As April rolls along, we are noticing a few more birds at our feeders, which is exciting. On Tuesday, we were pretty certain we saw a few brown-headed cowbirds, which we don't recall ever seeing before! We also saw a downy woodpecker perched on one of the feeders to eat, instead of eating discarded seed on the ground. We learned about birds at our lesson with Christina and Paulette at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, too. Birds are a sign of spring, for sure, but at the AoA, birthdays are also a sign of spring, and this week, we celebrated Kate and Jorie! Take a look at our week...
Tuesday
To prepare us for our lesson on birds with Christina, we spent the morning learning about them. We watched a factual video that explained how different birds have different types of beaks, feathers, and feet, depending on their needs to survive. We also learned about the different types of nests birds build. Devin was pointing out to Kate and Alexis that he learned that the cuckoo is one of many types of birds which lay eggs in the nests of other birds, and then abandon them to be raised by the "foster" family.
We also played Backyard Bird Bingo, which featured birds that can be found in Virginia. This was when we realized we had spotted brown-headed cowbirds this morning! Adia also visited again today, for her second "trial" day. She's seen here being Devin T.'s partner during the Bingo game. After our video and Bingo game, we felt prepared for our lesson at the Art Museums!
It was very sunny outside so we took a walk for our morning movement activity. The sun was deceiving...it was still quite chilly as the time neared 11:00!
Patrick and Devin T. shot hoops. Look at Devin with both feet off the ground as he makes his shot!
After lunch we went to the Art Museums of CW where Christina's friend and coworker, Paulette, was our guest teacher! We first met Paulette back in December when she gave us a tour of all the Christmas trees at the museums. We didn't know she is an avid birdwatcher! The first bird we found on our hunt was a red cardinal, which is in the top left corner of this portrait. It's hard to see from our photograph. Paulette told us that there are no cardinals in England and Europe! Wow...we didn't know that!
We each had a study guide with pictures of several birds that we were searching for in the museums. In the "Down on the Farm" exhibit, we found crows. We learned that there are a lot of types of crows, but around here, the most common are American crows and fish crows.
Paulette asked us which bird on our study guide resembled the white and red ones painted on this chest. We knew it was the mourning dove! Paulette told us that mourning doves are often found at bird feeders because they prefer seeds/grains to insects or worms! We see a lot of mourning doves around our feeders eating seed that's spilled on the ground.
This is a wood carving of an eagle's head, that used to be on the bow of a boat. The folk art section of the museum is known as the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. This eagle was the first piece of art donated to Colonial Williamsburg by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.
Can you spot the American goldfinch in the lower left part of this photo? It's a porcelain box that a woman in the 18th century would have used to store jewelry. It's lying on its side so we could see how it opens. We used to see goldfinches at our feeders in the summer months. Wonder if they will be back this year?
In the Education Room, Christina had a fun project ready for us. She had precut puzzle-like pieces of foam that we could color and then assemble into birds! Thank you, Christina! This was a perfect activity for us, and we really appreciate the work you put into getting it ready!
Some of us colored our birds in realistic colors to look like bluebirds, cardinals, or finches. Others used colors that made whimsical-looking birds like rainbows or William and Mary's green and gold!
We not only shared markers, but also ideas about which colors to use, how to draw eyes, what the bird might be named, etc. Fun!
Unfortunately, we packed up our finished projects without taking a group picture, but Kevin and Devin had a chance to show their masterpieces! Great job, guys!
Here's a picture of Lexi's bluebird that was taken after she and Lisa got home. We're bummed about not getting a picture of everyone's birds. ALL were beautiful!
Our fabulous bird lesson had one more activity. Paulette and Christina walked with us out to Bicentennial Park (beside the art museums) to look for and listen to birds!
Even though most songbirds prefer to be active in the early morning or evening hours, we heard plenty of them this afternoon! Paulette knew most of the calls, but she had an app on her phone to help in case she wasn't sure. We heard and saw cardinals, chickadees, sparrows, and mockingbirds, plus some that were too high or too fast for us to identify. What a great time and interesting lesson! Thanks so much, Christina and Paulette!
Wednesday
Today began with a touching moment. Jorie stopped by first thing, and brought this beautiful peace lily plant for Drew's family, in Meemaw's honor. Thank you, Jorie and Eaton, for this thoughtful gesture and for recognizing how much Meemaw meant to our Eaton experiences. 💚 Beside Jorie in this photo is Kim, with whom we will be working in the future when we are onsite at Eaton. As we mentioned previously, Kesha left Eaton for an opportunity in her chosen field of finance. Jorie was excited to introduce us to Kim, and we are certain we will enjoy working with her as much as we enjoyed working with Kesha!
Next, we switched gears and quickly celebrated Jorie's birthday! Pam, the Arc's executive director, was also on hand as she wanted to recognize how much Jorie means to the Arc for providing our Eaton experience. Pam offered to take this picture so all of us at the AoA could be in it. Thank you, Pam, this is a great photo of us. But next time, please remind us to get a picture with you, too! We're sorry we didn't do that in the midst of the excitement. 😌
There were Happy Birthday hugs! Thanks for stopping by, Jorie! Birthdays are important to us and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to wish you a wonderful one, and say that we hope all of your wishes come true! 🥳🥳🥳
We squeezed in a lesson on Earth Day, which is Friday. We learned that it began in 1970 thanks to a couple of senators from California and a professor from Harvard, who organized protests to bring attention to the problems we were having with air pollution, littering, oil spills, and more. It didn't take long before most of the world's countries joined us in creating laws that brought good changes to our planet.
After our video, we took a "quiz" in which we had to think of something we WILL DO and something we WILL NOT DO in order to protect our earth. Our guys had great answers such as they will turn lights off when they leave the room, use reusable containers in their lunches (instead of too many plastic bags/trash), and brush their teeth without letting the water run. They said they will not litter, take extra long showers, or watch too much tv/play video games too long! 👏👏
Since we weren't going to work at Eaton today, we decided to visit New Quarter Park because the weather was perfect! First, we got in a good walk. These friends were just a few steps behind...
these friends! Most who were wearing jackets removed them by the time we had turned around to return to our starting point!
We enjoyed lunch at picnic tables that weren't covered in pollen, and then we had outside "Choice Time." Abraham, Kevin, and Sam set up a game of bocce.
Everyone spent time climbing and sliding, as there were no young children at the park using the equipment. We gathered these friends for a quick picture.
There are four in this pic taken at the basketball court. Can you spot them?!
We only had to practice 3 times to get the timing right so both Drew and Devin T. would be sliding at the same time! 😎
Abraham and Xavier even found time to chill before we had to return to the center. We love days that go this way!
Thursday
Look who showed up around our birdfeeders today! We have never seen a blue jay out there. We hope he and the equally large brown-headed cowbirds we saw earlier are not scaring off all the sweet songbirds we used to have!
On Thursdays we usually reminisce by checking what we call a "Memory Lane" blog post. Today, we checked out what we were doing during this week in 2018. One of the highlights that week was when Mr. Stutt, the JRES principal at the time, invited us to join the students at the back of the school to see a Navy helicopter up close!
Today's highlight was celebrating National Pretzel Day! Devin was the logical choice to introduce our preview video, since he hails from Pennsylvania, which is the leading producer of pretzels in the US! We were celebrating a few days early so we could work a visit from a couple of special guests into our busy schedule.
Laura's parents, Lisa and Tom, offered to teach us how to make homemade pretzels, and of course we said, "Yes, please!" They recently tried this with their young granddaughters, and it was such a hit, they knew we would like to do it, too!
We divided our guys into two groups, so everyone could chip in and help prepare the recipe. Here, Xavier was about to measure a teaspoon of salt.
Laura added melted butter to the yeast and warm water while Annmarie gave it a good stir.
Meanwhile, the group that wasn't preparing pretzel dough was hard at work on pretzel-themed brain work.
Erik was challenged by Lisa to come up with at least a 5-letter word using the letters in NATIONAL PRETZEL DAY. It didn't take him long to impress her with the word "paint!" (Hey, Erik...see what happens if you add the letters E and R to the word "paint.")
Once the dough had been kneaded and allowed to rest for 10 minutes, Lisa P. showed us how to take our portion and roll it into a "snake," and then twist it into a pretzel.
Now, it was our turn to roll and twist! Liz, Kevin, and Devin found the consistency of the dough to be just right.
With a little help from staff and Tom, everyone ended up with a beautifully twisted pretzel, but it wasn't baking time just yet...
Before popping them into the Nina to bake, they got a dip in the warm baking soda bath. Tom handled this part for us, as he has experience in timing them just right. 👏👏
🥨🥨🥨 Wow! We don't know what looks better, Pretzel Pros Lisa and Tom, or the fresh from the oven and still warm pretzels! BOTH were wonderful! Thank you, Lisa and Tom, for making pretzels with us today. It was a huge hit, a ton of fun, and the pretzels were very, very delicious! You are truly Pretzel Pros! 🥨🥨🥨
We had also put together a chicken and pasta Caesar salad, and when plated along with mandarin oranges and our homemade pretzels, we had a lunch fit for royalty! 😋
We also made plans to check out the windmill in CW that is about to be dismantled and moved from Great Hopes Plantation to an area on Francis Street. There was an update about these plans in today's Virginia Gazette, which Lisa showed us. We have seen that windmill on our walks many times, so we want to see it next week for one last time at its current location. We'll be curious to see how it looks at its new spot! You can click on this picture for a link to the article.
Our final activity of the day was a celebration of National Unicorn Day, which we had to keep postponing since April 9th! We danced and learned fun facts, and some of us even made a cute hand puppet. Liz and Alexis had unicorns to cuddle! Among the fun facts we learned were that baby unicorns are called sparkles and a group of unicorns is called a blessing. Hanging out and having fun with our friends at the AoA is also known as a blessing!
Friday
Today we celebrated Kate's birthday with a combination of education and fun! Her friend, Sandra, who is originally from Colombia, offered to prepare authentic Colombian food for Kate's birthday lunch, and of course, we were all for that! So, we spent the morning learning background information about the beautiful country of Colombia. One amazing fact we learned is that over 75% of flowers bought by Americans are imported from Colombia, including 2/3 of all roses bought by US wholesalers! Colombia also grows over 4,000 species of orchids! What a lot of 🎕🎕🎕!!!
Sandra brought us samples of four dishes: pork in a tomatillo sauce, rice with garlic and onions, empanadas filled with meat and potatoes, and arepas, which are like fried corn bread. As soon as she set it out, a delicious aroma filled our room. We couldn't wait to taste Sandra's cooking!
Thank you, Sandra, for this tasty lunch. We enjoyed getting to know you, trying new things, and learning more about your country, too. Kate always tells us what a wonderful friend you are, and now we know first-hand what she means! We're happy to be your friends now, too!
We hope all of your wishes come true, Kate!
It wasn't long after Kate blew out her candle, and we enjoyed yummy cupcakes, that a dance party broke out! The music was from Disney's Encanto, which is set in Colombia! (Another fact we learned from Sandra: Colombians love to party and will sometimes dance and celebrate until 4 in the morning!)
Sandra was up for a game of corn hole, and the girls were hopeful she would be their lucky charm. (The boys were victorious in our last two games.) It was a perfect afternoon for a game! Standing between Carol and Sandra is Kate's mom, Elizabeth. We'd like to thank Elizabeth for the delicious cupcakes and the very pretty blue and white balloon arch decoration! The celebration for Kate was so nice!
After Kate led the girls off with 3 big points, the boys struggled to get on the board. The girls said the boys were too hyped up from having cupcakes! 😂
With the girls inching closer to the win, Sandra landed a bag on the board for another point. The boys got within 10, but in the end, the girls won today's game! Sandra was their lucky charm!
Hope to see you at the British and European Car Show at High Street (near Revolution Grille) on Saturday between 10-2! Be sure to check out Coach Teri's Silent Auction...she's put together some wonderful items!
Here's what we'll be doing to wrap up the month of April next week:
Tuesday: Today we will have our second spring visit with the master gardeners at WBG. We are hoping for good weather because we have some planting to do! After our MG session, we'll drive to the CW Visitor Center for lunch at the picnic area, and then take a walk to see the windmill at Great Hopes Plantation. It will soon be dismantled and moved to Francis St. Please wear Arc shirts and bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: It's time for another visit with Wisteria and our friends at The Mariners' Museum. We'll have a lesson on the Titanic that sounds interesting and exciting. We'll also take a walk on the Noland Trail, which should be bursting with spring color by now! Please wear Arc shirts and bring a bagged lunch. We'll dine on the museum's patio.
Thursday: Believe it or not, we're celebrating another birthday today! It's Devin B.'s special day! His family is treating us to lunch from Chick fil A, and a fun side event, too! We'll also have a lesson on banking as someone recently gave us some materials to use as a resource.
Friday: We're sending a group to Pet Supplies Plus today, so we'd like for everyone to wear your PSP shirts. The Cooking Crew will be busy preparing baked spaghetti and a fresh veggie tray for lunch. We'll also celebrate Superhero Day, which was yesterday. Dress to stretch for yoga, and we'll do Jaime's Superhero episode!
COMING SOON! Please encourage any pickleball players you know to register for the Community Pickleball Challenge! Click the pic for more info!
🏌🏌🏌🏌🏌🏌🏌🏌🏌🏌
COMING ON AUGUST 6th - Moose Patti's Golf Tournament!!!
It's time to save the date for the Williamsburg Women of the Moose's 7th Annual Golf Tournament which benefits The Arc of GW, The Arc of Abilities, Mooseheart (kids), and Moosehaven (seniors)! This is ALWAYS a fun time and a significant fundraiser thanks to our many loyal supporters. It will be at Royal New Kent Golf Club on August 6th. Please let Lisa know if you can support by sponsoring a hole, forming a team, or volunteering to help on the day of the tournament, and she will hook you up with Patti. It's a blast!
Thank you!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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