Yes, we know, it's November! But at APEX PT and Movement Center, it's MOVEmber and we stole it as our motivation for November! One of the highlights of our week was visiting APEX's Rock Steady Boxing (RSB) Gym for a fun workout. APEX is owned by Lexi's cousins, Kelly and Scott (and their partner, Kristin), and they are one of The Arc's Community Partners, and a major Arc 5k sponsor! We are thrilled that they welcomed us to their gym. Inspired by RSB's MOVEmber motto, we're going to strive to move more in November than ever before! Check our progress beginning this week! While you're here, check out all the other fun we had this week, too! Don't miss Thursday's celebration of Men Make Lunch Day...
Tuesday
When we arrived at APEX PT, we entered on the Rock Steady Boxing side, where exercises are largely adapted from boxing drills. This is where Scott and Kelly work primarily with patients who are living with Parkinson's disease, because research has shown that the concept of intense, "forced" exercise may actually slow disease progression. While none of our AoA participants are diagnosed with Parkinson's, we know that exercise is good for us at all stages of our lives, and Kelly and Scott definitely support exercise for everyone!
Scott's schedule was filled with individual patients, so Kelly coached us today (she's RSB certified, as is Scott), along with RSB volunteer coach, Gwen, shown here on the left. They were great with us!
Kelly and Gwen got us ready for our knockout workout by warming us up with gentle stretches. They encouraged us to not only stretch our arms, but also to stretch out our fingers and make "big hands," something we don't usually think about doing!
After warming up, we began our station rotations. (Pardon the blurry action shots!) Xavier and Devin put on some gloves and gave the peanut bag and "Little Red" bag some good punches.
Nearby, Michelle and Kate were going at it on the speed bags!
Sam utilized the 2 pound weights to enhance his bicep curl exercise.
This is the focus and fine motor station where Alexis worked on coloring a fall picture and Drew worked with pattern blocks. We took the coloring pages back to the center to finish. We're going to mount them on colorful background paper and return them to APEX to use for decorations in the gym!
This station was designed to help us strengthen our mobility in the areas of standing from a seated position, and getting up properly from the floor, as in the case of a fall. Liz had to sit/stand repeatedly (kind of like squats) and Kevin had to lie belly down on the yoga mat and then practice standing up using his arms, knees, and legs properly.
We worked on balance and agility at this station. Patrick moved (walked, hopped, jogged) from ring to ring, placing one or both feet inside, depending on the position of the rings. Laura was at the floor ladder where she stayed on the white lines as she "climbed" to the top.
Scott popped in to say high and see what a great job we were doing with our workout. Patrick gave him a high-five with his boxing glove!
Even though our guys are young and fairly agile, and were able to get down and up seemingly effortlessly, Scott, Kelly, and Gwen encouraged them to continue to practice getting down and back up as a way to keep them agile as they age!
For our cool down, we had fun with balls! One group had the "reaction" ball, which bounces in all kinds of directions. It was fun to try and catch it, but you never knew which way it would bounce! The other group had the beach ball, and keeping it in the air was a challenge! What fun!
Thank you, APEX PT and Movement Center, and Coaches Kelly, Gwen, and Scott for having us today! It was definitely a "knockout workout" and we had a blast! We appreciate you taking the time to make sure we did the moves correctly, and for educating us on the benefits of what we did. You guys are awesome!!
We ended up returning to AFCC for lunch instead of going to the garden because it started to rain. After lunch, we had Choice Time and then listened to another chapter in our latest read aloud. It's about a 13 year old named Billy Dickens who sets off from Florida to Montana in hopes of finding his father, who left the family when Billy was 3. There promises to be a lot of adventures, including an encounter with a grizzly bear! So far, we've learned that Billy loves snakes...
In keeping with our plan to add more movement to our day, we played a round of musical chairs before going home. Devin was our reigning musical chair champ, and he won again today! 😃
Wednesday
We celebrated Authors' Day today, and learned about Carl Hiaasen, who wrote our current read-aloud, Squirm. In this video clip, he talks about his responsibilities as a writer, and explains that a lot of research has to go into writing a good story, especially ones that involve defanging a rattlesnake and confronting a grizzly bear! (Click the photo for a link to the video clip.)
We also watched an interview with Ali Stroker, who co-wrote our last read aloud, The Chance to Fly, and based it somewhat on her teenage years as a person in a wheelchair. It was cool hearing her talk about sharing so much of her life through the character of Natalie. If you'd like to hear her interview, click the pic!
We stuck with our MOVEmber goal by checking out the new movement stations on the blacktop area behind JRES. There are painted instructions that make it easy to get moving. Here, Devin is leading a group on the "side jump" station.
Laura practiced her counting skills as she walked back and forth over this cute dolphin!
Abraham wasn't able to be with us at the boxing gym for yesterday's workout, so we had him work on his balance today!
These 3 areas were for lunges, squats, and jumping jacks. You can visit every station on the blacktop and get in some good stretching and cardio!
Our November calendar got updated today. Kevin reset the numbers for us so it would be ready to fill with squares detailing our plans for the month.
Drew worked on the big letters we put on the wall to spell the name of each month, and Alexis found images to match our events.
It's always fun to watch our gang work together to update the calendar. Everyone has their niche!
The calendar looks different this month...is one square out of place? It's because we will be in session on a MONDAY! Don't forget, we only come one Monday a year, and it's during Thanksgiving week. We'll be here Monday and Tuesday, November 22-23, and we'll close November 24-26 for Thanksgiving Break.
Another celebration today was National Sandwich Day! Everyone chose from 3 different types of breads and 3 different flavors of jelly to custom make their own sandwiches. Abraham had peanut butter and peach jelly on multigrain bread, and Patrick had peanut butter and no jelly on Italian bread. We added fresh veggies, a banana, and chips for a perfect Sandwich Day lunch!
We're always big smiles when Tracy comes to visit! Today, she introduced us to her new coworker, Laurie, who will be doing event planning for JCC Parks & Rec. We enjoyed meeting her, and hope she'll visit often!
MOVEmber struck again!
This time we did an 8 minute workout with a fun guy on YouTube named Mr. Oopy! He makes short bursts of exercise so much fun!
Thank you for your support of the James City County Police Department's "Stuff the Cruiser" Food Drive! This is the back of Lisa's car loaded with donations as of this afternoon, and she was planning to deliver it to the Arc office where she was headed for a meeting. More donations came in on Thursday and Friday, and we'll get them to the police!! 👏👏 to the Arc of Abilities families and their thoughtful generosity!
Thursday
Today was National Cash Back Day, so we talked about how some of our family members may be "savvy" in using certain apps or credit cards to receive cash back on purchases, and how that can add up over time. Next, we worked on some cash skills with activities using coins. With Devin looking on, Michelle was counting by 10s with dimes on her way to making 43 cents.
Kevin and Drew worked on identifying and sorting coins based on their size, color, and value.
Laura was studying the features on a coin before matching it on the mat, while Xavier zipped through his sorting task.
Sam, Alexis, and Patrick helped each other find the correct combination of coins to match the amount on the game mat. They often found more than one way to represent the amount.
Liz and Kate played a coin war game. They had to compare values and see who had the highest.
Abraham and Annmarie were well matched partners who had fun sorting their coins!
After our coin lesson it was time to celebrate Men Make Dinner Day, or in our case, Men Make Lunch Day! The guys were stoked to step up to the plate to prepare our menu of Sloppy Joes, fresh fruit salad, and strawberry angel food cake. Sam's grandmother and our friend, Nina, was sponsoring today's lunch all the way from Arizona, and the guys planned to make her proud!!
Our angel food cake recipe only requires a box of mix and the addition of a can of strawberry pie filling before being popped into the Nina...our oven "Nina," that is. Bakers Kevin and Drew handled this job with pride. We forgot to get a picture before we ate it, but the cake turned out sweet and moist, and was enjoyed by all!
Sam and Abraham handled the preparation of the Sloppy Joes. When Sam's mom, Coach Teri, was a little girl, she loved these and has passed on that love to Sam, who was happy to carry on the family tradition and make them for us! He insisted we add a bit of cinnamon, "like my mom does," and that secret ingredient made them even better! 💙
The team of Devin, Xavier, and Patrick combined fresh fruit to make refreshing salads as our side dish. We forgot to grab the pineapple, though. 🍍 We'll have that as a snack tomorrow.
Meanwhile, what were the girls doing while the guys worked on our lunch? They partnered up to work on puzzles related to types of fruit. Liz and Alexis are holding up dictionaries because they were told the words must be spelled correctly! Good job, ladies!
Yum...lunch was finally ready and Sam carefully added a big spoonful of the flavorful Sloppy Joe mixture to each fresh bun! Our mouths were watering by this point!
Ta-da! The men made lunch!! Thank you so much, Nina, for coordinating this fabulous event and tasty lunch for us all the way from Arizona! Thanks to Coach Teri for the assist, too. We miss you, Nina, and think about you often, especially every time we use the oven, our "Nina," that you graciously gifted to us a few years ago. It has made our culinary adventures so much better! We hope you enjoyed the pictures, and are as proud of your grandson and his friends as we are! 💕🍔🍎🍇💕👍
The gang has been asking for a movie day, so we're having one tomorrow. Today, we held an election to choose the movie. Here, everyone is in line waiting for a turn at the voting booth in the other room. Kind of like we as citizens do on Election Day!
We had narrowed the movie candidates down to 5 with a first-round vote, and then everyone had a chance to vote privately for their favorite choice, as Laura is doing here. Check Friday's news below to see which movie was the winner!
We switched yoga to today because it was too damp and chilly to take a walk in CW as we had planned. We'll do that tomorrow, in the (hopefully) sunshine. Speaking of the sun, this is called "sun pose."
Friday
This morning we were still talking about our fun Men Make Lunch Day celebration, and the tasty Sloppy Joes we had, courtesy of Nina! After dance warm up, we made her some cute thank you cards that looked like Sloppy Joes...and these silly guys tried to eat them! Don't worry, Nina, they are intact and on their way to you in Arizona! 😋😝😋😝
The girls were happy to pose with the new glass bowls, with lids, and the electric mixer that Nina sent us for Christmas! We heard she was excited for us to get to use them and couldn't wait a few more weeks for us to open them! 🎄🤶💓 Thank you, Nina. We are grateful for these wonderful additions to our kitchen and will use them often!
Here's the winner of yesterday's vote for Movie Day: Mr. Popper's Penguins! We expected a lot of laughs from this one, as Jim Carrey is a funny guy. 🐧🐧🐧
Of course, we enjoyed popcorn with the movie! And yes, there was lots of laughter!
After lunch, we ended our week with a MOVEmber walk at Colonial Williamsburg. It was a sunny and cool afternoon, and just right for a brisk walk! We began at the CW Visitor Center and caught the shuttle over to the historic area for our walk.
The sign here says, "It is almost impossible to see it all in one day." We agree, and that is why we come here often! It's great to have so many great places to walk and explore right in our own backyard!
The first week of November is complete! Here's what's in our plans for next week:
Tuesday: We're headed back to the Art Museums of CW to see Christina today. This time, we're going to have a lesson on the American Indian. The forecast says it will be sunny and low 70s...so if that's the case, after our lesson we will head to the garden at Freedom Park to check our plants and the foliage, have a picnic lunch, and take a walk. Wear Arc (or blue 5k) shirts and bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: Today is STEM Day, so we will dabble with activities involving science, technology, engineering, and math. That will keep us busy most of the day, but we'll also have time to prepare a lunch of chicken tenders and broccoli casserole, one of Michelle's favorites, and which is being sponsored by her family! There's no special occasion, they just wanted to do it. 😍 Many thanks, Michelle and family. We're grateful for your thoughtfulness and look forward to this special meal!
Thursday: Woo-hoo! It's time to celebrate another DOUBLE birthday today! This time it's Liz and Patrick and we're looking forward to enjoying sub sandwiches and birthday cake, courtesy of their families. Once again, the AoA is blessed by the generosity of others, and we send a hearty thank you to Liz and Pat's families for today's lunch! We'll play their favorite music, complete work related to some of their favorite themes, and play Birthday Bingo. It's also Veterans Day, so we will take time to focus on the importance of that day, too.
Friday: Today is an Eaton work day! Please wear your Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. We're looking forward to contributing to a great work day at Eaton!
Thanksgiving Week - November 22-26: This is the only time all year we are OPEN on a Monday! We will meet on Monday and Tuesday, November 22 and 23, and be closed Wednesday-Friday, November 24-26. We will inform WATA of this schedule change, and families who use WATA, please follow up.
Have a nice weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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