Birthdays for Two, and Another "New" Friend!

Actually, it was another TWO birthdays! 👏👏 This week at the AoA we celebrated the birthdays, on the same day (November 11), of Liz and Patrick!  We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that sometimes birthdays around here come in clusters...but we're not complaining.  More birthdays mean more celebrating, and that's what we like to do!  In fact, we not only celebrated two birthdays this week, but we also celebrated another new member to our group!  Here's the lowdown on the week of November 10 at the Arc of Abilities:

This is Nancy, and she is "new" to some of us, but a familiar friend to others.  Nancy was in the charter AoA group that began in 2016, so several of our guys remember her.  She left us for a while, and we are thrilled to welcome her back again.  Here, she's a bit emotional as she reunites with Nan.  Happy tears, of course!

We were surprised but happy to hear from James.  He needed some parts we had assembled, so he stopped by first thing Tuesday morning.  Our great AoA team helped unload more work he brought us, and then load the work we had ready for him.  Thanks, Eaton, and James!  We are always happy to do work for you!

Cameron easily handled this tub of parts!

Next, we Zoomed with our at home friends and celebrated our birthday honorees, Liz and Patrick!  We danced to some of their favorite tunes, played a boys vs. girls Jeopardy game - which the girls won this time - and sang and shared Happy Birthday thoughts with them!

This was Pat's reaction as Kate read the thoughtful message she had written in a card she made for him.

Kate had a heartfelt message for Liz, too.  What sweet friends our guys are to each other!

If we hadn't seen these colorful leaves, we would have thought it was spring time outside!  The sun was warm as the temperature reached the upper 70s, before lunch!  Before coming inside we snapped this pic of the guys tossing leaves in the air.  We are glad we don't have to rake all the leaves that will be falling around the JRES campus!

Back inside, we worked on making pumpkin pie slices...for decorations.  Nancy was a good sport about it, but she and everyone else wished the pie had been real!

  

Paper pumpkin pie makes for a cute garland over our whiteboard!  We'll have to be content to let it tease us until Thanksgiving!

It wasn't on the schedule, but since James brought it, we made time to work on Eaton parts!   

It's not all work though, Kevin enjoyed a new puzzle during Choice Time!

After we made the pumpkin pie decorations, we also made some Indian corn decorations.  We used bubble wrap dipped in paint to give it a textured look.  Lilly hung them for us, and also our November letters.  The corn looks good, and we will make even more with the Thursday group.

We ended the day with a lesson on the meaning of Veterans Day.  After that, we made cards of appreciation to share with veterans who are hospitalized. 

Wednesday

Today we reviewed (because we already knew) that seat belts save lives!  National Seat Belt Day is Saturday, and we are proud to say we all buckle up, every time!

It wasn't long after we refilled the birdfeeders that we noticed they were back and having a feast!

On our walk around the campus, we stopped at the large world map that is painted on the blacktop.  When we finish our study of the 50 states (sometime in January), we're going to start studying different countries!  Our first one will be the country and continent of Australia.  Liz has an uncle who lives there, and she has visited him.  She's already working on a presentation for us that she will share when we study Australia!  Wow!

During lunch prep, Sam and Kevin were in charge of cooking and seasoning our meat for the tacos.  🌮

Cameron and Nancy prepared our taco toppings:  cheese, lettuce, limes, salsa, and sour cream.

We were having tacos because we love them...and, in our study of state #44, Wyoming, we learned that one of the first taco stands in America was the Taco House which opened in Cheyenne in 1969.  It later became Taco John's, and is still popular to this day.  Their signature dish is "Potatoes Ole'," which are basically tater tots sprinkled with a special seasoning.  We found a copycat recipe for the seasoning, and Alexis and Liz mixed it up for us.

The ingredients are seasoning salt, paprika, cumin, and cayenne pepper.  Keep reading to see how it turned out on the tots!  We'll take a picture of Friday's dish!

We celebrated Liz in person and Patrick in spirit, as he was traveling on his birthday.  We hope both of our November 11 birthday buddies had a fantastic day!  We loved celebrating them!  

We also saved 1/2 of the cake for our Thursday / Friday friends, as they enjoy celebrating, too!  They will make cards for Liz and Patrick, and send wishes even though they couldn't see them in person. 

After lunch we finished our study of Wyoming, and learned that it is the 10th largest state by area, but the smallest by population.  There are less than 600,000 people who live in the whole state!  Of course, over 4 million people visit Yellowstone National Park every year, so you could run into a traffic jam or two if you're out that way!

Finally, it was time for yoga.  We enjoyed introducing Nancy to our fun time with Jaime.  Nancy liked it, but said yoga with Jaime is "different."  She's right about that!  Yoga with Jaime is quite "active," as well as relaxing!

Thursday

Rainy mornings mean dancing with the disco ball...to very fun songs picked by Lilly, our DJ for the day!

Our Zoom today was about the "Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin, and learning about the differences between crocodiles and alligators.  We (Lisa) had a few technological glitches, which distracted her from taking photos...and this is the only picture we have!  We enjoyed being together, nonetheless!

Due to the rain, we went to the gym for some movement and played an old-fashioned game of "Red Light/Green Light" with Lilly calling the moves.  In this round, Devin was the winner, but Kate was making a run for it!

We had to leave the gym after a few minutes due to workmen showing up, so we returned to our room and turned on a dance workout.  Check this out!  We've got moves!

Here, Kate is using bubble wrap to paint a corn picture.  The bubble wrap technique gives the picture texture; she also added brown and orange paint so it would look like Indian Corn.

In this shot, Devin is concentrating on folding the brown strip like an accordion.  He was making pie crust!  Both he and Kate (and the others) were making Thanksgiving decorations for our walls, since we took down the ghosts, goblins, and bats.

Looks great, doesn't it?!

During Choice Time, after lunch, we had Michelle and Abraham using computers, Xavier working a puzzle, and Devin reading a new chapter book!

Alexis was on a FaceTime call with her young cousin who lives in Florida (phones are allowed during Choice Time), Kate was sharing pics on her phone with Lilly, and Xavier is in this shot, too.  Our guys enjoy Choice Time!

After Choice Time we set up our version of a Hallmark card shop, and everyone chose cards to complete for Liz and Patrick's birthdays.  As usual, they wrote sweet messages for their buddies who had birthdays while attending on Tuesday and Wednesday.  This reminds us of how happy we are to get to stay in touch on Zoom, and get to "see" everyone each week.

Speaking of making thoughtful cards, we ended the day talking about Veterans Day, and made cards to send to veterans who are hospitalized.  Abraham made sure his card front was patriotic!

Friday

Hello, Mr. Cardinal!  We hope you are enjoying your perch outside our window as much as we enjoying seeing you there!

After dancing, we had our lesson for National Seat Belt Day, which is Saturday.  We'd like to remind all of our readers friends to always buckle up! 💚

We had the gym to ourselves today so we played kickball - Covid style.  Meaning, we spread out and kicked a big ball around!  Michelle has quite a kick!

Looks like Xavier's shot was about to drop through the net!  Score!

Can you spot Abraham's ball? It arcs high before landing in the bucket!

Taco John's, which popularized tacos in Wyoming, has a signature dish called Potatoes Ole'.  We decided to have them with our tacos for lunch!

Chefs Michelle and Abraham measured and mixed the four ingredients to make the Potato Ole' copycat recipe.  It smelled spicy!

Like the professional she is, Kate added taco seasoning to the ground beef that Xavier had helped brown! 

After prepping the toppings for our tacos, Devin and Alexis passed out plates and napkins to everyone's separate tables.  Dining during Covid has been much different than what we were used to.

Our potatoes ole' turned out well, but we don't think they were quite as spicy as Taco John's.  (Could be because Michelle and Abraham cut the amount of cayenne pepper in 1/2 for the recipe!)

We learned many interesting facts about Wyoming this week, but perhaps the coolest was that it is nicknamed "The Equality State" because it was the first state (actually it was still a territory) to grant women the right to vote...way before the rest of the United States came on board!  Wyoming is also the home of (most of) the very first national park, Yellowstone. 

This week's yoga session with Jaime was called "Colonel Crockles the Crocodile."  It reminded us of learning about crocs on yesterday's Zoom!  It was an active session, with lots of getting up and down! 

After yoga, we enjoyed a "Peace Out" session, which is where Jaime talks to us very softly and guides us through a peaceful meditation.

If you would like to check out one of Jaime's Peace Out sessions, click on her photograph!  We like this recent addition to our yoga routine, and of course, it's a great way to end the week.

As we end this week, we are aware of the Covid situation and the fact that case numbers are rising.  We urge all of our AoA families to remain vigilant in following safety guidelines.  We are being vigilant at the center, and hope to remain open in the coming weeks.

Here are our plans for next week:

Tuesday / Thursday:  Are you afraid of bugs?!  Check out our Tuesday Zoom for a lesson about bugs with Mystery Doug!  Then, on Thursday's Zoom, join us as we celebrate the "birthdays" of Mickey and Minnie Mouse!  November 17th is National Take a Hike Day and the weather forecast looks good, so after Zoom we will head to Freedom Park.  We'll check the garden (and maybe get to say "Hi" to a couple of MG friends), have lunch, and take a hike on one of our favorite trails!  Everyone is welcome to join us; we will arrive at 11:30!  Bring a bagged lunch and dress for cooler, but sunny, weather!

Wednesday / Friday:  Can you believe we are studying state #45, Utah, this week?!  We'll also make a fun Thanksgiving craft, and have Yoga with Jaime!  Lunch will be pizza, courtesy of Cameron's family, and "Frog Eye" salad, a favorite at Utah potlucks!  (It's fruity!)  Don't forget to dress to stretch!

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang