Happy Valentine's Day, 2021

 

We were happy this week to celebrate Valentine's Day with our friends, and to squeeze in some fun with Chinese New Year, too!  The week began with rain, and then it got quite chilly, and even included an unexpected snow/ice day off, but we were warmed by friendship and good times nonetheless.  Check out our week!

Tuesday

Tuesday was National Toothache Day, one that we DON'T want to celebrate!  Instead, we had a fun Zoom session and learned about the parts of a tooth...and how to do a dance called "The Floss!"  We hooked up with GoNoodle and Cebo, a choreographer, who taught us and the guys from Blazer Fresh how to "Floss."  It's just a couple of moves, but when the music sped up, it was hard to keep the rhythm!  We all need a little more practice!

We watched this fun tooth song video, that explains what each part of the tooth is called and what its role is. Click on the image if you'd like to check it out.  It's very informative, and the music is pretty catchy! 

As a group, we worked on a crossword puzzle about the parts of a tooth!  Everyone got A++ grades, too!  Look at our Zoomies with their beautiful smiles!  

Great work by our in-person guys, too!

After Zoom, the gang at the AFCC was ready for some movement.  This week, we're trying some fun Valentine workouts.  In this one, "Dr. Love" gave us instructions on which moves to make, including jumping jacks, lunges, and this move, the Cupid Shuffle.  It was fun!

February 9 is National Pizza Day...oh, yes!  We never pass up a chance to celebrate pizza, and today we learned that it's one of America's favorite foods.  No kidding!  We also learned that Americans eat 4 billion (including frozen), with a "B," pizzas each year!  We added a few to that total, with Sam, Alexis, and Lilly "jazzing" up frozen pizzas for us.  We added a side salad, and our lunch turned out well!  Happy National Pizza Day!

After we made Bingo cards for Thursday's Zoom activity, we had a few extra minutes before the pizzas were done.  It was Liz to the rescue, with a link for a fun Valentine's Day trivia game.  Something fun we learned was that the founder of Domino's pizza met his wife while delivering pizza to a college dorm, and on their second date, he gave his valentine a heart-shaped pizza.  What a fun thing to learn on National Pizza Day!

Coming up on February 11 is National Inventors Day.  After discussing some of the most revolutionary inventions in history (wheel, electric light, computers), we got into groups and worked on "inventing" a successful balloon-powered car.  

We had some ideas about how to make it, but each group tried tweaking things a bit, hoping that their car would go fastest or farthest.

We had some options depending on where we placed the tape, which way we inserted the wheels, or how long we made the axles.  The competition would be stiff!

After finishing, we made our way to the racetrack in the gym!  Representing Team Blue were Sam, Patrick, and Lisa.  Team Red consisted of Alexis, Liz, and Lilly.  Team Gold was made up of  Nancy, Kevin and Carol.  It was time to race!

Lisa, Lilly, and Carol were in charge of "powering" the cars by blowing up the balloons and releasing them when the whistle blew!  Lilly got Team Gold off to an early start in the first race!

By the last race, Team Blue had "blown" their engine (also known as their balloon popped), but not before they won one race!  In this final round, Team Red and Team Gold were neck and neck until Team Gold got a loose wheel and turned off to the right, leaving Team Red to whizz to the finish line!  What a fun way to spend an afternoon!

Wednesday

Excitement filled the air today for our plans to celebrate Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day!  Up first, a Dance Warm Up to our tried and true Valentine Playlist, which we've been adding to for almost 5 years!  💘

Since Jorie, from Eaton, was stopping by today with news about work, we decided to make some Valentine sugar cookies for her and James!  Liz and Nancy helped get the homemade dough onto the cookie sheets and into the oven.  And yes, they made a few "extras" for their friends to try!

"But first..." (Laura's favorite catch-phrase!)  Way before Jorie stopped by we got a visit from Laura, who has been staying safer at home during Covid.  She brought valentines for her friends.  That was super sweet of you, Laura!  We miss you very much, and all the smiles you bring with your catch-phrases!  Also, we LOVE your shirt!

We know it's still a ways off, but once we're all vaccinated, Laura (and Drew and Annmarie) will be able to come back to the AoA at AFCC.  We can't wait for the day!

Our movement activity today was called "Love is Among Us" and it had a Disney theme!  It was an intense 10+ minutes, too.  We loved it!

It's always fun during Chinese New Year to check our Chinese Zodiac sign and see what the year will bring.  Four of us at the center today were born during a year of the monkey (Carol, Nan, Kevin, Cameron).  We checked everyone's horoscopes for 2021, but found theirs to be quite interesting, since we didn't think ANY year could be more unexpected or unfamiliar than 2020! 

We learned that Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in China.  It lasts for 15 days, and on most days, certain traditions are observed.  On a number of the days, families enjoy meals together, so that's what we did today.  We highly recommend Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant on Merrimac Trail if you're craving takeout.  They were prompt and got ALL of our orders correct...plus, it was tasty!  

This is some work we completed last week for Eaton.  Jorie was stopping by to pick it up, and bring us more for next week, so we got everything ready for her by setting it on the sidewalk.  

We were thrilled to see Jorie in person after almost a whole year!  She brought us lots of PowerSlide Doors to work on next week, and also showed Carol and Lisa some new things we may be able to work on in the future.  She reported that they are doing well at Eaton, but really miss our presence, and all the work we're able to do when we work onsite.  We hope we'll be back to that routine later this year!  Thank you for coming to visit, Jorie, and especially for keeping us in mind for new vocational opportunities.  We are grateful for our partnership with Eaton, and value our friendship with you and James, too!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Tuesday/Wednesday group:  Kevin, Liz, Sam, Alexis, Patrick, Cameron, and Nancy.  They had just exchanged valentines with each other, and were feeling the love!  💓💕💗💘💝 (We always take our group pics very quickly, and then get back to keeping a safe distance.  Nancy let her mask slip down to "smile" for the camera, by mistake. We're a work in progress. 💖 )

We wound things down with a Valentine's Day yoga session with Jaime!  Listening to her beautiful British accent always relaxes us, and is the best way to end a busy day!

Thursday

Turns out today was to be our last day of the week because the forecast called for overnight icy/snowy conditions and word came that JRES (and all schools) would be closed to the public on Friday.  Good thing we had big FUN and got LOTS of pictures!

Our day began with this group and their Valentine dance moves!  They will not be outdone by the Tu/Wed group!!

Anticipating the possibility of being closed on Friday, we decided to switch some things around on our calendar and make sure we celebrated Valentine's Day today.  One thing that remained the same, though, was seeing our Zoomies!!  They tuned in ready for a fun game of Valentine Bingo! 💟

As we always say, Bingo is taken very seriously by the AoA gang!

Our first, and early winner was Kevin, but we didn't get a picture.  😞  In fact, Kevin got several Bingos!  He definitely had the lucky card.  Eventually, everyone began winning (which is how we roll with Bingo at the AoA), and there were cheers all around!  Devin was excited when he got five in a row!

Alexis took a while to get a Bingo, but she was happy when it finally came!  And we love her shirt!

We also LOVE Annmarie's decorated Valentine Bag!  We put together some February supplies for our friends at home, and Annmarie used lots of them to make this beautiful bag!  Great job, Annmarie!

After Zoom, we spent time in the gym.  Pretty soon, school kids will be returning, and we won't have access to the gym like we do now.  It's been nice having the gym at our disposal, but we know the students need to be back for in-person learning.  Here's a fun "goofy" pose of our Th/Fri team:  Xavier, Devin, Michelle (seated), Alexis, Kate, and Abraham!

It was wonderful to see Annmarie in person when her mom brought her by to deliver valentines for her friends!  They were all tucked neatly into that pretty bag she made!  Kate then gave Annmarie the valentines her friends made for her.  💖

Time to celebrate National Pizza Day!  We had frozen pizzas that Devin and Kate made tastier by adding a bit more cheese and pepperoni.  We had veggies, but they passed on jazzing up the pizzas with them, and said we were good with side salads! 😜

Tah-dah!  These are some beautifully decorated cookies we made for dessert.  Our sweet friend Kate brought them for us!  What a special Valentine's Day treat!

Here's an up close shot of Kate's decorated cookie.  Wow, she likes sprinkles!  Aren't the colors pretty?!  Thank you Kate, and family, for providing this delightful treat for us today.  They were not only fun to make, but fun to eat, too!  The perfect ending to our pizza and salad lunch! 🍕🥗 🍪💘

Yum!  (Note:  Pictured is the jazzed up supreme pizza; we always include one of them for a couple of "older" folks who prefer veggies on pizza! 😋)

We can usually predict what our guys will choose to do during Choice Time, but today, Kate asked Lilly to read to her.  At the time, Lilly was sitting near Kate's table.  To our surprise, the others began stopping what they were doing (puzzles, computer, checking phones), and asked Lilly to "speak up" so they could hear.  Lilly moved to the front and everyone enjoyed her reading!

Next, we decided to work off some pizza and cookies.  This was one of the moves in the "True Love" workout video we watched.  Squats!

Everyone had been most patient and it was finally time to pass out valentines.  Who wouldn't enjoy such a fun tradition?! Devin and Michelle were very happy to share friendship love!

Everyone had prepared a decorated bag to receive their valentines.  Abraham dropped his first delivery off for Alexis!  She was smiling big behind her Valentine's Day mask!

Jaime's Valentine Yoga Club was moved to this afternoon, just in case we weren't in session on Friday.  She had us up and down, as usual, and stretching into all kinds of positions.  

Everyone agrees that moving with her makes us feel better!  Our guys know to modify the moves in a way that best suits them, and we're proud that no one ever gives up! 💪😍

We hope everyone had as much fun this week as we did!

Next week is going to be a lot of fun, too.  We are wrapping up our study of the 50 states with Hawaii AND celebrating Heike's birthday!  Here's what our agenda looks like:

Tuesday / Thursday:  Aloha!  We're on state number 50, Hawaii, so we will learn how those islands way out in the Pacific Ocean came to be part of our country.  For lunch, Lexi's Gdad is providing Hawaiian bbq sandwiches, with baked beans and chips!  Thanks, Gdad.  That sounds delicious!  We'll learn how to hula dance with Lilly, too!  Lilly is also working on a social skills lesson for us. 😊   We have PowerSlide Doors to assemble for Eaton.  But not to be overlooked, we will also ZOOM with our at home friends.  Tuesday's topic will be Presidents' Day and on Thursday we will learn how video games are made and meet a special new friend of Liz's!

Wednesday / Friday:  Happy Birthday to Heike!!  We are excited to celebrate our friend and the best custodian, ever!  And SHE has graciously offered to make lunch for us:  her famous German noodle casserole!  We'll add a side salad and cupcakes.  Thank you, Heike! Yummy!  We'll also continue our Eaton work.  At the end of the day, we'll relax with a yoga session, so dress to stretch!

Happy Valentine's Day,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang