We can't believe April is here! And it's already been over a week since it arrived...As our guys like to ask, WHERE does the time go?! We had a slower-paced week, and enjoyed our time together. Here's a glimpse into some of the things we did:
Tuesday
We kicked off the week with our Zoomies! Today's topic was National Library Month, which reminded us that we used to work in the library at JRES, shelving books. We hope we'll get to resume that activity soon. It will probably not be until the fall, but we're ready now!
tim heard a story during Zoom called Giraffes Can't Dance, and found out that the main character, Gerald (and we ), can...if we just find our inner love of music and go for it! After the story, we watched a fun video that is a complilation of clips from old movies where the actors are dancing, but in this case, they seem to be dancing to the song "Footloose," which is one of our favorites! Becky shared the video with us, as she knew we would enjoy it. Click on the pic below for a link to it, and you'll enjoy it, too!
Our garden area needed some attention today. We watered the peas and potatoes, refilled the birdseed (thanks again to Devin's family for donating that 40 lb. bag of seed!), and also refilled the hummingbird feeder. THEN, we saw our first hummingbird today! He (or she) flew away before we could get a picture...but we're excited, and hope he (or she) brings a few friends next time!
Did you know that April 4th is National Walk Around Things Day?! The folks at nationaldaycalendar.com aren't sure about the origins of this "vague and yet possibly useful holiday," but we enjoyed celebrating it! We walked around the entire campus and found many additional things to walk "around," such as trees, benches, giant blacktop maps, and buses! It made our walk a little more interesting, at least! Plus, it was simply a gorgeous day. In fact, we took another walk around campus later, just to enjoy the beautiful day!
Perhaps the highlight of our day was our team effort to make homemade caramel popcorn. April 6th is Caramel Popcorn Day, and it had been a couple of years since we last made it. We found a simple recipe online, and watched the video tutorial. However, we didn't print the recipe. It had just enough ingredients/steps that we assigned each one of us to remember one of them...and it came together perfectly!
We used the Nina and the Lizzie today! While our caramel popcorn baked in the Lizzie, we had chicken going in the Nina, because we also made Chicken Caesar Salad for lunch. 🥗
Like Cracker Jack, but without nuts, and as Nan pointed out...no prize, either! It was quite tasty, though. 😋
It seems we love to snap pictures of our guys being focused on an important task. Today we were updating the April calendar. There are so many fun things to celebrate this month, including SIX BIRTHDAYS!!! Yes, we are going to party like rock stars all month long!
Wednesday
We were surprised when Sam joined us today, and it was his birthday! He was out of town yesterday, and we thought, for the week. His family's plans changed, so we got to see him on his real birthday...but we'll celebrate big time next week, since we made plans for a bbq lunch for next Wednesday and Friday! We "semi-celebrated" Sam today. Liz played lots of his favorite songs during dance warm up, including "Danger Zone," by Kenny Loggins, from the movie "Top Gun."
We didn't have a cake mix handy, but we had 4 simple ingredients on hand: flour, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Nancy and Liz took them, along with a basic recipe we found online, and made birthday cookies! Sam is a lucky duck, with great friends who are happy to celebrate him both this week and next week!
We weren't planning to bake cookies today, but we did plan to get extra fitness by taking a 15 minute, 1 mile, indoor "Happy Walk" with this instructor named Leslie Sansone. If you don't have a lot of time, try this workout which is fun and gets your heart rate up. It takes 15 minutes but Leslie keeps changing up the easy steps, so it keeps our interest! Click the photo for a link!
The first Wednesday in April is National Walking Day...which has nothing to do with National Walk Around Things Day (which we celebrated yesterday). Here we are getting our "Happy Walk" on!
Another fun celebration we observed today was Unicorn Day, which is on the 9th! We (well, mostly the girls) love unicorns, and learning about their mythical adventures. We watched a Mystery Doug episode in which we learned that there was an animal in Siberia, called a Siberian Unicorn, which is extinct now. Scientists have discovered fossils of it, and it resembled a rhino 🦄
Next, we had fun making a cute rocking uniform out of paper plates. Alexis helped Cameron get his steps in order.
We had an early yoga session so we could join Bette Faye for the 2:00 Arc Zoom.
Her guest was a photograhper named Paul who told us about his career path, and shared tips about taking photos. He said that today's cell phone cameras take really good pictures for most people, but if you want to get more creative, cameras with special lenses would be helpful. He was interesting, and funny! He really enjoys his work!
Thursday
Yesterday several of our friends in this group got their second Covid vaccines. Abraham stayed home to rest today, but we heard he did really well. Michelle, Kate, and Xavier came in with their sore arms, but felt great otherwise! We were so happy! Devin was still traveling and wasn't here today, so it was just Xavier and the girls! He held his own, but missed Devin and Abraham! In this photo, he and the girls were working together to make caramel popcorn so we could celebrate Caramel Popcorn Day. They did a great job!
Our Zoom topic was National Submarine Day, which is on Sunday, the 11th. We had an unexpected, but most welcome guest, Annmarie's mom, Teresa! She used to be in the Navy and built torpedoes for submarines. She told us all about her job, and shared lots of interesting submarine facts with us. She even showed us part of a torpedo she helped build! We learned that when she worked on subs, women weren't allowed to serve on them! It wasn't until 2010 that the Navy changed that policy. WOW! Thank you for spending time with us, Teresa! It was very interesting hearing you tell about your work on torpedoes, and we thank you for your service, even though you couldn't serve on the vessel you helped empower!
We also watched an episode of SciShow Kids in which Jesse explained to us how submarines are able to go underwater and then come back up. Tanks called ballasts fill with water, making the submarine denser than water, and it submerges. When it's time to come up. the water is released and the tanks fill with air, causing the submarine to rise.
Thanks for joining us today, Zoomie friends! Hope you learned something cool about submarines!
We took a great walk around things to celebrate the goofy National Walk Around Things Day! Michelle spotted an inchworm that was crawling around the basketball hoop pole. Critters celebrate, too!
Since the schools are celebrating Spring Break and there was no traffic in the parking lot, we felt safe to walk around the buses as part of our celebration!
After lunch, we finished the April calendar. Michelle is picking up computer skills very quickly, and Lilly helped her just a little as she looked for online pictures to insert into her document.
We're looking forward to a fun April, with lots of birthdays to celebrate!
Xavier, the Puzzle King, in his zone! He found a few missing pieces for one of these Toy Story puzzles in the other Toy Story puzzle box!
Annmarie gets in her zone when coloring and listening to her music! She was working on a few more pictures for our spring decorations!
Here's Xavier just hanging out with the girls! When you go for an afternoon walk with Lilly, she says take a rest and enjoy the beautiful warm temperatures and abundant sunshine!
Xavier picked up a hitchhiker! After flicking it off of him and back to nature, we did some research. It's a Five-Lined Skink, notable for its bright blue tail. They are in the lizard family, and very common. We see them around our houses a lot, where they are helping control the pest problem by eating crawlies like spiders, crickets, and beetles!
Friday
Michelle rides the WATA bus, usually with Devin, but today it brought her by herself, and he came a little later. She was about 30 minutes early, so Carol and Alexis taught her how to apply gaskets to rectangle pieces for Eaton. Michelle did very well with this "sticky" job! Yay!!
After our lesson on Asia, which we learned is the largest continent and home to more than 1/2 of the world's population, Jorie stopped by (James was out of town today) with A LOT of Eaton work for us! We helped her unload the car and then she shared some good news with us...
She wants us to go to the next step with those rectangle pieces Alexis and Michelle were working on and attach them to two other pieces, with the help of the electric screwdriver, to make a "unit" of the three pieces! This job will require several smaller steps before we get to use the screwdriver, and will allow several of our guys to learn a new skill. But that's not all...
The components on this table are also part of a new task for us. We will be inserting long screws, washers of various sizes, and nuts through a number of holes on these white pieces. This will require several teamwork steps. We are SO excited and feel honored that Jorie trusts that we are ready to expand our vocational skills in these ways! Thank you, Jorie, James, and Eaton, for helping us grow vocationally as we help you increase production!
Here are a couple of pictures to show just a portion of the "drop" Jorie made. It took Carol a while to organize and find places to store it all! (Those are boxes of PowerSlide Doors that need to be assembled in the boxes beside Carol.)
This is a pile of things to count and package!
We're already looking forward to next week, and getting started on the new Eaton work. That's not all we will do, as we also have the first two of six April birthdays to celebrate! It's going to be stellar...here's our schedule:
Tuesday / Thursday: We hope the weather cooperates for us to enjoy an outside adventure. But first, Tuesday's Zoom will be at our regular time, 10:00, and we will celebrate Becky's birthday!! You'll need the letters HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECKY cut apart so we can make words. Thursday's Zoom will be yoga with special guest...KILEY!! She's going to Zoom in from Minnesota to spend time with her favorite Arc friends! Time change: We will Zoom with Kiley at 1:45 in the afternoon, as she has grad classes in the morning. We will also travel to Freedom Park for a garden check, picnic lunch, and walk. (After Zoom on Tuesday; before Zoom on Thursday) 🌳🌻🐦 National Gardening Day is April 14th! 🦋🌷🌞 Please bring a bag lunch!
Wednesday / Friday: Today's highlight will be celebrating Sam's Birthday! 🎂🥳🎈 Coach Teri is treating us to bbq sandwiches (thanks to Gdad for cooking) and pie for lunch! Yum! We'll spend a chunk of time on our Eaton work, and also learn about dolphins (Dolphin Day is the 14th) and the Titanic (Titanic Remembrance Day is the 15th). Dress to stretch for yoga, too!
Have a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
P.S.
REMINDER: We hope you can join us for the British Car Show at High Street on Saturday, April 24 from 9-2. It's going to be huge and the best part, it's an outdoor event! There will be lots of cars, many vendors, and a silent auction!
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