Egg-citing First Week of June!

 

This week we welcomed the month of June and had several highlights, including one "egg"-cellent adventure on Wednesday!  Returning to work at Eaton was fabulous, and so was making blueberry grilled-cheese sandwiches for lunch...something we love and had missed for about 2 years!  Here's a look at our fun week.

Tuesday

We were surprised on Tuesday to see hummingbirds at our feeder!  We first spotted one several weeks ago, and even though we have kept the feeder out, we had not seen one since.  This little guy, all greenish in color, is almost too camouflaged to see!

We think this is a dfferent one, as we saw one with a ruby red throat (maybe in the picture above) before we had time to grab the camera.  This fella perched for quite a while on the wire frame outside our window, and we did not see the red on its throat.  This was the first time we've had a hummingbird that perched at length like that!  We made fresh nectar and hope they will keep coming.  Update:  As of Friday, we've seen at least two different hummingbirds this week!

Today was National Say Something Nice Day!  To celebrate, we watched a video clip of an "experiment" in NYC.  Someone set up a podium with a bullhorn and a note attached that said, "Say Something Nice!"  In the video, people randomly came up and said nice things, like this little kid who had a Buzz Lightyear toy and said, "To infinity and beyond!"  The idea was to make people walking around NYC smile, and it worked!

We set up our karaoke machine as a PA system, put a sign on it that read, "Say Something NICE!" and Michelle was the first one to "randomly" say something.  She did an imitation of Popeye, that had her friends smiling and laughing!  Great way to get this started, Michelle!

Devin checked in with Drew to see what Drew wanted to say, and then announced (for Drew), "I love my friends here!"  Next, Devin announced (for himself), "Hello to all my friends!"

Alexis was a little shy, but she managed a "Have a great day!" which made us smile!

There's not a shy bone in Annmarie's body!  Check out her turn to make us smile!

We even got Cameron to the mike, and what he said was no surprise, but definitely put smiles on his friends' faces as they all agreed with him!

Kate wrapped things up for us with a heartfelt, "I love The Arc!"  💙💚💛

It was a gorgeous first day of June!  Little did we know the week would end with a couple of stormy days.

We would love this kind of weather every day for the next few months!

Mr. Rob, a friend of the AoA's who started the Grove Community Garden and with whom we visited and worked in the garden, would love what the new garden folks, Mo and John, have done in the past year.  Mr. Rob passed away in 2019.  We miss him and like to think he is smiling from Heaven as he checks this out!

We cranked out our June calendar today!  In about 45 minutes, we had it done!  Everyone knows their special task and they got right to it today.  We were very proud of them!  Here, Devin is checking out Patrick's selection of an image to represent "Mascot Day."  Patrick was chosing the Braves' mascot...no surprise there!

Voila!  Isn't is great?!

Wednesday

Today we combined our study of France with our celebration of National Egg Day (June 3rd) and had an "egg-cellent" day!  Please "egg-cuse" today's installment of way too many "egg-citing" pictures to leave any out!

We learned many interesting facts about France, including that it is the most visited destination in Europe and is a bit smaller than our state of Texas.  We also learned that the man who designed the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel, also contributed to the design of the Statue of Liberty, which was a gift to the United States from France in 1886.

We learned that quiche is a French dish, made with lots of eggs (to celebrate National Egg Day), and is very easy to prepare...so we did!  We had to make enough for a crowd, so Michelle cracked 9 eggs, Lisa added 6 additional egg yolks, and Kate whisked them up!

We love that Patrick did not wish to eat the quiche, but he wanted to help make it, so he measured and added over 5 cups of milk!  (No gloves because he only touched the handle of the measuring cup.)

Our quiche tutorial video told us to gently ladle the eggs/milk mixture over the fillings (bacon, onion, spinach, cheese).  

The quiche came out perfectly!  We added fresh fruit for a lunch that could only be described as “c’est délicieux.”

The guys worked in pairs to complete a couple of worksheets on egg safety and nutrition.  It's truly an "incredible, edible" egg!  High in protein and low in calories, unless you make quiche with them!  But we got lots of movement over the course of our day to help offset the calories.  😅

After lunch we had an "egg-cellent" adventure which mostly focused on how strong an egg is.  We learned that the arch shape helps distribute the load when pressure is applied, and eggs can withstand a great amount of force because of this.  Liz was skeptical, even though we've done this before, but the egg did not break when she squeezed it!

Drew's friends "egged" him on to try it, because they know how strong he is.  He really tried to break the egg, knowing his friends would laugh, but it didn't happen!  (He even used his other fist for added strength!)

Next, we learned that if uneven force is applied, the egg will crack.  We drafted Nan, who was wearing her rings, to put on a glove and see if the uneven pressure from wearing rings would make a difference in the egg's ability to withstand the squeeze.  She cracked the egg!

  
We also deomonstrated that the egg is strong enough to hold the weight of all these books.  Abraham verified the test results!

What follows is a series of pictures from our egg drop challenge.  Each pair had to test whether the egg would be protected when dropped by using something we had around the room.  Laura and Patrick made a pillow out of paper towels and nestled their egg inside.

Liz and Kevin used flour as a soft bed to protect their egg!

Devin and Nancy cuddled their egg in puffy cereal!

Michelle and Abraham had various sizes of cups, and they built a cage to protect their egg.  Each team was also allowed to use tape if needed.  Michelle had the idea to wrap tape around the egg before putting it in the cup cage.  She said she learned that from watching SpongeBob!

Sam and Xavier put their egg in water.  We learned that fresh eggs sink, so we hoped theirs was less fresh and would float, which we thought would give it more protection.  Turns out, they had a fresh egg, and it sank to the bottom of the water in the bag.  We expected it would break when it hit the ground.  (And we're relieved to know that Walmart doesn't sell old eggs!)

Kate and Cameron felt pretty good about wrapping their egg with layers of newspaper.

Drew and Alexis had marshmallows, which we were curious to test.  But, alas, they somehow ended up with a cracked egg before the test could take place!

We went outside for the drop.  Were we surprised by the results?? Just a little.  It was surprising that so many eggs didn't break!  They were protected by newspaper, cups/tape, flour, and cereal!  The egg protected by paper towels cracked, but didn't splatter.  The only egg that broke completely was the one in water, but we had predicted that.  It was an "egg-citing" challenge!

Finally, we tried to prove that a human could stand on eggs and the eggs wouldn't break.  More eggs are stronger than one, right?!  Keeping in mind that pressure had to be evenly applied across the eggs, Devin gave it a try.  He was a little wobbly, so he got an egg wash on his feet!  We all giggled, and he was a great sport!

Kate had better luck, only breaking a couple of eggs before quickly dismounting.  She was surprised at her success!  We didn't have any other volunteers for this activity.  Which was just as well, since we didn't have any more eggs, either!  At least we're "eggs-perts" on the strength of eggs now!  

Thursday

We made our triumphant return to Eaton today!  Working onsite is something we had missed very much.  Right away we noticed more large murals on the walls...behind all the work lined up that James and Jorie needed us to tackle!

We made sure to get pictures of everyone working on at least one task, as many of our guys did multiple jobs today!  We were busy!  Here, Xavier was filling small plastic bags with 6 white rods, which were then passed to the next table where Drew and Abraham counted out 12 screws and Patrick added them to the bags.  This team had a good flow going!

  

Speaking of a good flow, Michelle, Alexis, and Liz unpacked what seemed like enough bulbs to light up Williamsburg!  They chatted and sang along with music playing on our boom box, but never lost their focus or efficiency!

Speaking of efficiency, Annmarie and Laura kept Nan busy cutting open packages of parts.  The girls had to remove and sort the pieces inside, and they were in sync with one another!

This big team, Nancy, Kate, Sam, Cameron, Kevin, and Devin had a lot of boxes of electrical sockets to unpack.  They devised a system that involved opening, sorting, packing into Eaton bins, and recycling their waste!

They were justifiably proud at lunchtime when the job was finished!  Most of our gang also got Eaton shirts today!  Sam, Cameron, and Kate look awesome in the royal blue!  Nancy, Kevin, and Devin will patiently wait another week while Jorie gets shirts in their sizes.  It was a spontaneous decision to get the shirts, and she didn't have enough in their sizes.  Thanks, Jorie!  We LOVE the official shirts!

This is Kesha, who is going to be working closely with us in the future to coordinate our Eaton work.  We met her during one of our drive bys recently to drop things off, but we enjoyed getting to know her better while hanging out today!  She is training Carol on a new assembly job we may begin next week.  It involves another power tool!  Thanks, Kesha!  We look forward to working with you!  Jorie also plans to walk through the plant with Carol next week, so Carol can help her spot additional tasks that are suited for our guys! Thank you, Jorie!  👏👏

We're sad that Wendy's dining room isn't open yet, but that didn't stop us from taking the vans through the drive-thru to order Frosties.  We had to celebrate returning to Eaton!  We gave Nancy the tray and told her to blast the air conditioning on them so they wouldn't melt before we got back to AFCC.  Nancy felt like a human freezer by the time we arrived! 🥶  Thanks, Liz, for taking the picture from your seat behind the driver!  AND, thanks again to Nina for the Wendy's gift cards!

Friday

We thought we might be a little tired after working at Eaton yesterday (and still adapting to the 4 day week), but, if anything, we were engergized for a Fun Friday!  Or maybe we were just really looking forward to...lunch!

But first, we had a surprise treat!  June 4th is National Doughnut Day...or is it Donut Day?! 🍩  Liz brought us donuts/doughnuts from Duck Donuts so we could celebrate this wildly popular food holiday (maybe you've heard of it?!), but before indulging, we had a little discussion about how to spell the tasty treat!  Most of our guys go with donut, but our research told us that in America, both spellings are found about equally at various vendors! 

 

Truth be told, the spelling didn't really matter to us!  We just enjoyed the very yummy donuts/doughnuts!  Thank you to Liz's family for treating us to donuts on National Doughnut/Donut Day!  We truly appreciate your thoughtfulness!

During morning work time, we made a few cards for some special folks we are missing:  Meemaw, Becky, Moose Patti, Mr. Stutt (JRES principal who was transferred to Matthew Whaley last fall), and Dallas (AMF Bowling Center).  

Everyone teams up to help with preparing colorful pictures and thoughtful messages!  

June 4th is National Cheese Day, and we were celebrating this other tasty food holiday by making a favorite sandwich of ours:  grilled cheese sandwiches with blueberries and apples!  It was Michelle's first time trying it, and she was happy to help with the cooking!  

We also had another fresh salad this week made with spinach, sugar snap peas, and parsley from the Botanical Garden, plus a few more veggies we supplied.  Miss Linda had dropped off some harvested goodies at Nan's house for us!  Thank you, Linda.  The salad was a perfect side for our sandwiches! Even KATE tried salad, today!  Yay, Kate! (She's not pictured, though.)

  
Here are our sandwiches before "easy grilling" on the George Foreman.  There were more blueberries under the cheese and since we didn't have to flip the sandwiches...no runaway blueberries!  

We loved cooking them this way, and want to thank Devin's family again for the gift of the George Foreman Grill!

Annmarie was happy to show off the inside of her sandwich.  It tickled her that the blueberries turned the inside purple!

We had one more celebration to observe today:  National Hug Your Cat Day! 😻 Nancy is the only member of our gang who has an actual real, live feline, but her friends Kate, Michelle, and Laura dressed in support and/or brought stuffed kitties to share.  We enjoyed looking at Nancy's photos of her cat, Molly.  We also learned that cats aren't generally the hugging type, but they have hearing that is 4 times better than that of humans and the ancient Egyptians treated them as royalty!

Ahh, Friday afternoon yoga!  Namaste to us all, and the end of another busy week!

We already started talking about some of our plans for next week, including a return trip to Eaton and another one of our guys' favorite meals, meatball subs!  Here's a look at our upcoming week:

Tuesday:  Our activities today will include celebrating Best Friends Day, because we have so many among ourselves!  We'll also take a virtual hike to celebrate National Trails Day (June 5), since the weather is forecast to be hot and possibly stormy.  Corn on the Cob Day is June 11th, so for lunch, the best friends will make one of their faves, meatball subs, with a side of corn on the cob.

Wednesday:  We're returning to Eaton today for another work session.  Please wear Eaton shirts (if you have one) and bring a bagged lunch.  No stop at Wendy's today, but we'll celebrate Chocolate Ice Cream Day (7th) when we return to AFCC after our work experience!

Thursday:  Today is National Herbs and Spices Day, so we're going to make India our country of the week since Indian food features lots of herbs and spices.  For lunch, we'll make masala kheema (ground meat w/ spices; we're using pork) with a side of healthy quinoa, since our gang loves it!  We'll also have a fun lesson with Mystery Doug about whether or not people can walk on walls (Spiderman?!), and play Superhero Bingo!

Friday:  We have an unusual mix of things to learn about today, as we celebrate Red Rose Day, Donald Duck Day (always a fun one!), and First Ladies Day (history time!).   Dress to stretch for yoga with Jaime.  Lunch on your own.  We're sorry, but JRES Cafeteria is NOT available today, so bring lunch from home.

Reminder:  The AoA will be on "Summer Break" the week of June 29-July 2.  The AFCC will be closed for floor maintenance during this week, and logistically, it is easier for us to take a break rather than relocate to the school library where we are very limited as to space, activities, technology availabilty, and this year, travel opportunities.  We will reopen on July 6. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang