We can't get over how quickly the month of October is passing us by! The calendar this week ended for us on the 23rd, which means there is only about 1 week left! We took advantage of nice, October weather and had a great week. Enjoy our story!
Tuesday
We knew it was going to be a great week when we logged into our Zoom meeting and saw these smiling faces staring back at us! It made our day to learn that Drew, and sister Alex, were tuning in from the Outer Banks, and Abraham was coming to us from somewhere on the road in his mom's car! We also welcomed Laura,
Devin, and Kate from their homes. What a fun group!
Our lesson today was about the sounds owls make, and it was brought to us by Mystery Doug. We thought it would be fun to follow up on Christina's owl lesson from last week! After learning that most owls don't even make the familiar, "Hoo-Hoo" sound we associate with them, we participated in an extension activity that had us listening to sound clues and guessing where we were. It was fun, and our "sound detectives" were not stumped by any of the clues!
After Zoom, we were planning to have lunch at Newport News Park and then take a walking tour of CNU's campus with Lilly. Unfortunately, Lilly wasn't feeling well and we had to postpone our CNU visit. She had hoped to be able to be with us, and she held out until the last minute, but in the end, needed to take care of herself! We understood, and sent happy thoughts to Lilly to feel better. No one complained, and we quickly came up with Plan B, which was to just enjoy time at the park. It turns out that Newport News has not reopened picnic areas at their parks, so we ended up at New Quarter Park (upper York County), a favorite spot of ours. Tracy, from Parks & Rec was able to join us, too! (On the right in this picture!)
After enjoying a peaceful picnic lunch, and some pleasant conversation, we walked over toward the creek. Tracy took this group shot for us. (Nan was at the restroom. 😮)
After putting our things back in the vans, we headed off to the paved trail at New Quarter Park and walked a 3k!!! Yep, that's about 1.8 miles and we went at least that far as we walked to the park entrance and back! Yay, us!
Fall is coming! We spotted some pretty colors!
Back at AFCC, we ended the day with Choice Time. Cameron worked on puzzles while Sam relaxed with a good book!
Kevin (and Alexis, off screen) also worked puzzles. Liz showed Carol pictures from her weekend celebrating her cousin's 40th birthday!
Wednesday
We loved the above average temperatures this week, and the chance to be outside. We've mentioned before, our guys really enjoy walking, and we remind them all the time of how good walking is for them! Here, Liz and Cameron pass each other as they walk in opposite directions.
Then, along comes Sam, who was zig-zagging all around the blacktop area at AFCC!
Nan and Kevin stopped to look at all the figs growing on this tree in the garden. Nan told Kevin that she remembered going with her grandma to local markets as a child and getting figs, which she loved!
Lexi and Pat worked on their shots, something they love to do!
We ran into Karen, who works in the JRES cafeteria. She told us that once the students begin coming back to the building next week, we would be able to resume ordering lunches from the cafeteria!
We studied the 41st state, Montana, also known as Big Sky Country and The Treasure State. Did you know that millions of years ago it was dinosaur country?! Some of the largest dinosaur fossils found in America have been found in Montana! You could check out this big guy at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.
It was kind of a stretch, but we ordered Chinese takeout for our Montana-themed lunch. We learned that Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong came to Montana in the 1800s to work in the mines. Of course, they brought their favorite recipes with them, and Chinese food is relatively popular in Montana, along with bison burgers and huckleberry pie!
In fact, the oldest continually run Chinese restaurant in America is the Pekin Noodle Parlor located in Butte, Montana, and has been since 1911!
Cameron chose to bring his lunch from home, because the only Chinese food he cares for is fortune cookies! We made sure to get him a couple of samples, which he was happy to receive!
To celebrate National Color Day, we made these pretty fall symbols using a technique called color resist, using crayons and watercolors. We're going to use them in making a birthday card for our Eaton friend, James!
During yoga, we worked on several moves to improve balance. Here, Alexis stayed on her tip-toes for several seconds, without teetering! Wow!
Sam and Cameron felt the stretch as they warmed up with windmill pose.
Also warming up, Liz and Patrick stretched their arms high.
Kevin sighed with contentment as he reached around his shoulders for a self-hug. It felt good to end the day this way!
Thursday
We'd like to send a big thank you to Devin and his family for sending us a beautiful pumpkin! They recently visited the pumpkin patch in Surry. This was just what we needed to complete the look of our Fall Fun wall!
This is the AFCC group dancing to "Dorothy the Dinosaur" by the Wiggles, because we needed a song about reptiles since our Zoom lesson was National Reptile Awareness Day! We have fun with this song during our dance warm up sometimes, and everyone knows all the moves!
Lilly was still not feeling well, and we will make plans to reschedule our CNU visit. So, like on Tuesday, we went to New Quarter Park for a refreshing afternoon. Look at this beautiful day we had for our picnic!
After lunch, we walked to see the creek. We spotted a large web in the shape of a wheel, with a very big orange/yellowish spider working in it. A search later led us to think it may have been a marbled orb weaver, which is also known as a pumpkin spider because of its color! 🎃 That seems fitting! It's actually a fairly common garden spider. It's hard to spot in this photo, but it was scurrying up the web and into the safety of the leaf above, where it stayed as long as we were there, hoping it would come back out!
There were no spiders (or small children) on the playground so we climbed a bit and took this group picture. It was such a pretty fall day, if a bit warm...
Next, we headed for our 3k walk! Alexis spotted this sign warning us to be aware of our surroundings and on the lookout for snakes! Well, it was Reptile Awareness Day! Fortunately, we didn't see any today. NOTE: We were only on a wooded path for a short bit of our walk. This section leads to the asphalt path, where we figured there would be less of a chance of coming across any snakes.
While we didn't spot any snakes, we did spot pineapple sage growing in the wildflower garden along the asphalt path! HEY, Master Gardeners!! Check this out!
Even though we were on a "walk," we had a couple of sprinters in our group! Devin and Abraham did a walk/run today! (Please excuse the shaky start to the video!)
Friday
Just a typical Friday at the AoA when we went out for fresh air! Devin caught up with Kate and Alexis for some rabbit ears fun! Did they even know?!
Carol decided to drop some completed work off at Eaton on her run to pick up our takeout order. Kate and Devin helped to load up her van.
This group was surprised to learn that the longest continuously operating Chinese restaurant in America is the Pekin Noodle Parlor in Butte, Montana! When Carol returned with our lunch orders, we pretended we were eating there!
Abraham was proud of his mapskills work this week! We learned that Montana has a lot of beautiful rivers, and one of its nicknames is Big Sky Country because, well, there aren't any skyscrapers blocking the view out there!
We are using the color resist art to make a birthday card for James, at Eaton, whose special day is on Halloween. We aren't finished with the card, but here's a sneak peak at the inside!
In Other AoA News!
Back in the summer, a few AoA friends got together and painted rocks for Coach Teri, who planned to use them for a fun neighborhood activity. Sam recently had fun hiding all of them!
They were having the grand opening of a little library in their community, and incorporated a rock hunt into the event. Sounds like a lot of fun!
Drew's family was in the Outer Banks this week and they spotted our Eaton work on one of the docks in Manteo! The pedestal with (maybe???) one of our gasketed outlet covers on it looks awesome!
We had a wonderful week! Next week is going to be B-U-S-Y! Check out our plans:
Tuesday / Thursday: This week on Tuesday's Zoom we will celebrate birthdays for Kevin (27th) and Alexis (28th)! For our friends who are remaining safer at home, feel free to make cards that you can share for your friends, Kevin and Alexis! On Thursday's Zoom, we're going to have a Halloween Party! It won't be as awesome as our previous ones, but for a Zoom party, we think it will rock! Everyone will need the "party kit" that will be given out or delivered to you on Tuesday, along with crayons and/or markers. (The Thursday/Friday group will get their party kit at AFCC on Thursday.) In other Tuesday / Thursday activities, we will learn about black cats and play Halloween Bingo. Chicken tenders and fries for lunch, with a side of fruit!
Wednesday / Friday: We'll learn about Washington State (#42), and have Fuji Apple/Chicken Salads for lunch. We'll continue Halloween fun with movie day and costume wearing (OPTIONAL, but some of the guys really wanted to do it this year.) There will also be Halloween Yoga - so dress to stretch (bring clothes to change into if you wear a costume).
Wishing everyone a stellar weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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