Temporary Relocation

 

We spent this week reminding everyone that we will be temporarily relocating the AoA's meeting place next week.  The AFCC will be closed for maintenance work so we will be meeting at the Rec Center on Longhill Rd. for the week of June 28-July1.  Then, the week after that, July 5-8, the AoA will be closed for Summer Break...but more on that next week!

Meanwhile, here's how we spent the first week of summer at the AFCC!  

Tuesday

We learned that today is the summer solstice, and that means in eastern Virginia the longest amount of daylight all year would be today:  over 14 hours and 40 minutes!  We did some brain work related to the summer solstice!

With all this extra daylight (5 hours and 3 minutes longer than the winter solstice in December), we had plenty of time to use our brainpower!

We also celebrated National Smoothie Day!  We learned that if made mostly of fruit and/or veggies, with a low-sugar base of protein (in our case, yogurt), smoothies could be really nutritious!  Carol was our Smoothie Master and she brought her NutriBullet which made whipping them up a breeze.  Erik, Alexis, Laura, and Devin were first in line, and they wanted theirs "all the way."

"All the way" included strawberries, blueberries, bananas, oranges, spinach, and carrots!  The spinach and carrots did not take away from the taste, it was still very fruity, so adding certain veggies is a great way to get extra nutrition!

Some friends opted for no veggies, but their smoothies were still tasty and nutritious.  Liz, Abraham, and Kevin enjoyed theirs that were loaded with strawberries, bananas, and blueberries.

We were excited that this was a treat our friend Devin T. could enjoy.  He eats a soft-food only diet, and he LOVES smoothies!  His was "all the way" and when he finished he told Carol, "That was good!"

After an early lunch with our smoothies, we went to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for our June visit with Christina.  She knew that today was also National Seashell Day and National Selfie Day, so she was prepared!  We found examples of art throughout the museums that showed how popular it was to use shells as a decorative design element in the 18th century.  This is a ceramic candy dish with seashell-shaped bowls.  There are other shell designs decorating the rest of the piece, too.

Hester Bateman was a female silversmith in London in the 1760s.  She made thousands of pieces, including the shell-shaped spoon in the bottom right of this picture, and her pieces are valuable to this day!

We also saw shell designs that were carved into furniture and painted in pictures from the 18th century, and Christina reminded us that shells were used to create pathways in gardens and along streets, too.  We then went to the education studio for a fabulous project!  Christina led us step-by-step through a painting project so we would end up with a pretty beach scene inside a shell!

After we painted sand, water, and sky, Christina stamped a beach ball onto each of our shells.  Next, Jan "sprinkled the ball with pixie dust" so that it would glow on our shells!  By the way, we loved seeing and working with Jan today!  It's been a long time since she's been able to join us.  Thanks so much for your help, Jan!  Christina, thank you for this excellent adventure on National Seashell Day!  We LOVE our shells.

June 21 is also National Selfie Day, and Christina LOVES taking selfies!  Here's one of all of us with our lovely painted shells!  Isn't it great?!

It's hard to see the detail on our shells in the selfie, so Erik agreed to show his artwork up close.  Everyone's was a little bit different, and they were ALL beautiful!!  We had a great first day of summer!

Wednesday

We are bummed that we aren't able to be working at Eaton due to the broken AC, and Jorie and James are, too.  The entire AC unit at Eaton may need to be replaced, so we may not be back for a while.  This week, the AC here at the center was also on the fritz, as seems to happen every June!  But, we had a couple of fans, and it really wasn't bad today.   Our friend and the school system's electrician, Jerry, has been working on it for two days, and today he said he "made a fix" and will be back tomorrow to give it a go!  We're glad, because it's going to be heating up again soon.

To help us keep our "cool," we studied the country of Iceland today!  Did you know it is slightly smaller than our state of Kentucky?!  The capital is Reykjavik, shown above, and over 60% of the population lives in and around that beautiful city.  People in Iceland also report being very happy and it's no wonder as there is a good healthcare system, education is free through college, and there is a "collective trust" among society there, with very low crime rates.  Plus, there are blueberries that grow all over the countryside!  Picking them almost anywhere and anytime is practically a national sport!

Yum, and thanks, Iceland!  We had an excuse for a morning treat.  Laura and Adia gave high marks to our snack of blueberries and cream in honor of learning about the country of Iceland!

Ladybugs were the subject of another lesson we had today.  We learned that they are called "ladybirds" in England, though they are neither bugs nor birds, but a type of beetle.  If they feel threatened by a predator, they are able to squirt a yucky liquid from their knees that smells like a combination of nuts, mold, potatoes, and pepper.  EWW!  We also completed a craft project Krafty Karen sent back with us after last week's lesson with the master gardeners  Devin and Drew were drawing designs on their ladybugs' wings.

Liz decorated the wings on her ladybug with traditional black spots.  As we learned from Karen last week, there are almost 6,000 species of ladybugs.  One of them has 24 black spots, but some have no spots at all, or may have stripes and other geometric pattens.

When finished, our project was a set of adorable ladybug magnets!  We know ladybugs like to eat aphids, but we don't think they will find any in our room!  Thanks for putting together these fun ladybug making kits for us, Karen!  Like many of our projects, no two are alike, but they are all perfect!

Speaking of aphids, we don't have any on our tomato plants so far, but we did have 10 chocolate sprinkle cherry tomatoes that were going to be harvested tomorrow for our pizza.  That is until we noticed 6 of them were missing this morning.  We immediately picked the remaining 4, and then later we caught a squirrel on the plant eating a green one!  Adia wanted to try sprinkling cayenne pepper around the plant and on the ground to see if it will deter the squirrels!  We hope so!

We're getting near the end of our Virginia Mystery series story, Escape from Monticello, and today we decided we want to read another book from the series.  We're going to try an earlier book, with the same "bad" guy, Jerry.  We want to find out what Caitlin, Sam, and Derek did in the past that made Jerry determined to seek revenge on them in our current book!

Thursday

We had a busy day, and didn't even get to everything we had planned.  That's OK, because sometimes things take longer, or we get a little sidetracked, or we have unexpected visitors that we are so happy to see!  We had all those things happen today, but enjoyed it all as we celebrated National Pink Day!  Aren't we a great looking group...even though we are missing Patrick, Annmarie and Devin B.?  

We got sidetracked when we realized our custodians, Heike, Diane, and Sevarina won't be here tomorrow (school staff work M-Th in summer) and then we won't be here for the next 2 weeks, soooo, we had to go find them and chat for a bit!  They have been so busy getting JRES ready for new flooring to be installed that they haven't had time to pop in and see us on the Rec side of the building.  We miss them!  Today, they were unpacking a lot of boxes that were full of new chairs.  They are 3 very hard-working ladies! 

We stuck to our plan to make pizza using fresh ingredients from the Pizza Pot we planted with the master gardeners.  We picked the chocolate sprinkle cherry tomatoes that were left yesterday after we realized a squirrel was also interested in them!  Today, Adia, Laura, and Abraham harvested basil.

Michelle harvested oregano!  The Pizza Pot Pizzas we were about to make were going to be so good!

We're loving the gym time we get this summer!  Our AC was still out (until around 1:30 when Jerry said it was cranking up...yay!) and the gym is a cool place to spread out and get movement.

Our pizza chefs were Erik, Laura, and Liz.  Today was National Detroit Style Pizza Day, and we learned that Detroit style is kind of like deep dish, but the pepperoni goes on first, followed by cheese, and the sauce goes on top, in stripes!  We made our version, using some of Detroit's ideas!

Here are the chocolate sprinkle tomatoes, basil, and oregano ready to go on the pizzas.  We only had enough tomatoes for a couple of pizzas, but everyone who wanted to try them got a slice!  They were so sweet and juicy, and the fresh herbs smelled divine!

This is what one of our "Detroit" style pizzas looked like!  Pepperoni and ham (for Pink Day) on the crust, followed by cheese, stripes of sauce, and fresh basil and oregano!

 

Our Pizza Pot Pizzas were so tasty, and there were no leftovers!  We also had a spinach salad that we added pink grapefruit and some leftover strawberries and pineapple to, along with a freshly made grapefruit juice, honey, and olive oil dressing.  Our refreshing beverage was pink lemonade! It was all yummy!!

As good as the pizza and salad were, the HIGHLIGHT of our day was a surprise visit from Annmarie!

Annmarie and Laura are the best of buddies, and every single day since Annmarie got sick, Laura has asked about her and told us how much she misses her friend.  Laura was happy (relieved?) to see Annmarie in person and give her a sweet hug!

Drew waited patiently for a chance to hug Annmarie.  With Liz and Kate looking on, she whispered, "Aww, Drew."  We thought Annmarie looked great, and her mom told us she wanted to put on her AoA shirt as soon as she got up this morning!  She needs a few weeks of OT, PT, and speech therapy, plus time to regain some strength, but she WILL be back soon!  We can't wait!

Annmarie wasn't the only surprise today.  Her family's dog, an Aussiedoodle named Griffin, visited as well!  Griffin was in the van, but we all asked to see him.  When Teresa took him out of the van, she accidentally dropped the leash!  Griffin took off all over this side of campus with Teresa, Carol, a Parks & Rec worker, Heike, Sevarina, Diane, and even Jerry, the electrician, trying to catch him!  We were finally able to entice him with one of Xavier's gluten-free cookies that we keep on hand, and everyone enjoyed petting him and telling him what a "good" boy he is!  😄🐕🍪  Annmarie, Teresa, and Griffin, you are welcome to be our unexpected visitors anytime!  It was heartwarming to see you!  💓💓💓

We still had 3 lessons we hadn't gotten to after Annmarie's visit, and we chose to end the day with one about water since it's National Hydration Day!  Our video with Dr. Binocs was a very good reminder about how important water is to our health and well-being.  We'll save our bees and butterflies lessons with Mystery Doug for another time.  

Friday

Some of us were off to Pet Supplies Plus today and others stayed at the center to help get ready for our specially delivered lunch.  Everyone chipped in and we were busy!

Erik learned how to make Jell-O!  This was step two, adding cold water to the orange gelatin that he had already dissolved in boiling water.  Later, we would add mandarin oranges for a refreshing dessert!

Drew, Kevin, and Xavier helped prep the baked beans.  Drew was about to drain that big can into the colander.  Xavier had returned to his seat, but he found the cans of beans in the pantry for us!

Erik and Adia helped Nan make what we call her "famous cole slaw"  and after they did a taste test, Adia said she could see why it's famous!  It would taste good on the bbq sandwiches that Gdad was bringing!

 

Our pet store workers today included Kate, Sam, Devin T., Michelle, Laura, Karryna, and Liz.  After unpacking and stocking, they decided that his week's featured pets are fish!  You can check them out at Pet Supplies Plus.  Our friends are holding some accessories you can put in your aquarium!  There is a big selection of fun and colorful items that your new fish will enjoy swimming around.  Come visit the store! 🐟🐠🐟🐠

 

As it neared noon, we saw a red truck pulling up to our green door.  It was Lexi's Gdad who was bringing us his speciality, eastern North Carolina style bbq, for lunch.  He had heard that Sam was very excited for lunch today, so he made a surprise sign.  Sam loved it!! 🐷💛🐷💛

We all enjoyed Gdad's bbq sandwiches with Nan's cole slaw, our baked beans, a few chips, and orange Jell-O!  (We forgot to take a picture, though.) The morning crew made a "Thanks, Gdad" sign, but the G in "Gdad" is behind his head in the picture!  Before he left, Gdad thanked us for the nice sign and said he enjoyed visiting with us.  Thank YOU, Gdad!  We enjoyed visiting with you and eating your tasty bbq!  We appreciate you for getting up early to cook it for us, and also for delivering it!  

We also enjoyed the company of Tracy and Rachel from Parks & Rec!  They said Gdad's bbq was delish, and they thanked us for inviting them to join us.  We always enjoy a chance to socialize with them!

We are going to have a movie day while at the Longhill Rec Center next week.  Kate brought a few of her favorite DVDs and everyone looked them over, had a discussion, and picked one for us to watch.  (Carol and Lisa, don't forget to pack the popcorn!) 🎥🍿

We ended our day with Jaime and yoga.  We did chair yoga first.  We can be seen here rolling our heads gently from side to side.  After chair yoga, we did a more active segment on our mats, followed by a gentle "peace out" segment where we almost fell asleep!  We had a wonderful day and a great week!  We'll miss our "home" at AFCC for the next couple of weeks, but we'll be back before we know it!

Heike, Diane, and Sevarina have a lot of cleaning to do and there is also maintenance work to be done at the AFCC, so it will be closed for the next two weeks.  We'll take our program to the Longhill Rec Center next week, followed by a Summer Break week, when we will be closed.  Here's what we have planned for our relocation week:

Tuesday:  We'll see you at the Longhill Rd. Rec Center today.  We're in Room B so enter through the doors on the left side of the building (where Arc events take place).  Today we're going to the Williamsburg Botanical Garden for our last spring session with the Master Gardeners.  Wear your Arc shirt.  After our session with the MGs, we will picnic and take a walk if the weather permits, so bring a bagged lunch.   We'll also begin a new read-aloud from the Virginia Mystery series, and probably do some extra dancing, too!

Wednesday:  We'll be staying put at the Rec Center so we brought a few things to fill the time.  We'll dance and play a fun group game, watch a movie, read, and play Bingo, too.  We will also have one of our traditional and fun lessons about Paul Bunyan, as yesterday was Paul Bunyan Day!  Bring a bagged lunch (microwave not available).

Thursday:  We're going to the Mariners' Museum today for a lesson with our friend, Erika!  (Wisteria has another event today, but hopes to pop in to say "hi" to us.)  We're going to learn about the night sky!  Please bring $10 for lunch at the Mariners' Cafe and wear Arc shirts.  On our return trip to the Rec Center, we will stop by AFCC and fill the bird feeders.  It's also National Bomb Pop Day, so we will probably have a treat!  Note:  We will depart from Longhill Rec promptly at 9:10 for our drive to Newport News.  Plan to arrive on time! ⌚

Friday:  Since we're so close and they open at noon, we're going bowling today!!  We'll dance, have a lesson on Independence Day, and play small group games in the morning.  Lunch will be Domino's pizza...a treat from Devin T's family!  Thank you, Tyree Family.  This is very thoughtful of you and we appreciate it.  Pizza is a big hit with us!  💖🍕 We'll head to bowling around 12:30 and plan to be back to the Rec Center at 2:30.  No yoga this week.  You don't need to wear Arc shirts, unless you want to!

The Arc of Abilities will be closed for Summer Break the week of July 5-8.

🏌🏌🏌  Hey, Everyone!  COMING SOON - August 6!

Royal New Kent Golf Club 🏌🏌🏌  

It's time to get organized and see who's up for being a WOTM Golf Tournament Sponsor and/or player this year!  Moose Patti is pounding the pavement to drum up the support of local businesses, as well as lots of her friends, and we hope our AoA Families will jump on board, too!  This is a significant FUNdraiser for The Arc, with proceeds supporting the AoA, as well!  The Women Of The Moose LOVE us!  Please let Lisa know if you'd like to sponsor a hole or form a team, or you can contact Patti directly.  Thank you to those who have already sponsored!  We will need 3-4 AoA members to volunteer on the day of the tournament.  Please check your calendars and see if you can help from about 9-1.  It's a lot of fun!!  Check out this link to the blog post from the 2021 tournament.  It was a huge success...even in the rain!

6th Annual Women of the Moose Golf Tournament

Also, please save the date for the Arc of Greater Williamsburg's 5k on October 1st!  Registration opens soon.  We will let you know!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and The AoA Gang

Grow Your Veggies, and Eat Them, Too!

 

 

No, the dude in the picture above isn't another new member at the Arc of Abilities!  But he does represent that we celebrated Eat Your Vegetables Day (June 17) this week!  We actually celebrated it all week long, starting on Tuesday with the master gardeners who grow wonderful vegetables with us.  On Thursday we added vegetables to our casseroles and added them as a side dish, too.  We culminated the week on Friday when Liz's mom visited to cook some of Liz's favorite veggie recipes for us!  Check it out, and see what else we did this week!  🌽🍅🍆🍠🧅🥦🥕🥒

Tuesday

The rain forced us indoors for the first part of today's session with the master gardeners.  Krafty Karen welcomed us and thanked us for the birthday cards Devin B. delivered to her on Friday.   She said she really did wait until her actual birthday on Sunday to open them!  Good job, Karen!!

Karen introduced Angela, who told us about Flag Day, since today is June 14.  She mentioned that historians now think Betsy Ross didn't really create the "first" American flag, but that a flag designer and member of the Continental Congress named Frances Hopkinson probably should get the credit.  Later, in our Flag Day lesson back at the AoA, we learned that there were several designers who contributed ideas, and that Betsy Ross may have been the person who suggested a 5 pointed star instead of a 6 pointed one be used.

We learned about "good bugs and bad bugs" in the garden today.  Ladybugs and pollinators are generally good bugs, but aphids and most beetles are not.  Barbara was showing Laura and Nan a picture of a plant being eaten by a bad bug.  We learned that some ways to keep bad bugs from destroying plants is to grow things that they don't like while also growing things that attract the good bugs.  The good ones will eat the bad ones!   A lot of herbs are also off-putting to bad bugs, so growing them alongside veggies might help.

Karen told us that there are about 6,000 species of ladybugs and they are beneficial in the garden!  If you have them in your gardens, leave them be. 🐞🐞🐞

The rain stopped so we were able to walk out to check the garden.  Kevin, Drew, and Sam are standing in front of a beautiful bee balm plant.  Barbara told us that bee balm is in the mint family, and that it is very attractive to pollinators.  It also has a square-shaped stem. This bee balm plant is certainly adding a lovely burst of color to the garden!

Oh, no!  Adia spotted a bad bug.  It's hard to spot in the photo, but a beetle was turning the leaf of this calla lily into what looked like a piece of lace!  Adia flicked it away, but it landed on another leaf... Hopefully the good bugs will show up soon!

Karen's husband Steve was watering today and Devin T. offered to help!  He's watering the colorful nasturtium flowers that we planted by seeds back in April.  They sure grew fast!

By the time we finished in the garden our time with the MGs was ending.  We stayed at the Interpretive Center to eat lunch, which was topped off by Krafty Karen's dee-licious zucchini bread!  (She's famous in our eyes for this!)  Thank you, Karen.  It was awesome, as always!!

Here's a screenshot of MG Carolyn's Journal Page for today's session.  It's great, and highlights the addition of master gardener interns Beverly and Elizabeth!  We didn't get a picture with them, but we welcome them and look forward to working with them in the future!  Also, on the Journal Page is a picture of our potatoes.  They are growing great...we checked and then covered them back up with dirt so they can grow a few more weeks.

Back at the center we enjoyed Choice Time followed by a lesson about Flag Day.  Besides what Angela had taught us about the (likely) "urban legend" of Betsy Ross, we also learned that a young school teacher named B.J. Cigrand may have originated the idea for an annual Flag Day when he had his students write essays about the flag back in 1885.  But it didn't become a national holiday until President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation in 1916.

Our Flag Day activity consisted of coloring pictures of the flag, but instead of using red stripes, we used red patterns.  For each red stripe, we answered a "This or That" question, then filled in the space according to the pattern that matched our answer.

We learned a lot about each other, such as Patrick prefers "quiet" while Abraham prefers "loud" (especially when we're playing music)!

No two flags were the same, yet they all are clearly symbols of American pride!  Happy Flag Day, Everyone!

Wednesday

Today was National Megalodon Day so we tried to scare ourselves by learning about this gigantic shark, which, thank goodness, is extinct!  Our resident shark expert, Michelle, read about the megalodon from a book she brought from home.  This ancient shark was so big it was able to eat whales!  We watched a video that debunked a myth that "the meg" is still lurking at the bottom of the sea somewhere.  It's too cold for it way down there!

We also made Father's Day cards which Erik and Xavier were working on here.  Recently, we had a lesson on puns that went over very well, and we've been referencing puns ever since.  So, we found a fun card that expresses our feelings about the amazing fathers and other "men"tors in our lives, and it uses a great pun, too!  

Our "turtle-ly" awesome cards look like this! 😉  We'll add some goodies to a treat bag and send them home for this weekend!

So far, no summer kids' programs are at JRES using the gym, so we took advantage of the space today.  It's nice and cool in there, with plenty of room to spread out.  

We had basketball shooters, walkers, and some playing with the flying disk.  It's a great space!

Annmarie's mom sent us a video today showing Annmarie without her trache!  She's breathing all on her own, drinking with a straw, and speaking in whispers.  We heard her say her name!  Her table mates Sam and Michelle (and all of us) can't wait for her to be able to return to the AoA!  💙💚💛💜

To celebrate National Smile Day, we talked about how powerful a smile can be to boost the spirits of others, as well as ourselves.  We also used this day as an opportunity to learn about our teeth, such as how many we have, what they are called, and how to care for them.  We learned that egg shells and tooth enamel have similar properties, so we did an experiment where we soaked eggs in 4 different liquids to see the effect they would have on staining our teeth.

After a few hours of soaking, the eggs that were in the soda and the blue flavored water, were definitely stained, but when we brushed them, as Laura is doing here, it helped remove some of the stains.  The eggs we soaked in milk and water remained clean and bright.  Our takeaway was that drinking things like soda, coffee, tea, "colorful" drinks, and even eating chocolate, can discolor our teeth but brushing can help mitigate the damage.  Brushing and flossing also remove plaque, and we noted how important that is, too!

Thursday

It's been a while since we had a cook-off, so we had one today, sort of!  It was National Fudge Day and we had all the ingredients we needed for two teams to make two different versions of chocolate fudge.  Xavier, Sam, and Laura made a no butter version that included vanilla.  Everyone agreed it was very tasty, with a hint of vanilla coming through the chocolate!

Kevin, Devin T., Abraham, and Drew followed a recipe that called for butter, but no vanilla, and also added nuts.  We all agreed this one was delicious, too!  It was a little creamier than the other one, and we concluded that was because it included butter.  There were no complaints about either version!  Happy Fudge Day!

We hoped to have a Sloppy Joe Casserole cook-off with two teams, too, but Lisa forgot to bring the ground beef!  We scrambled to work together as one big team, using the chicken we had on hand...for tomorrow's lunch!  So instead of a competition, these two teams pooled their resources and skills to create a "chicken sloppy joe casserole."  Here, Patrick had gathered corn, cheese, ketchup, and mustard.  Alexis, Michelle, and Liz were slicing green and red peppers which we were going to saute with onions and garlic.

We had already cooked the pasta, and Erik had sauteed the chicken for us (we didn't get his picture), so Kate and Adia combined all of the veggies, some cheese, and a couple of cans of fire-roasted tomatoes.  We had a quick "taste test" and decided it was ready to bake!  After about 30 minutes in the oven, our "happy accident" had turned out well!

The chicken sloppy joe casserole was savory and sweet (from the corn and a little brown sugar), and we really liked it.  With grapes and celery for sides, it was a great lunch!  We're going to repeat the recipe with the forgotten ground beef soon!

Sunday is not only Father's Day, but Juneteenth, which is now a federal holiday celebrating the freedom of slaves at the end of the Civil War.  We tried to understand how slavery could have ever existed in America, and also how it could take so long for word that slaves had been freed to finally reach the entire country in 1865.  These friends worked on a reading comprehension worksheet that had color-coded answers.

These friends each colored a fact sheet about Juneteenth that made a nice history booklet for us to add to our book collection!

Our final activity on this busy day was Disney games!  We had run out of time last week, so we fit them in today.  Everyone got to rotate through three of the games.  Kate, Adia, and Michelle were seriously focused on the game Eye Found It in which they had to spot hidden pictures on the very long gameboard in order to advance to the castle at the finish line, before the clock struck 12!

Laura brought the game Frozen Pop Up, which had her, Kevin, Devin, and Drew racing around the gameboard after popping a die to see how many spaces they could move.   Popping the die was the most fun part of this game!

Liz worked with Sam, Xavier, and Abraham on a matching game.  They were keen on having Xavier on their team as he is pretty good at this game!

A new game we have is called Color Brain.  The object is to identify the colors of people, objects, animals, etc. in Disney movies.  With Erik and Patrick looking on, Alexis was explaing to Carol that she thought colors on the dog Bolt were red and white.  She was correct!

Friday

One thing we were focusing on today was vegetables!  June 17 is Naitonal Eat Your Veggies Day, so we watched a video which reminded us that plants have six parts, and they can all be eaten depending on what the plant is.  If you ask any of our guys, they should be able to name yummy vegetables that come from these plant parts:  roots, stem, leaves, fruit, flower, and seeds!

We were really busy cooking most of our veggies today, so we didn't get any pictures, but here are Devin T., Liz, and Abraham making us an apple-strudel like dessert because today is Apple Strudel Day, too!

To go along with our grilled and roasted veggies, Adia and Xavier helped make a chicken Caesar salad!

Michelle and Kate had an important job that didn't involve cooking.  They had to make sure our yoga mats were numbered on both sides so we could more easily find our assigned mats at yoga time, no matter which way they were rolled!

Meanwhile, we had a guest chef today, Lise (aka, Liz's mom!), and she prepared glazed carrots and this tray of SUPER TASTY roasted cauliflower!  Lise said they tasted like "French fries" and would "melt in your mouth" and that was true!  Michelle, Kevin, and Liz couldn't wait to try it!  Thank you for joining us today, Lise, and for showing us an easy, healthy, and delicious way to include cauliflower in our diet!  We WILL be making it again!

This was our lunch plate, with the glazed carrots and roasted cauliflower.  Lise said it got a little too "roasted" but we thought it tasted great that way!  We also had a serving of mixed grilled veggies that Carol made for us, and our Caesar salad.  Happy Eat Your Vegetables Day!

Yet another day we celebrated today was National Flip Flop Day!  We like to observe this one every couple of years by bringing in a collection of flip flops and playing games.  In the Flip Flop Mix, we have two teams race to collect as many matching pairs as they can.  Here, Alexis and Abraham were quickly trying to find two of a kind!

Kevin got to the pile first in this race, but Kate was coming on strong!

Our second game was called the Flip Flop Flip.  The object was to flip the shoe off your foot so that it landed in a ring.  The rings had different point values.  This game started off a little on the quiet side.

But as we went through lots of turns, the enthusiasm grew!

Laura even figured out a way to get points that was non-traditional, but we still counted it!  National Flip Flop Day was started by Tropical Smoothie Cafe and serves as a way for them to raise money for Camp Sunshine, which serves children dealing with serious illness.  If you wear flip flops to Tropical Smoothie on Flip Flop Day, they will give you a free smoothie, and ask for your support for Camp Sunshine.  It's a win-win!  Just like our games!  Everyone had fun, and everyone won!

We would like to thank Drew's mom, Donna, for donating cute flip flop decorations and Kevin's mom, Debbie, for the flip flop napkins!  They were both perfect additions to our delightful Flip Flop Day!

After our busy morning, we settled in for an episode of Gilligan's Island.  It was Adia's first time seeing this silly show from the 1960s, but she laughed out loud just like the rest of our gang!  

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Lisa had to leave a little early for an appointment, so we didn't get any pictures of us ending our productive week with a quiet session of yoga, but here's a screenshot of Jaime doing a segment of chair yoga with us!  That was something different with her, and we liked it.  We followed it with a more active segment and then a quiet "Peace Out" segment.  As always, a great way to end our week!

We have news about two of our friends.  First, Annmarie was released from the hospital and is home now!! Next up for her will be occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy.  Wow...she will be busy but it will help her get better faster!  Hang in there, Annmarie! We miss you and we're still pulling for you!

Next, news on Devin B.  He wasn't with us starting this week as he is trying the Next Move Program, a supported job-training experience, at William and Mary.  It runs for six weeks.  We don't know where this may lead Devin, but we want what is best for him.  If he ends up back at the AoA, we will be happy!  If he ends up in an employment situation, we will be proud of him...and miss him!  Keep us posted, Devin!

Here is a look at what we have planned for next week:

Tuesday:  Summer begins today so we'll celebrate by learning about the summer solstice.  It's also National Smoothie Day, so we'll make fruit smoothies to go along with lunch on your own.  You'll get a small smoothie to go with what you bring from home.  After lunch, we will join Christina at the Art Museums of CW for our June lesson.  We hear she's planning something to help us celebrate two things today:  Seashell Day and Selfie Day! 

Wednesday:  We are scheduled for an Eaton Work Day, but as of the publication of this blog, the AC is still not repaired.  We may end up with Eaton work to do at AFCC, but if not, we will have a lesson on the country of Iceland, tackle a few organizational tasks, complete the ladybug craft Karen gave us last week, play Summer Bingo, and slip in a mini-celebration of National Eclair Day!  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  We'll harvest cherry tomatoes, basil, and oregano from our Pizza Pot that we made with the master gardeners so we can make pizza for lunch in celebration of Detroit Style Pizza Day (we'll learn what that is).  It's also Pink Day, so wear pink today if you can!  We'll top our pizza with pink ham and also have a pink grapefruit and spinach salad, plus pink lemonade to round out the meal.  It's also Hydration Day, so we'll have a lesson on water (which we always drink unless it's a special day!)  We'll also catch Mystery Doug episodes about bees and butterflies, and complete a butterfly learning activity our master gardeners gave us!

Friday:  Today is a Pet Supplies Plus work day, so please wear your PSP shirts!  The cooking crew will make sides of cole slaw, baked beans, and Jell-O salad for lunch, to accompany bbq sandwiches provided by Lexi's Gdad.  Yummy, and thanks, Gdad!  In other activities, we will prepare our room for cleaning and pack up a few things to take as next week we are NOT at AFCC.  We will relocate to the Rec Center on Longhill Rd to allow for maintenance work to take place at AFCC.  We'll end the day with yoga, so dress to stretch!

Happy Father's Day weekend to all the amazing fathers and other "men"tors in our lives!  We appreciate and love you!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang