This week were were happy and sad at the same time. It was exciting to celebrate Devin's and Lilly's birthdays, which are just one day apart! We had two spectacular "Birthday Burger Bashes" (one for each group), complete with a new grill to use for cooking the burgers! (More on that later!) But we also had to bid a fond farewell to our fabulous intern, Lilly, who has been with us since last fall. Even though we knew this day was coming, it was still hard, because our guys form fast and deep friendships. But, in the end, we had much more joy than sadness. Here's a look at the last week of April, 2021, at the Arc of Abilities.
Saturday!
It was a fabulous day for the Williamsburg British Car Club Show, with proceeds benefitting The Arc! Here are a few shots from Lisa's phone. Thank you to all who were able to stop by AND to the guys with the car club. The Arc appreciates their support!
Sam and Coach Teri ran the silent auction from this tent. Stopping by to say hi to Sam, were Lisa, Alexis and friends from the Arc, Jason and Austin!
One of The Arc's vans was parked beside our tent. We also had several board members on hand, with Pam, to meet and greet visitors to the car show. On the left, beside Liz, is board member Christina. On either side of Pam are board members Julie and Andy. Board member Greg took the pic for us!
Devin was there, hanging out with his dad. There were so many cool cars to check out!
We tried to get Drew to smile for the camera but it looks like he had his eye on something else. 😜
There's what he was checking out! Drew thought the AoA should run around in this beauty!
Alexis was heading out with her cousins Kelly, Jordan, and shy Haley, we she ran into Kate and her dad! It was nice to see so many friends on a Saturday!
Tuesday
Today was Lilly's last day with the Tuesday/Wednesday group. With Carol being away on vacation this week, we gave Lilly tons more work to do! 😜 The first thing after our dance warm up, was reviewing last week's blog. You can see Lilly smiling with her eyes as our gang starts to recall last week's events, something they enjoy doing at the beginning of each new week.
Someone else who was full of smiles this morning was Patrick. Our Zoom topic was Babe Ruth Day (27th) and baseball, which is his absolute favorite sport! Doesn't he look handsome in his Braves shirt?!
Our home Zoomies came with the baseball spirit, too! Drew had left his baseball and the pictures he shared last week from the game he went to in Florida, so we could show it to the Tuesday group. Devin was wearing his Phillies shirt and Kate had a baseball from her days playing when she was a kid! Becky became sentimental thinking about her team, the Cleveland Indians, and Annmarie was just a good and joyful sport about it all!
After Zoom, Lilly took the gang outside so Lisa and Nan could start getting things going for our Birthday Burger Bash. She snapped this picture of Nancy and Liz walking together, and we see Liz was sporting a Kansas City Royals shirt! Her brother brought it to her from one of his travels. 💙
It was one beautiful and warm morning. Alexis and Patrick wondered if the afternoon temperature was really going up into the 80s? (Yes, it did!) 🌞
Lilly takes the best selfies, especially when they are with our guys. Kevin will miss her. 😔
We have been pretty good about masking up outside, but the CDC now says we can hang with our vaccinated peeps unmasked if we are outdoors. Little victories!
Today this group celebrated their friend Devin's birthday, which is Wednesday, AND Lilly's, which is Thursday! Part of the fun included blowing bubbles, something we haven't done in a while and clearly need to do more often. It was so much fun! Lexi and Kevin did the "wave the wand" method to create some bubbles.
Laura preferred the blowing method, which took a little more patience. She persevered!
Wow! Sam's "wave the wand" yielded all sizes of bubbles!
Devin's mom thought the gang would enjoy playing with bubbles, and she was right! Thanks, Roxanne, for sending us this nostalgic activity. It made the party pop! 😎
WOW! Look at this fabulous lunch! It is a plate of love in so many ways! The pasta salad is loaded with spinach that we harvested on Friday at the Williamsburg Botanical Garden - thank you to our master gardener friends for growing it! The veggie straws were a special request from Birthday Girl Lilly! And that burger...no, we didn't have Cook Out delivery. We grilled them ourselves on our new George Foreman Grill that Birthday Boy Devin's family gave us in celebration of his birthday and our AoA 5th Anniversary! They were sooo tasty! We'll post more pics and more info about our new grill on Thursday, when Devin is here. But for now, many thanks to Devin's family for enabling us to have our first ever Burger Bash!
Happy Birthday to Devin from his friends in the Tuesday/Wednesday group! They miss you, and all of their Thursday/Friday friends!
Our afternoon movement was a big bang for our buck. In about 10 minutes, we kicked, punched, jumped, ducked, and ran after the "virus" until we helped this Ninja successfully defeat it! Sam really enjoyed this one as he's a Ninja fan!
Happy Birthday and so long, Lilly, from your Tuesday/Wednesday friends! You have been a lot of fun and a big help to us...but most of all you've been a caring friend! We will miss you.
Wednesday
Before our travels today, we had a few things to attend to, including planting sugar snap pea seeds again! The first planting was taken out by squirrels, and we're not sure about the second one...it looked like the only thing growing in the planter was grass! So, today we emptied the soil from the planter into the woods, added fresh soil, and planted seeds for the third time! We also brought the planter inside. Hopefully, the peas will take off and grow like Jack's beanstalk! Then, we will put the small trellis master gardener Linda gave us back in the planter and guide the plants to grow up it. Patrick is seen placing the label so we won't forget what we planted there!
During this activity, we had to write the names of the oceans on a page of our booklet, matching the numbers on the page to the numbers on the big map to correctly identify the oceans. Cameron was concentrating on correct spelling!
We even had a quick lesson about Friday being Arbor Day...which is a day to focus soley on the importance of trees! So when we had our lunch under these shady pine trees at the CW Visitor Center, we really appreciated what trees can do for us. It was sunny and hot outside, but we were comfortable in the shade! (The photographer failed to notice that Kevin was in Nan's "shade" and isn't visible in this picture...)
Before leaving the Visitor Center, we took a quick walk around the grounds. Kevin was in this picture, as we captured Sam trying to make a call on the "old-fashioned" pay phone...without any coins! Can anyone explain what a "collect call" is?!?!
Next, we drove over to Matthew Whaley Elementary to park the vans so we could take a walk around CW to "look for animals," which is something the gang has been suggesting we do. We passed a couple of areas where sheep usually graze, but didn't see any. We checked a place where horses usually hang out, but it was empty too. We spotted people walking dogs...they are animals, right?! We finally came across a couple of horses snacking on grass in this pasture. We'll take Friday's group to the other side of CW for their search!
Did we mention it was sunny and quite warm outside? Liz was thankful for trees again, as she felt a slight breeze under this one!
Back at the center, we had Choice Time for a while, and then participated in yoga with Jaime! We signed up for a free trial of her Cosmic Kids app (no commercials, additional sessions to choose from, and other activities, too!), and found an Earth Day themed session to try. Laura and Kevin were warming up!
Sam and Cameron got a good stretch here!
Check out Liz and Kevin in bridge pose! Our guys enjoy these sessions with Jaime at the "end" of their week (Wednesday for these guys). After the yoga, she leads them through a very calming "Peace Out" session. We love sending them home mindful and relaxed!
Thursday
First thing, before we get to the party we had today...check out our buddy Xavier eating gluten-free Oreos! His mom sent this picture over the weekend, and there was no way we could not share in his joy by posting it here! Yay for GF Oreos!! (Nice shirt, too! 😉)
We were excited again on Thursday to CELEBRATE more April birthdays! Give it up for Devin and Lilly! Devin's is the 28th and Lilly's is today.
Our Zoomies added to the fun! We played songs dedicated to Devin and Lilly, and then played Birthday Bingo!
Here's Devin listening to Becky read a sweet birthday card to him! She also read one for Lilly. Here at the AFCC, we made cards for both of them. They were filled with thoughtful messages!
It was a very warm day outside, but we spent some time getting movement and fresh air before coming inside to get ready for lunch. We had a few minutes to spare, so Lilly took us to Disney World and Universal Studios, and we rode rides! OK, it was on YouTube, but our guys sounded (and looked) like they were really there!
Happy Birthday, Devin and Lilly! Check out this spread for our 1st ever Burger Bash! We had lots of toppings, pasta salad with fresh spinach from the Botanical Garden, Veggie Sticks, and green and gold "Tribe" cupcakes! We can't thank Devin's family enough for providing the burgers, buns, and cupcakes today. Their generosity put a lot of smiles on our faces! It was a big lunch for us, but how often does Devin turn 25?! Or Lilly turn 22, graduate from college, and successfully end her internship with The Arc?!
We also wish to thank Devin's family for their generous contributions to our "kitchen." In honor of Dev's birthday, and the AoA's 5th Anniversary, they donated a George Foreman grill and a new griddle! Oh boy...we will have some good lunches in our future!
Behind our many smiles today, we were a little bit sad, though. Today also marked Lilly's last day with us. Kate wanted to sing a farewell song, and asked Alexis to join her. Lilly pulled the song up on her phone so the girls would have music, and here's a snippet of their sweet dedication to Lilly...who may or may not have shed a little tear. 💗
Michelle was so inspired by Kate's idea to sing to Lilly, that she then grabbed Alexis and they sang another song to Lilly! So thoughtful!
Can you spot a very special guest in this farewell photo with Lilly?! That sweet lady standing beside Abraham on the front row is The Arc's Bette Faye! She came to celebrate Devin and Lilly, and tell Lilly goodbye, on behalf of herself and Pam, who couldn't be with us today. It was so nice to see you, Bette Faye! As with Lilly, please don't be a stranger!!
Bye, Lilly! Congrats on graduating from CNU and best wishes as you begin your next journey!
It was Happy Friday at the AoA and first, we wondered if Carol is enjoying her vacation in Florida?! We saw some pictures of her and the guys hanging out at Sea World and Busch Gardens, Tampa, and it looked like they were enjoying themselves! We're glad she was able to get away for some non-AoA fun!
Next, we welcomed Tracy to help us in Carol's absence. (She was here Wednesday, too, but we didn't get her in a picture.) We had some work to do before our outing, and Tracy helped Drew get caught up with the rest of the gang for our continents and oceans study. Since he just came back last week, he didn't have all of the contents of his folder completed. Thanks to Tracy, he does now!
Last week this group requested a visit to Colonial Williamsburg to "look for animals." We didn't have a lot of luck with Wednesday's group, so we parked on the other side of CW today and started looking!
We're not sure if they are a family, but there were two adult sheep and a couple of lambs in this area. As we walked around, we spotted several more areas with sheep and lambs down near Waller and Francis Streets.
Next, we headed over to York Street where we saw oxen and horses. Abraham was in awe of how big these oxen look up close, versus from the van windows when we drive by (or this camera angle)!
Only one horse was interested in being close to the fence today, but there were several more grazing in this area. We also saw geese around here, and a few squirrels, too! Our animal hunt was successful!
Our next stop was the CW Visitor Center where we thought it might be too windy for lunch, but we did well with our napkins and wrappers, and only had one really big gust that almost blew us away!
Abraham, Xavier, and Annmarie were figuring out that they just needed to hold the wand sideways and the wind would "blow" the bubbles!
With that, another week was complete. We will usher in the month of May next week, and we've got a lot of things to do, but the usual Tuesday/Thursday and Wednesday/Friday agendas don't quite match, so here's how we think things will go next week!
Tuesday: It's May the 4th, which is Star Wars Day, so that will be our Zoom topic. Those tuning in from home will need the craft project they brought home on Friday. We will also update the calendar for May and celebrate National Bird Day (4th), of course! Lunch on your own.
Wednesday: It's Cinco de Mayo and Coach Teri's birthday! We're being treated to a taco bar for lunch from Moe's Southwest Grill, courtesy of our friends at APEX Physical Therapy and Movement Center (and Lexi's cousins, Kelly and Scott)! AND, we're going to play bocce with Coach Teri (weather permitting)! Mother's Day is coming up, so we will make special cards for that important day! There is Eaton work to complete, too. Finally, we'll end the day with yoga, so dress to stretch!
Thursday: We will Zoom on the topic of rubber balls. We'll celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Coach Teri's birthday with this group today! We're being treated to a taco bar for lunch from Moe's Southwest Grill, courtesy of our friends at APEX Physical Therapy and Movement Center (and Lexi's cousins, Kelly and Scott)! Many thanks to APEX for coordinating a lunch treat for BOTH of our groups! We really appreciate it! AND, we're going to play bocce with Coach Teri (weather permitting)! We will also update the calendar for May.
Friday: We'll do Eaton work today and Mother's Day is coming up, so we will make special cards for that important occasion! Plus, we'll celebrate National Bird Day (4th), of course! Lunch on your own. We'll end the day with yoga, so dress to stretch, too!
Have a wonderful weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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