token of our thankfulness.  🥰 

We look forward to our continued partnership with our Rotary Friends!  

Carol and Lisa were both out on Friday, but Becky, Tracy, and Emily made sure our guys had a fabulous Valentine's Day!  Thank you, again, Becky, for filling in for Lisa this week, too.  You're so good with our guys!  And many thanks to Tracy and Emily, who brought lots of fun, for chipping in on Friday, too. Thanks to Parks & Rec for sparing Tracy and Emily and for being such good partners to The Arc of GW!  We appreciate your support so much!  (**Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from Friday to prove they were here, but they were!!)

We also don't have any pictures proving that we learned all about the 27th state, Florida, either!  Guess the guys were holding out for party pics!  You can see from the agenda Becky put on the board, that they did study Florida.  In fact, Becky made it a point to text Lisa that our guys' map skills are FABULOUS!  We have spent a lot of time on map skills as we study the states.  So happy it is paying off! 👏👏

Here's a picture of lunch!  Everyone pulled together to cook chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches!  Friday was a chilly day, so this definitely hit the spot!

What's a Valentine Party without dancing!  Becky and "Fred Astaire" made it look easy!

Wow, a spin, too! 💗

The gang set up a party table with a few treats and some punch!  It looks great, guys!

And here is the gang after passing out Valentines to each other!  There is a lot of love represented in this picture!! Looks like they got a lot of "loot," too!  They decorated two bags for filling this year! 

💘💘💘 The Valentine Party was a perfect ending to another great week.  Lisa, Alexis, and Nan would like to thank their friends for the sweet Valentines they sent to them.  They missed being with everyone for the party, and getting a bag of love (delivered by Liz and her mom), made it better!  💘💘💘

We're all looking forward to being together next week.  Here's what we'll be up to:

Tuesday:  We will go bowling today and that means pizza and apples for lunch! We may be able to hit a trail for a brisk walk if it isn't raining.  Wear your Arc shirts!

Wednesday:  We are celebrating Heike's birthday today! She's treating us to a German sausage and noodle dish for lunch and we'll provide broccoli salad and birthday cake. Thank you, Heike! We'll also have Yoga with Patti, so dress to stretch.

Thursday:  We rescheduled our trip to the Art Museums of CW for today.  Christina is going to give us a behind the scenes tour of the additions and renovations!  Wear Arc shirts.  We'll also celebrate Love Your Pet Day, so feel free to bring photos/stories about your beloved pets!  Lunch on your own.

Friday:  We won't be learning about a state this week, as Jorie has requested us for a work day at Eaton.  So, please wear Arc shirts and bring a bag lunch!

We hope the upcoming week will return us to our "normal" operating mode, and everyone will be in attendance...healthy and happy!  Keep washing your hands!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang