This week we were excited for many reasons! We got to celebrate Becky's birthday on Zoom and Sam's with a bbq luncheon at the center. There was a lot of Eaton work to do, including some exciting new tasks we had to learn. And...I mean, "But first" (to quote her), we welcomed Laura back on Tuesday morning! We are thrilled that she is back, and now we eagerly away Drew's soon return (he's visiting his sister in Florida for the first time since Covid). Once he is back, all 15 current associates will be attending in person, though still on the split days. We're ok with that...it means we are getting closer to being back to full steam! Here's a look at our amazing week...
Tuesday
After welcoming Laura back and singing/dancing to our morning warm up, we checked last week's blog and then it was time to see our Zoomies! Becky, the AFCC Gang, Michelle, Devin, and Abraham were on hand today as we celebrated Becky's birthday!
It's been a long year and one month since we've been with Becky in person, and this is her second virtual birthday party with us. 🥳🎈 Here, the AFCC group waved birthday flags and cheered for her when she popped up on the Zoom screen!
Last week, everyone made Becky a special birthday card that featured something on the front that we know she likes. It was Liz's idea, and she made a card featuring Becky's favorite president, Thomas Jefferson, on the front. Other cards featured Becky's love of Ohio State and Cleveland Browns football, the beach at the Outer Banks, The Arc of GW, swinging on her front porch, and her love of teaching. She loved each and every one of them and said they would all remind of her how special we are to her. Awwww, Becky! We 💗 you! Happy Birthday!!!
After Zoom, we prepared for our trip to Freedom Park and the Botanical Garden. April 14th is National Gardening Day, so we planned to celebrate by checking the beds that our master gardener friends have been taking care of.
It was close to noon when we arrived, so we ate lunch first. The sun decided to stay mostly behind the clouds at this point, but it wasn't too chilly, and we enjoyed having lunch together in the fresh air.
The garden looked beautiful! In the few short weeks (a month) since we last visited, so much has popped out and there is green...and pink, yellow, red, white, and purple everywhere! In the trellis bed, Nan, Liz, Nancy, and Patrick found cabbage, spinach, carrots, radishes, parsley, sage, and lovely violas growing. We picked some violas and tomorrow we're going to try sugaring them to put on Sam's birthday pie! They are edible, you know?!
Kevin and Alexis took a short break at the butterfly bed. It was starting to feel a little warmer and the sun was out more by now!
Sam showed Laura the fairy garden. She was asking if Lisa knew there was a little fairy flying around the bird cage in front of her. Look how nicely the succulents are filling in now!
Back at the center we had time for a lesson on the magnificent number 12! Why the number 12?? Because April 12 in National For Twelves Day! It is sort of to honor football's "12th player," the fan, but we used it to brainstorm a nice list of things that are represented by 12, or a dozen, and to find how many ways we could divide twelve cubes into equal groups. Sam found one way: 4 groups of 3!
Then, Liz said, "Please don't play that song about the twelve days of Christmas!" So, of course, we did! Liz, Alexis, and Sam jokingly plugged their ears, but Carol, Laura, and Nancy sang along! What a silly ending to the day!
Wednesday
This morning we sugared the violas. Nancy had never done this, and she thought it was an unusual thing to do! She did a good job brushing egg white on the petals before we sprinkled them with sugar.
Patrick also gave it a try. After brushing them with egg white, he sprinkled sugar on top. We then set them aside to dry until lunch time, when we planned to decorate Sam's birthday pie with them!
These two were happy to be reunited! Heike and Laura love to joke around with one another, each blaming the other for being "late!"
We had a lot of Eaton work to do today. Elizabeth helped Kevin unpack little plastic pieces; she cut the packages open so he could more easily remove the parts.
In the back of this shot, Sam was unpacking breaker box parts. In the middle, Patrick was doing inventory. In the front, Alexis and Nan were unwrapping parts that would be used on the breaker boxes.
Happy Birthday to Sam! He was excited because his family sponsored our luncheon today (and Friday) of bbq sandwiches with chips, baked beans, and delicious chocolate pie! Thank you to his family for a yummy lunch!! We were just as excited as Sam was, because we worked up an appetite with all of that Eaton work! Thanks from Sam's family, and us, to Lexi's Gdad for cooking the bbq for us! It was a great batch today! 😋
The birthday boy got the first piece of chocolate pie, and then he and his friends were good sports about getting a birthday photo taken before pie could be eaten! Sam's friends, from both groups, made the thoughtful cards on the board. It was a great party, and even though he won't be here, we'll do it again for the Friday group in Sam's honor!
Our violas didn't dry completely, but they still added a pretty touch to the pie!
April 14th is National Dolphin Day, so Liz had us covered! She showed pics and a souvenir t-shirt from a trip she took to Clearwater, Florida a few years ago. She got to visit the aquarium where Winter, the dolphin with the prosthetic tail, lives. Liz also shared video clips about Winter, and we got to see how amazing it is that humans helped her gain independence by figuring out a way to make her prosthetic tail! It's a cool story!
April 15th is National High Fives Day. We made "High-5" pop ups so we could give each other high fives all day without touching hands. After Liz's presentation on Dolphin Day, we gave her a big pop up High-Five! Actually, we gave her 5 of them!
We ended the day with Bette Faye's Zoom session. Today's guests were the coaches and players from W&M's Women's Basketball team, who gave us an update on what it's been like for them having a season during a pandemic. We got to meet new players, too! We can't wait to be able to join them next season (we hope!) for in-person skills events, and to be able to cheer for them at a game. Those are some of our favorite Arc events that were really missed this year.
Thursday
Why does Devin look so serious not too long after starting the day on Thursday?! It was because after our dance warm up, we had a lesson about National For Twelves Day (which really has to do with football fans), and the math follow-up activity required some deep thinking! Devin figured it out, by the way!
We have a new water fountain in the hallway at AFCC, and it's a fancy one that allows us to fill water bottles without touching a thing! YAY! No more filling a pitcher with ice water each day so we can keep our personal bottles full. Xavier demonstrates how easy the new fountain is to use!
With the weather looking doubtful for a picnic and walk at Freedom Park, we made Plan B and headed over to Eaton. Jorie's birthday is on Saturday, so we gave her a potted plant and a beautiful card we made. She loved it! We asked about her plans to celebrate, and she said her husband and daughter are taking her to Charlottesville for an extra-long weekend of hiking, biking, and relaxing. We hope you have a wonderful birthday weekend, Jorie!
Next, we headed over to James' warehouse where he had lots of boxes of PowerSlide doors for us to load and take back to AFCC. Ever the happy helper, Devin began loading them onto our vans right away!
By now there was a bit of drizzle coming down, so we knew a park visit would have to wait for another day. Lilly cheered us up by taking selfies with the camera! This one is great, but where is our friend, Annmarie?!
Here she is! She forgot to work her way to the front for the other selfie...and since she's a little vertically challenged, we couldn't see her!
"High Fives" for James from us! April 15th is National High Fives Day, and he certainly deserves them for all he does for the AoA's vocational program!
We decided to go back to AFCC for lunch and Choice Time, since it was raining. Today's group is so chill, they didn't mind. They were just passing the time anyway until we had yoga with KILEY! 💙
There she is! That's Kiley on the top left. She was one of our yoga instructors when we used to visit Studio South. She relocated to Minnesota early in 2020 to be closer to family and attend graduate school. We miss her!
Kiley has kept in touch with us and still remembers everyone's names! Abraham couldn't stay still on the floor when he saw her, and ran up to the computer to say, "hi." She called him "dapper" in his gray sweater!
Kevin was Zooming from home and his mom, Debbie, sent this picture with the comment, "Someone's happy to see Kiley!" That's right, Kevin and Abraham...we were ALL happy to see her!
After chatting for a few minutes to catch up, we were led through a quiet and relaxing, yet energizing, session with Kiley. She played soft music and talked us through the gentle moves just like she used to do when we visited her at the studio. Here's a screen shot of us stretching. That's Nancy whose face was out of camera range. She met Kiley for the first time today, and loved this session. Yoga is one of Nancy's favorite Arc activities.
Kiley sent us this screenshot she took at the end. Look at all of our peaceful and beautiful smiles! Thank you, Kiley, for your time, energy, and love today. We were thrilled to see you and get the chance to practice yoga together again. Your style is just perfect for us, and your kindness and sincerity shine through. We loved it and look forward to another visit with you!
Friday
Today was an active one! We enjoyed DJ Alexis playing our favorite tunes during our dance warm up, and then we got busy working on PowerSlide Door assembly for Eaton. Devin unpacked and Kate inserted lens plates. These are the first two steps!
Alexis and Nan added 4 labels to the inside of each door - step 3. Step 4 is the insertion of screws and nuts to hold the lens in place. Xavier and Michelle manned that table today. One of Abraham's many tasks today was transferring the doors from one table to the next.
This was Michelle's first time working on PowerSlide Doors. Xavier showed her the ropes, and she took off! We heard she gets her great work ethic from her late Grampy, who many of us knew and can vouch for what a hard-working man he was! 💙
Annmarie had to handle sorting all by herself today, and she did it with a smile! She's a good worker, too! (ALL of our guys are!)
Abraham absolutely loves shooting hoops, and doesn't mind if no one else wants to join him...
...because he knows his friends will be there if he needs their help! The net on this hoop is loose, and sometimes the ball gets stuck in it. Thanks, Devin, for the release!
When we went back inside, we finished the PowerSlide Doors and learned we had done 8 boxes, which is 96 doors! We're so efficient!
For lunch, we had Gdad's bbq, which he made for Sam's birthday on Wednesday. Lisa reheated it in the Nina ("low and slow") and it made some tasty sandwiches. We forgot to get a picture of our delicious lunch, but we got this video when we had birthday pie! Thanks again to Sam's family for treating us this week, and to Gdad for cooking the bbq. We're glad Sam had a birthday!
After that scrumptious meal, we took advantage of the empty gym since students are not at school on Fridays. We're not sure why the wall was up, but 1/2 of the gym is enough for us to take turns shooting hoops and kicking the soccer ball around. Yes, we multitask, even in the gym! (Abraham was picked up early but would have loved gym time!)
Our active day ended with a new episode of yoga with Jaime. Her message to us this week was about positive thinking! We're pretty good at that, but it was good to hear a reinforcing message.
Looks like another great week has come to an end. Next week we'll celebrate Kate's birthday, but what else is on the agenda? Here's a sneak peek!
Tuesday / Thursday: Happy Birthday to Kate on the 22nd, so we will celebrate with her favorite meal, pasta and salad, with garlic toast for lunch! National Garlic Day is the 19th, so perfect timing! We'll also continue working on Eaton. We will Zoom, too. Tuesday's topic will be an old favorite, Disney Trivia games, and on Thursday we'll celebrate Kate's birthday and play a round of Earth Day Bingo, too!
Wednesday / Friday: Once again, we hope the weather will cooperate so we can enjoy the outdoors while it's not too hot. We plan to visit one of our favorites, New Quarter Park, for games, birdwatching, walking, and a picnic. Please bring a bag lunch. We'll return to AFCC in time for afternoon yoga, so don't forget to dress to stretch, too!
Happy Weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
Reminder!!!!
The British Car Show is coming up on Saturday, April 24th at High Street! Hope you can join us! Click on the pic for a link to more information!
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