Aloha!

"Aloha!" from the AoA, where this week saw us wrap up our study of the 50 United States.  We began back in July, 2019, with Delaware, and 1 year and 7 months later, we have learned about every one!  It's been interesting, tasty, and lots of fun.  We saw a LOT of beautiful sights in our 50 states, but we all agreed that Hawaii was the prettiest and the one we most want to visit!  Check out our week...

Tuesday 

Presidents' Day, known as George Washington's Birthday in Virginia, was on Monday.  That made for a great Zoom topic today, but first we welcomed our friends at home! 

We played a dance/warm up song about the 46 presidents and the years in which they were inaugurated.  It's a rap tune with a catchy beat, and even has Washington, Adams, and Jefferson singing along!  Click on their pic below and give it a listen.  It even includes our newest commander-in-chief, President Biden! 🎶

Proving how smart we are, we all worked together to use the letters in the word WASHINGTON to make smaller words!  Check out our list!

After Zoom, our gang at AFCC completed a fitness activity called "Cupid on the Run" (because it's still close to Valentine's Day!).  After jumping, dodging, ducking, and reaching our way through the online obstacle course, we got this message!  But it could also apply to our word list above!  🠉 Yay, us!

Thank you to Alexis and Liz who brought items to supplement our Hawaii Day studies!  Alexis brought Stitch, and a mini-surfboard with her name on it that a friend recently brought her as a souvenir from Hawaii.  She also shared pictures her friend sent from his travels.  Liz brought pictures of her parents and a trip they took to Hawaii, as well as a ukelele, maracas, a lei, and a necklace made of kukui nuts, which we learned is the state tree of Hawaii.  Later, we listened to ukelele music, too!  Thanks, girls, for sharing with us!  We enjoyed your input!

Lilly has visited Hawaii, and she also shared pictures with us.  This one is of the USS Arizona Memorial, at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu.  It marks the resting place of over 1,000 sailors and Marines killed on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  We enjoyed your photos, too, Lilly!  Thanks for sharing!

Here is Liz sharing the photos from her parents' trip.  In this one, her mom was gazing at the beautiful water.  Ahhh...

While we were learning about Hawaii, Lexi's Gdad delivered bbq and Hawaiian sauce for our lunch!  He said he put it on at 10:00 last night and cooked it until 3:30 this morning!  Thank you for doing that for us, Gdad, and for bringing it to us, warm and fresh!

We could hardly wait to sink our teeth into bbq sandwiches for lunch!  When it was finally time, we grabbed a shot of Alexis's plate.  Lunch included baked beans, chips, and fresh pineapple, our and Gdad's version of a Hawaiian luau!  Thanks again, Gdad.  Lunch was superb!!

What would the birdies do without Carol, and in this case, Liz, to keep their feeders full?!  We know they really appreciate this good deed of ours!!

Lilly gave us a great social skills lesson where we learned the importance of knowing when to "tell" or "report" information to our leaders, versus when we might be better off practicing "M.Y.O.B." That, of course, is "Mind Your Own Business!"  We don't have much of a problem with our guys being tattletales (😉), but it's good to review strategies that help us know how to be better problem solvers.  Thanks, Lilly, for this helpful information!

After Lilly's lesson, we finished our Hawaii lesson.  Here, Liz was showing Patrick and Sam the ukelele her parents got on their trip to Hawaii.  

We played several samples of music that feature the ukelele, including this popular version of "Over the Rainbow."  It was a pleasant way to end the day.

Wednesday

Today began in its usual way, but ended with us finding out that the school would be closed tomorrow due to the forecast of inclement weather! ❅❅❅  We were surprised because it was sunny outside and our app said it was going to rain overnight!  We would have to see what Thursday would bring.

But back to Wednesday!  While everyone was dancing to warm up for the day, Sam and Patrick were busy baking cupcakes for Heike's birthday!  Today, they learned that we beat the batter for a good couple of minutes to get air into it, which will make the cake fluffier! 👍 🧁

After using the computer lab to make birthday cards for Heike, we got busy working on the assembly of 108 PowerSlide Doors for Eaton!  This was the first time we have worked on them since Nancy returned, so Carol had to give her a quick lesson on inserting nuts and bolts.  Nancy caught on very quickly! 👏👏

Hard at work with all hands on deck!

This is just a nice picture of our team!

And here is a nice picture of our birthday lunch with Heike!  We included her work besties, Sevarina and Dianne (who just joined the team in January), and had a great time celebrating our favorite custodian!

Heike provided the noodle salad, which is something she loved growing up, when her father used to make it.  It has veggies, boiled eggs, corn, and sausage in it, and a dressing that is mayo-based and tastes out of this world!  We added the side salad and together, it was a winning combination!  Thank you, Heike, for providing your own birthday lunch.  We have enjoyed this special noodle dish from you several times now, and we always love it!

Speaking of loving something, Heike loved the cards we made for her using our computer skills!  She read every one of them before we could eat the cupcakes!  

Happy Birthday, Heike!  We hope this will be your best year yet.  We look forward to another year of friendship with you! 💗💗💗

Liz reminded us we had not checked on the eagle cam this week, so we tuned in to see Gabby feeding her new baby!  Liz was pointing out that the new eaglet has his wing over the egg of his sibling, which hasn't hatched yet.

Next, we cranked up the computer lab again to make thank you notes for Lexi's Gdad, who made bbq for our Hawaii Day lunch.  We worked in pairs, and made thoughtful cards that we know Gdad will like!

We did yoga earlier in the day so we could join Bette Faye's 2:00 Arc Zoom.  Her guest was Master Police Officer Ben Woodhouse, who is a good friend to the Arc and our clients, and someone we wanted to see.  He shared lots of cool "inside" info about how things work on the force, and had pictures that made it even better.  We enjoyed spending the last part of our day with him.  Thanks, Bette Faye, for scheduling great Zoom presenters.  We may not always join your Wednesday group, but when we do, we are not disappointed!!

Thursday

Due to it being an "inclement" weather day, and WJCC closing the schools, we all had our Zoom session from home.  We learned how video games are made, did a couple of fitness breaks that felt like we were "in" a video game, and got to meet Nelly, Liz's new puppy!  

Nelly was named after George and Martha Washington's youngest granddaughter.  Liz's family liked the idea of naming her after someone from Virginia history!  Nelly is a cute and cuddly black lab, and we are so excited for you Liz!  We love keeping up with our friends' pet adventures! 

Friday

It was back to the center today.  Look at these girls hard at work on Friday morning!  We had two days worth of business to take care of in one day, and they got right to it.  Here, Michelle and Alexis wait patiently for their turn at the printer.  They had made birthday cards for Heike and thank you cards for Gdad.

The guys were equally hard at work on their cards.  We used a computer program to make them today.  Xavier had printed one for Heike, and was waiting for some assistance to choose one for Gdad.  Devin was pointing out a thank you card he thought Gdad might like.

We love it when our guys dress for our themes!  Today we were wrapping up our 50 states study with beautiful Hawaii.  Devin wore a shirt his aunt and uncle brought from Honolulu, Hawaii, and Lexi wore a Lilo and Stitch shirt she snagged at Disney World last year (pre-Covid).  They look great, don't they!? 

This group is lucky because kids in WJCC Schools work virtually from home on Fridays, so the gym is always available.  Today, they were hustling around the perimeter trying to get in a thousand steps before lunch!

We enjoyed our version of a Hawaiian luau for lunch...so much so that we forgot to take pictures.  Lexi's Gdad provided the BBQ sandwiches with the Hawaiian sauce, and they were delicious!  We didn't have quite the spread as shown in this image from the internet, but we had baked beans, chips, and fresh pineapple!  All were satisfied!  Thanks, again, Gdad, for our awesome lunch.  We love your BBQ!

Eaton work kept us busy today, too!  The Wednesday group worked only on PowerSlide Doors, but this group had a variety of tasks to complete.  Michelle removed parts from individual bags, making sure to save the identified piece and discard the unneeded smaller pieces.  Behind her, Devin worked to separate a large piece into three smaller pieces.  He had to snap the smaller pieces off. 

Kate also worked to remove pieces from plastic bags, being careful to save the important piece and discard the other pieces.  

We found a new niche for Xavier!  He assembled a piece that consisted of two screws, a small metal piece, and a plastic piece.   He did very well with this new job, which we think reminded him of working puzzles!

Lexi's niche has been applying the sticky gaskets for a long time now.  We're glad she has the steady hands needed for this job!

We finished our Hawaii lesson with map skills and then went to a website that translated our "real" names into Hawaiian names!  Bette Faye at the Arc office gave us this fun suggestion!  From left to right, top to bottom, we're now:  Mikala (Michelle), Aleki (Alexis), Kawieli (Xavier), Keke (Kate), Kewine (Devin), and Appelehama (Abraham)!  Abraham was absent today, but his friends wanted to include him!  We had to look up a lot more names, too...for our parents, siblings, friends, Best Buddies, pets...😂 This was fun, Bette Faye!  Thanks for the suggestion!

Lilly isn't with us on Friday, but Lisa used her lesson plan and helped us learn the hula!  We had fun with it, but we learned that the movements of the dance have cultural significance to the Hawaiian people.

We also checked out a kind of scary video of surfing in Hawaii.  They have very big waves there, and call this the Banzai Pipeline.  It's not for beginners!

Check out our avocado tree plants.  Several of them have grown a few inches in just a couple of weeks!  Remember, it will be around 2026 before we see them flower and possibly produce fruit, but they are off to a great start!  Next week we are moving them to the windowsill.  We are awaiting the arrival of a storage tray!

Friday afternoon always finds us cleaning our tables, then folding and putting them into the closet.  Teamwork at its finest!

Yoga!  Today we did a session with Jaime called "The Masked Singer."  Can you tell we were trying to do what Jaime called "giraffe pose" here?  Maybe "giraffe pose" can be interpreted in different ways?!  What really matters is that we're stretching and breathing!

Next thing we knew, it was time to call it a week.  We may have missed yesterday, but we made the most of our time today!  Here's hoping we have no inclement weather days next week!  (In fact, we're counting on it...the vans are booked for outings! 🚌)

Here's how we'll spend our time next week.  Things are mixed up a bit, so we aren't "duplicating" the days for each of the groups as much as we usually do.  That's why we're listing each day separately this week. 😊

Tuesday:  We'll visit with at-home friends on Zoom and our topic is RETRO DAY!  Feel free to have a couple of old photos or other "artifacts" from your past to share!  At the center, we will have lessons on sweet potatoes (and George Washington Carver) and begin a study of the world's continents, with North America!  We have Eaton work, too!  Lunch will be chili with corn muffins and fresh veggies, courtesy of Nancy's brother and sister-in-law, Randy and Sally!  Thank you, Randy and Sally.  It sounds yummy!

Wednesday:  Assuming the weather forecast holds, we're heading to Freedom Park to check the garden, take a walk, and enjoy a picnic lunch.  Friends at home are welcome to meet us at 11:15!  We'll also have yoga, so dress to stretch, and we'll join Bette Faye for The Arc's Wednesday Zoom session.  Bette Faye's guest will be a gentleman named Chris, and his dog, Cole, who is deaf.  We're particularly interested in this because we've been reading a novel about a dog who is deaf!  Please bring a bag lunch to take to the park.

Thursday: It's another Zoom day, and our topic this time is Polar Bear Day!  Have your handouts ready!  After Zoom, we will travel to Freedom Park to check the garden, walk, and eat, so please bring a bag lunch.  Friends at home are welcome to meet us at 11:15!  After our time at the park, we will have a lesson on bananas!  (We're making a surprise treat for our favorite executive director's birthday... 🥳)

Friday:  Today we will begin our continent study and learn about North America!  We'll work on Eaton tasks and have a yoga session, so dress to stretch.  We're going to make up Chinese New Year, too, since this group missed it a couple of weeks ago when the school closed due to weather conditions.  If you didn't bring it yet, bring $5 for lunch, which we will order from Hong Kong restaurant.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend, one we hear will be sunny! 🌞🌞🌞

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang