We began this week with a celebration of National Smile Power Day! What a great "holiday" on which to begin a great week! Smiles improve our moods by activating neural networks which reduce stress. Smiles are contagious, and research has proven that smiling at others often results in them smiling, too. Smiles boost our moods and have a positive impact on others, so give it a try! We were smiling all throughout our wonderful week, except for when we heard a couple of announcments...but we bounced back. Here's a look at our week:
Tuesday
There were no shortages of smiles when we checked out a version of ourselves as cartoons! Maybe you've tried it as well? Lots of people on social media are using apps to create fun caricatures of themselves and Lexi's cousin Kelly got us in on the fun! Lexi took pics of everyone last Friday and Kelly used her app over the weekend, sending us these to show everyone today.
Abraham has one of the biggest smiles we've ever seen, and it definitely shines on him as a cartoon!
Annmarie has one of the sweetest smiles we've ever seen, and it came through on her cartoon, as well!
Some of our guys looked whimsical, and others more serious, but we all agreed we're a great looking group, whether we're "real" or "cartoons!" Thank you, Kelly, for taking time to create these for us. We smiled at this fun take on ourselves, so it was perfect for Smile Power Day! We appreciate you always keeping us in mind when you think of fun things we might like to do. Keep your creative ideas coming!
Before we moved on to our next activity, we got some sad news from Carol and Cameron. First, Carol shared with us that her family had to put down their beloved chocolate lab, Callie, last Friday. Callie was a rescue dog and believed to be 13-14 years old. She had been living with the pain of arthritis in recent months, and like Maxi in the book we finished last week (who had bone cancer), Callie let Carol and her guys "know" when it was time. 💙🐕 We gave Carol lots of love and sympathy, and reminded her that we know Callie had a great life with her family!
Next, we learned that next week will be Cameron's last week with us at the Arc of Abilities. 😢 His family is moving to Staunton to be closer to family. Two of his sisters, and his beautiful niece Raegan, live near there, and his 3rd sister is in Richmond. Cameron and his parents are building a new home that overlooks the mountains, and they are excited! We will miss our friend, but wish him well as he seeks out an Arc sponsored day program in the Staunton area. We'll miss his quiet nature and amazing "arc"tistic abilities...his contributions to our decorations are always masterpieces! We'll celebrate him next week with a pizza party, as that's one of his very favorite foods! And we'll ALWAYS smile at the memories of Cameron!
Last Saturday was National Peanut Butter Cookie Day so we celebrated by having a Cookie Bake-Off today. We found 3 simple recipes, divided the gang into 3 groups, and using these simple ingredients (no flour), got to competing!
Here we are getting organized. Team A was making peanut butter & jelly cookies, using chunky peanut butter. Team B was making traditional cookies, and Team C was making peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips!
Annmarie, Devin, Cameron, Kate, and Nancy were curious to see how their PB&J cookies would turn out!
Abraham, Sam, Kevin, Liz, and Xavier (not pictured) were surprised at how "sticky" their recipe with the chocolate chips was. Remember, no flour in our cookies today!
Alexis, Laura (over at another table to borrow more peanut butter), Drew, Patrick, and Michelle were making traditional cookies, except no flour! Basically, for all the cookies, we only used peanut butter, sugar (white and/or brown), and eggs.
Despite having a smudge on our camera lens (for the next few pics), it's clear to see that our cookies turned out beautifully! We taste tested after lunch, and they were ALL a big hit!
Liz said she enjoyed being a cookie judge! She was very complimentary of all the entries. In the end, we had 3 winners...just the way we like it!
June 15th was the first ever National Megalodon Day! Kevin came prepared in his shark shirt from his favorite restaurant, Harpoon Larry's! We learned that nearly perfect megalodon teeth have been found near Aurora, North Carolina, and they have a great megalodon exhibit at their local fossil museum.
We also learned that the megalodon was the most massive shark that ever lived, with a mouth that spanned six to eleven feet wide, and full of rows of serrated teeth. It was almost as long as a school bus, too! Luckily, it's been extinct for over 3 million years! Michelle is our resident shark expert, so she helped us learn even more about the mighty megalodon. Here, she's showing us a picture of a life-sized megalodon model that hangs over the dining area at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History!
To celebrate Smile Power Day, we made some cool smiley faces out of scraps and craft materials we had on hand. They required a lot of glue, so we had to leave them flat to dry overnight. We'll post pictures of how we decorated our room with them tomorrow!
At the end of the day, we had time for a quick lesson that we knew Drew would like: It was National Pop Goes the Weasel Day! Drew loves that silly song, so we thought this picture of him wondering why there was a real animal on the screen was funny! He needn't have worried. After we learned a few facts about weasels, we played the silly song and everyone chased each other around the room...alas, we should have filmed it!
Wednesday
Wow...today was an absolutely gorgeous day, with low humidity and temps in the low 80s. We picked a good one to visit Freedom Park for a walk, Botanical Garden check, and picnic lunch!
These friends made it all the way to the bridge! Their round trip walk was a little over one mile.
Our usual picnic area behind the Interpretive Center was in use today as the county kicked off a series of events commemorating Juneteenth. We had our picnic in the Botanical Garden, and enjoyed each other's company along with that of several butterflies and bees! The insects didn't bother us; they were happily pollinating the beautiful plants all around us!
Our master gardener friend Elizabeth told us if we got a chance to stop by the garden, to please harvest some blue podded peas she had planted. We found the vine, and Liz and Lexi picked some!
The blue podded peas are an heirloom variety, and very pretty!
Liz was excited to see a beautiful plant that she says her mom also grows in their yard. It's bee balm, and not only do bees love it, but so do butterflies and hummingbirds. MG Linda has often told us to look for the pretty bee balm in the garden!
It's hard to tell how pretty all the purple blooms behind these guys, and the roses to the right of them, are in this picture. We always like to say, "Get to the Williamsburg Botancial Garden and check out the beauty!" It's truly a hometown treasure.
We grabbed a shot of Nancy on our way out. She's so cute in her bucket hat...which was a good idea to be wearing on this sunny day!
After a quick stop at Eaton to drop off some work we had finished at the AFCC, we enjoyed Choice Time for the rest of the afternoon. This side of the room with Sam, Xavier, Laura, Michelle, and Nancy was partaking in quiet activities like reading, puzzles, computer games, and coloring.
It was a bit more lively on this side. Patrick checked sports stats on his phone and Kevin (background) worked a puzzle. Liz, Devin, Drew, Alexis, and Kate were watching and playing game shows on the computer. Carol was busy decorating the room with our smiley faces! Aren't they cute on the whiteboard?
She also put some on this wall that we will leave up for a while! SMILE...it's contagious!!
Thursday
Our DJ Liz informed us that tomorrow is Paul McCartney's 79th birthday, so she spun some Beatles for us. We caught these two enjoying "Here Comes the Sun." Drew was getting down while Dev played some serious air guitar!
Laura, Michelle, Alexis, Sam, and Kevin couldn't be still during "Life is a Highway!" We love our morning dance warm up time!
Today we put together a little treat for all the dads, and guys who are like dads, in our lives. We hope they will enjoy it on Father's Day this Sunday. Patrick and Laura said they hope he will share! 😁
During our Card Factory work session, we made cheer cards for Meemaw, who has been under the weather lately. We hear she's working on getting her strength back. She's in our thoughts. 💙💚💜
We also made a set of cards for Bette Faye, who wanted some cheer cards to keep on hand at the Arc office for times when they send out good wishes to people! Aren't they gorgeous?
We've learned in our Card Factory experience that crayons don't work well on cardstock, and it doesn't adapt well to our cards being saved for future use or transported. The wax flakes off of some cards and spreads to others. So, we are now well-stocked with colored pencils for Card Factory and other projects! Sam and Xavier agree that these should last a while!
Today was National Mascot Day and our guys have a lot of favorite mascots, from sports to restaurants to stores and even insurance companies! We found a website for the Mascot Hall of Fame which is located in Whiting, Indiana, and it gave us lots of fun ideas for celebrating. You can check it out if you click on the photo below!
The website has a great story time session which led us to a link for a silly read aloud called Creepy Carrots. We listened to it since we were also celebrating Eat Your Veggies Day!
We also found a link to an interesting segment about a young man with Autism and Asperger's who has found his calling being a mascot! His name is Austin and he's the dude behind the suit as Buff the Bison at Harding College in Arkansas. A link to his inspiring story can be found by clicking on his photo!
We talked about some of our favorite mascots. Patrick is a big W&M Griffin fan, Devin loves the Phillie Phanatic, and Drew loves Chick-fil-A, so he has a pic of the cows! Alexis wore her Blue Devils mask to represent Duke, and Sam colored a picture of Sparky, the Arizona State Sun Devil to represent his parents' alma mater AND the name of his new beach house (technically Diablo del Sol). Mascot Day was fun!
We have one more picture from today that we must include, because when we look back at past blog posts, we love to see what we were eating each week. Since it was National Eat Your Vegetables Day, we created a gorgeous and healthy salad with grilled chicken! YUMMY!
Yoga was moved to today because we planned to be at Eaton tomorrow. We got a video clip of everyone doing one of their favorite moves with Jaime!
Friday
Three of our friends were absent today, and they were all out for reasons involving moving! Cameron was helping his family prepare to move to Staunton, Abraham was settling in after helping his family move to a new house this week, and Michelle was in Charlottesville helping her family move her sister back to town! ALL good excuses, but we missed them as we headed to Eaton for a busy work day!
Liz and Alexis lit up the room with their smiles as they unpacked lightbulbs! (NOTE: Eaton has lifted the mask mandate for those who are vaccinated, and all of us are! Woo-hoo!)
Nancy, Kevin, Kate, and Patrick settled in to snap apart plastic pieces. There is a little tab on each large piece that has to be separated, and they made quick work of a very large tub of them! (Masks optional. Some of our guys still wear them here and there.)
Just LOOK at that pile of mixed up parts under the table where Xavier and Drew were sorting! That was definitely the most they have ever had to sort at one time, and they got it finished by lunch time! Lisa and Carol got good workouts moving the parts from the floor to the tubs on top of the tables, too! 😜
Also snapping off smaller pieces from larger ones were Devin and Sam. There were two small pieces to separate from this large one that Sam is holding. They made a pretty good dent in that box by lunch time!
Annmarie was tickled to be unpacking parts with Laura and Nan! They had to remove two pieces, separate them for storage, and discard the rest! A triple chore for this joyful trio!
Monday, June 21 is National Selfie Day, so here's a selfie of the AoA's fearless leaders, Lisa, Nan, and Carol! Might as well get a head start on celebrating!
We took a nice lunch break, then it was back to work to finish some tasks. Drew who finished all of that sorting earlier, was reassigned to the separating job that Sam and Devin were working on. Lisa worked with him at this table where he persevered in pulling apart and sorting the pieces!
The crews that are seated had finished their before lunch tasks so, like Drew, they chipped in to help Sam and Devin get to the bottom of that big box! Sam had to climb inside to reach the last pieces on the bottom, and we were cranking them out as fast as he could get them to us!
Xavier took the sorted lids and stacked them nicely in the tubs. He's really good at this job, which we think reminds him of working a puzzle!
The light bulb ladies became gasketing gals after lunch! It was nice to have different tasks after lunch, though we never get bored working at Eaton!
We got back to AFCC with about 45 minutes left in the day, so we celebrated summer's impending arrival on Monday with Popsicles and a silly game of Summer Bingo! Kate was the caller today, and she made sure everyone had a fun time, and won a prize! Great way to end the week! Oh, and don't Kevin and Devin look nice in their new Eaton shirts?! They (and Nancy) had to await the arrival of new stock in their sizes, and to our surprise, theirs are gray! Looking good, fellas (and Nancy)!
Sounds like we need to have Popsicles ready for the weekend. The forecast says it will be very hot and muggy, which means we might need to keep our favorite "dad" guys in the air conditioning for Father's Day! It also looks like summer will officially begin next week with similar conditions. We're ready for it! The cool JRES gym will be available for us, we hope! Our plans include the following:
Tuesday: We don't usually see our master gardener friends in summer, but it's been so long that we're having a special "post-Covid" session with them today at the Williamsburg Botanical Garden! We can't wait to catch up with them and hear what plans they have in store for us to resume regular sessions in September. Bring a bag lunch and wear your Arc shirt! Back at the center, we'll discuss the summer solstice and work on farewell cards for our friend, Cameron.
Thursday: Thanks to leftovers from a recent Arc Board of Directors dinner meeting, we're having lasagna and baked ziti for lunch. We'll add a side salad, too. We're also going to make Italy our country of the week, since we are having Italian-inspired food for lunch this week! We're also moving our yoga practice to today, so dress to stretch!
Friday: We have one more Eaton work day on our schedule for now, and it's today. Please bring a bag lunch and wear your Eaton shirt! It's also our last day before Summer Break, so we'll have a summertime dance party when we return to AFCC!
🌞🏊🛌📚🚲🎆🍉⛵🌞
Don't forget, the Arc of Abilities will be on "Summer Break" the week of June 29-July 2.
Happy Father's Day Weekend to our Amazing Dads and Those Like Dads, who are so special to our guys!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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