WOTM Golf Tourney Coming Up!

This week we want to remind everyone that the Women of the Moose, led by our dedicated friend and supporter, Patti, will be sponsoring their 5th Annual Golf Tournament on August 1st!  It will be at Ford's Colony this year, on the Blue Heron Course.  All the info you need to sponsor or join a team is on this graphic.  Just give Patti a shout at 757-561-8947, or email her at poolstarter@msn.com and she will take care of you.  Thank you, Women of the Moose (Williamsburg Chapter 1755), for your continued support of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and our Arc of Abilities Day Support Program.  We are especially grateful that you are moving forward with the tournament during these uncertain times.  Yay for golf being an outdoor sport that allows for social distancing!!!

Tuesday

We had a fun time on Zoom Tuesday morning when the Th/F group joined us from home for a lesson called "Are Unicorns Real?"  Here's a picture of Xavier, the T/W group at AFCC, Drew, Devin, and Abraham when we were wondering if unicorns were real? 

Turns out that recent fossil discoveries have revealed that as "recently" as 39,000 years ago, a rhino/buffalo-like animal with a horn on its head roamed the grasslands of Eurasia with humans!  (Our source is Mystery Doug!)  Here's another picture of our Zoom group, after we had unfortunately lost Abraham due to a spotty connection, and gained Becky, who made it "better late than never!"  As we always say, it's GREAT to see you guys and thanks for tuning in from home!!

During the quarantine shutdown, Elizabeth reported baking delicious sugar cookies and when we returned a couple of weeks ago, she asked if we could make them here at the AoA.  We told her to research when (or if?) National Sugar Cookie Day is and let us know.  Liz found out that it's on July 9th, so we used her recipe to make sugar cookies this week!  Here, she keeps an eye on Kacie as Kacie follows her recipe to the letter!

The sugar cookies turned out well, and we had fun decorating them with a dab of frosting and some sprinkles.  Cameron had already started eating his by the time the sprinkles made it to his table.  That's how good they were!

Spreading icing isn't necessarily a natural and easy thing to do.  But we liked Sam's perseverance as he worked on his cookies!

We did double time in the gym today...on account of those sugar cookies!  Alexis and Liz walked laps during round 1, and during round 2, they played corn hole.

Laura had also walked during our first visit to the gym, but this time she chose basketball.  Patrick chose basketball both times...no surprise there!

Kevin did a little bit of walking and a little bit of shooting on his two visits to the gym today.  

Sam and Cameron had balls earlier, but were walking this time, as was Kacie.  Kacie really enjoys bouncing the big ball as she walks.

We still hope to entice the hummingbirds.  Carol and Liz whipped up some fresh sugar water and refilled the feeder.  We spotted just one last week, and only one time.  

Wednesday 

We saw the hummingbird again today!  It seems to have been the same one we saw last week, but again, it was too quick for us to get a picture.  We're encouraged!!  Maybe it will bring some friends...

After our dance warm up, we made a birthday poster for the AP at the school, Ms. Vallone.  Her special day is Saturday.  We didn't know we would run into her when we went to the gym this morning, but she popped in to say "Hi" and introduce us to the new principal, Mrs. Washington!  Ms. Vallone is between Alexis and Liz and Mrs. Washington is between Liz and Kacie.  We were happy to meet Mrs. Washington.  She said Mr. Stutt told her wonderful things about us!!!  We look foward to developing a working relationship with her.

Our state of the week is the Beaver State, Oregon, which was number 33 to enter the Union. We may have been subjected to a few extra video clips and "discussion" about Oregon since it's Lisa's favorite state!  😉   So, we learned lots of cool facts!  One thing we thought was interesting is that Oregon is the only state that has pictures on both sides of its flag!  And what a cute beaver, we thought!

We also learned that Oregon has beautiful landscapes, including mountains, valleys, high plains, plateaus, desert areas, forests, and the Pacific coast.  It also has more ghost towns than any other state!

We were pretty happy to learn that the "Ore" in the Ore-Ida brand stands for Oregon and that tater tots were "invented" by a couple of brothers who owned a frozen food factory in Oregon.  They went to the 1954 Potato Convention, all the way in Miami Beach, to test their creation on a bunch of "potato men," and it was a big hit.  Tater Tots were born!  We made a casserole with them for lunch and gave thanks to those brothers who came up with this tasty way to use potato scraps!

At yoga time we wiped down our mats.  Everyone either brings a mat from home or they use the same one each week at the center.  We keep the T/W mats separate from the Th/F mats for easier handling.  No one else uses the mats, so we feel comfortable with the safety and cleanliness factor!

We turned to Jaime, from Cosmic Kids Yoga, again this week for our session.  She had a new episode called "Handwashing Yoga."

We really enjoy working out with Jaime and listening to her stories.  She does lots of "real" yoga moves, but sometimes calls them something else.  It doesn't matter to us.  She's fun and keeps us moving and attentive!

The T/W gang was excited to take a Bingo Kit home!  On Thursday when we Zoomed with them from home, we were planning to play Summer Bingo.  The Cheerios were to use for markers, and then have for a prize/treat after the game!  

It was a quick couple of days with the T/W group!  It's nice to be busy and engaged, even if the time flies!

Thursday

We love to take requests during our dance warm up, which we have every morning first thing.  Today, we played some oldies from the cartoon Spongebob, which were requested by his friends on behalf of Xavier!

We turned on the lights long enough to get a shot of the guys getting down to Spongebob tunes!  Masks are optional in "your personal dance zone," but Xavier and Devin really like their Arc gaiters!

In the spirit of the pandemic, and because we were celebrating National Kitten Day, we made our own masks out of cardstock today.  We also had some Eaton work delivered that needed to be sorted.  Can you tell that's Drew hard at work?!

Annmarie and Xavier worked at this sorting area, but they weren't crazy about the cat masks and soon had their gaiters back on!

These "cool cats" are Devin and Kate, who stayed across from each other and at opposite ends of the table during their turn at sorting.  The cat masks covered their faces and noses, but weren't snug enough for them to be too close.  

We couldn't leave the Th/F group out of the Sugar Cookie Day celebration!  Yum...Annmarie said the sprinkles were just what she needed!

Of course, we got plenty of gym time!  Kevin's mom, Debbie, added 3 big balls to our collection, so we played socially distanced kickball.  With the extra balls, our workout was even better!

Drew covered a whole corner area of the gym.  He was here, there, and everywhere keeping the balls going when they came his way!  

Thank you, Debbie, for the new balls!  They are perfect for our new version of kickball, and they will also work great for other games!  We love how colorful they are, and that they are soft.  Summertime fun!!

The Th/F group made "missing you" cards for Meemaw, but we made sure to sign everyone's names.  The T/W group had done the same for Becky, and last week we sent Nina some cards all the way to Arizona.   They all miss us, and we miss them, too.  

Friday

What a joy this morning when we got to see Meemaw in person!  We were thrilled to see her and give her the "missing you" notes we made!

Meemaw was busy during the quarantine settling into a new home, but now she is SOOOO bored.  She asked if we could "spare" some Eaton work, so we happily loaded up a few tubs of parts and gaskets to send home with her.  Thank you, Meemaw, for your help!  We are so happy we have lots of work to share.  You do a great job!

Annmarie was helping too!  She held the door for everyone!

These are the pretty birthday cards we made for assistant principal, Ms. Vallone.  The green one was made by the T/W group and the blue one by the Th/F group.  It's been a while since we made one of our big poster cards.  Aren't they great?!

The Th/F group was just as happy as the T/W group to make a Tater Tot casserole.  Kate carefully placed the tots to cover the top of the casserole.

Alexis sprinkled some cheese over the top, leaving one corner "plain" for our friend, Xavier, who avoids dairy in his diet.  We wanted to make sure everyone would get to enjoy this pan of goodness!

Here's the final product.  With the green beans and watermelon, it was not only a tasty lunch, it was colorful, too!

Here's the state animal of Oregon, the beaver.  We learned that Oregonians respect the beaver for its intelligence, strong work-ethic, and creativity. 

While we're on the subject of animals, we finally caught a picture of a hummingbird!  We're not sure it's the same one we saw last week, but this pretty green one came around throughout the day on Friday.  Can you spot it on the feeder?  Maybe more will visit next week!  That's a tufted titmouse on the songbird feeder, too.

The Th/F group ended the week with a fun and relaxing session of "Handwashing Yoga" with Jaime.  Here's a picture of them showing the various ways to "hug your knees" as a way to stretch the back!

It was a quick two days with the Th/F group, too, as we wrapped up another successful week at the Arc of Abilities!  Next week will be here before we know it.  Here's what we'll be up to:

Tuesday/Thursday:  We will Zoom with our at home friends, practice measurement skills to mark Tape Measure Day, and learn about horses and ponies for I Love Horses Day.  Psst:  You don't want to miss Thursday's Zoom session...we have a super surprise guest joining us!!!  We're also going to celebrate Jell-O Day and National French Fries Day, since A LOT of our guys love fries and we rarely serve them.  So, for lunch, bring a sandwich and some veggies (😃), and we'll provide sides of fries and Mandarin Orange Jell-O!

Wednesday/Friday:  We'll enjoy a yoga session today so dress to stretch.  It's Kansas Day (state number 34), and it's known as American's Breadbasket for all the wheat they grow, so we're going to have flapjacks with eggs, sausage, and fruit for lunch.  We'll also squeeze in a game for World Emoji Day and make cards to celebrate old friends Mr. Howard and Moose Patti, and new friend, JRES Principal Mrs. Washington.  They all have birthdays in July!

Happy Weekend to All,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang