We have a few loyal followers of our blog, and we know you must think all we ever do is party...and you may be right! We seem to go through phases when there is one birthday after another. That's the case this week with Kevin and Alexis. Throw in Halloween, and well, all we ever do is party! Actually, we had a quiet start to the week as we met for the final time this year with our master gardener friends on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we hung around the center and just prepared to party. But by Thursday, we were in full blown party mode! Read all about our Triple Party Fun below!
Tuesday
Tuesday found us wrapping up our fall sessions with the master gardeners. We began by checking our sweet potatoes, with fingers crossed that there would be some to harvest. MG Barbara got the shovel and started digging!
It took a few minutes to find anything, but soon we were pulling up what to us were some odd-looking sweet potatoes, as Annmarie shows here. Karen said they are a variety known as "Beauregard sweet potatoes" and they grow as long tubers with purply-pink skin.
We all giggled when Michelle pulled up a bigger one and said it looked like a mustache! We ended up with a bagful and will have to decide how to cook them. Yummy! Barbara, you did a great job with the digging!! 👏👏
Look at this neat "hibernation" box Karen made! It's got bamboo, little pinecones, and gumballs all stacked up and glued inside. During the colder months, insects will crawl in to hibernate! Karen said to keep our eyes on the bamboo, especially, because insects will crawl inside and then put a seal over the end of the bamboo. We will come by and check on this every now and then. Something new to observe! Thanks, Karen!!
Next, we learned about bulbs and planted our annual pot full of daffodil, tulip, hyacinth, and crocus bulbs, topped with pretty pansies. Adia assisted Karen in planting them in layers, while Michelle showed us a picture of what the tulips will look like.
MG Liz told us that she plants between 500-1,000 bulbs every year on her property! She showed us pictures of some things she plants, and said she has learned to plant things that will grow and bloom at different times, so she always has something pretty to look at!
Vickie showed us a suprise amaryllis bloom she discovered on her porch yesterday. It had bloomed last winter, and she didn't think it would bloom again. It was so big and beautiful!
Joanne helped us plant garlic bulbs, while Vickie told us a funny story about her husband putting waaaayyyy too many garlic cloves in spaghetti sauce one time! Later, Karen will come back and plant onions. We will harvest them in the spring and make some tasty pasta sauce!
We also harvested mustard greens and this beautiful Swiss chard, which will end up in our "veggie skeleton" for Friday's parties!
The last thing we did with the MGs was present a donation to them from The Arc, and share some of our favorite memories from this year.
We created a booklet, and included pictures from this year. Everyone had a small part to share, and we did a GREAT job! Thank you, Master Gardeners, for another wonderful season of friendship, engagement, and learning. We are thankful for you!!
But wait...there was more! On the way out, MG Elizabeth took us over to the tree where "Blackie," the garden's black snake, was hanging out! He was trying to get some sun, but it was kind of cloudy outside. Lisa cannot believe she got close enough to get this picture...
Elizabeth suspected Blackie was eating a mouse, as there was a bit of a bulge about halfway down his very relaxed body!
Look at this plate of deliciousness! Krafty Karen baked us some pineapple sage pound cake!! This is Liz and Annmarie for the photo op, but after tasting it, Adia said, "Karen should win a bunch of ribbons for her baking!" Yes, she should! 🥇🥇🥇
By the time we finished our session with the master gardeners, it was a little after 12, so instead of going to Jamestown Beach we decided to stay at Freedom Park for lunch and bocce. It was a mild day, and kind of cloudy, but we enjoyed our lunch and games nonetheless.
We had so many players getting their balls close to the jack. They are very good at bocce!
We love their concentration! After bocce, we returned to the center for Choice Time and to write thank you letters to George Wythe, for giving us a tour of his home last week. It was a very nice day!
Wednesday
Heike returned today! She went home to visit her family in Germany 3 weeks ago, and we missed her. She said she had a wonderful time catching up with family, eating her father's home-cooked meals, and seeing friends from high school. We are so glad she had a good time, but also glad she's back!
We also celebrated our custodian Sevarina today with a birthday card and bag of goodies! Her birthday was last Sunday. We don't get to see her as much as we see Heike, but we really appreciate what Sevarina does each morning before we arrive to make sure our room is clean from what the Rec kids do in the evenings! Happy Belated Birthday, Sevarina!
Today is National Pumpkin Day! We spent time learning about the parts of a pumpkin (it has ribs and a belly button!), and drooling over potential recipes we could try, like this one for Pumpkin Lasagna that Abraham and Kevin are down for! We can make that happen sometime around Thanksgiving, we think!
Our master gardener friends gave us a pumpkin, and a recipe for Rosemary Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, so we made it today. The fresh rosemary was picked at the garden yesterday!
After Carol cut into the pumpkin, Devin B used his muscles to split it apart! Only a few seeds went flying across the room!
Adia, Erik, and Alexis volunteered to separate the seeds from the "brains," aka, the strands. We watched a video for the recipe that suggested putting the seeds/strands in water to help with the separation, and it worked like a charm!
We forgot to take a picture of the seeds boiling for 10 minutes, but that was another tip we learned from the video. It would help make the seeds crunchy when they roasted, and not too tough. Sam, Drew, and Kevin measured the olive oil, brown sugar, and freshly minced rosemary for the seasoning mix.
After the seeds boiled, Laura and Annmarie patted them dry before we added them to the seasoning.
Here they go into the delicious smelling rosemary/brown sugar seasoning!
Patrick and Xavier gave the seeds a good stir so they would be well-coated with the seasoning.
While our pumpkin seeds baked, Lisa read the next chapter of Clean Getaway. Scoob and G'ma are on a road trip in G'ma's new RV, and they pulled into a campsite in Alabama where Scoob hooked up for water and electricity at an EATON pedestal that we helped assemble....haha!
Even though we had our eye on the lower end of the 20-25 minutes, our pumpkins seeds baked just a little too long. It didn't matter, though! Our gang loved them and said they tasted like popcorn. YUM! They were crunchy on the outside (husks), and the inside, where the little seed (pepita) is, was very savory! We will save this recipe. Thanks, Master Gardeners!! Happy Pumpkin Day!!
Thursday
What a great day to turn 30, and Kevin did it with flair! We played all of his favorite tunes during dance warm up, including "Keep Your Head Up," and Kevin sang his heart out!
We played team games, too. It's always fun when we use balloons. We did relay races today. Patrick, Erik, and Michelle were bopping their balloons and keeping good control, too!
In this game, we had to pass the balloons over our heads. Seems simple enough!! 😁
Here, we were passing the balloons between our legs to the person behind us. Kevin and Laura were on it!
The most fun of all was trying to walk with the balloons between our legs! We learned that it helped if we kind of waddled like a penguin!
Since Kevin loves puzzles, we split into groups and worked on some of our 100 piece puzzles.
It was an enjoyable activity for our guys, and the quietest half-hour of our week! ✅ Kevin and Xavier are our puzzle experts, and you can see in this picture that they took command of their groups! 👍
This was the first group to finish a puzzle. It may have helped that theirs had ALL the pieces, while our other groups had to trade a few pieces! We need to do this activity again until we get all of our puzzle pieces back where they belong...
Soon it was time for lunch, and Kevin's mother arrived with subs! Yum, the room smelled so good, but first, we had to arrange ourselves for an official birthday photo with Kevin. Can you believe he's 30 today?!
Many thanks to Kevin's mom, Debbie, for treating us to delcious subs from a local spot in Newport News called Subway Station. They really hit the spot, and along with the chips and tea, made a perfect birthday lunch! As an added bonus, Debbie stayed and ate with us...and then went with us to Eaton to see James for his birthday!
What a delicious cake we had today! It was from a place called Nothing Bundt Cakes, and Debbie promised us we would love it. She was right! Thanks for choosing chocolate/chocolate chip, Kevin, and we really hope all your wishes come true!
Happy 30th Birthday, Kevin!!!!
After celebrating Kevin, we hopped into the vans for a ride over to Eaton. James' birthday is on Halloween, which is Monday. James is a true "treat," by the way! We made cards and brownies for him, and he was delighted with our special delivery! We wish you a wonderful birthday, James, and hope all of YOUR wishes come true, too!
Then, it was back to the center for a Halloween inspired yoga session with Jaime.
Since we are wearing costumes tomorrow, we moved yoga to today. It's easier to move in our "stretchy" clothes!
Debbie was hanging around waiting for Kevin's day to end, so Lisa and Carol put her to work "hanging" a few decorations for Tracy's Disablitiy Awareness Trick or Treat event that's on Saturday. Debbie did a great job! We'll add more decorations tomorrow, and this place will be ready for the fun event!! Thanks for lending a hand (or two), Debbie!
Friday
Is it possible to party too much? Have we asked that question before?! Well, the answer is definitely "NO" at the Arc of Abilities! Today we celebrated Lexi's birthday and Halloween, and doesn't the crew look smashing?! Annmarie must have been in the restroom...and Kate is in Portugal, but other than that, the gang was all here!
We danced, played games, and did several rounds of movement videos. In this one, we had to choose a Halloween character and do the exercise they were doing. Our two Devins went for the push-ups and it looks like the others were trying to decide????
We continued helping get the AFCC decorated for Tracy's Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event which is tomorrow! Kevin, Michelle, Annmarie, and Xavier hung bats that we made!
Tracy appreciated the help she got from Abraham, Devin B, and Erik to help unload a lot of decorations from her van!
We got real busy preparing all the party food we had for lunch, and didn't get any pictures, but when it was all done, it was great! One of the highlights was our veggie skeleton! Isn't it the cutest?! Most skeletons don't have hair, but our freshly-picked Swiss chard from the garden makes ours unique!
Lexi, who was Mal from Disney's Descendents, and Carol, who was the Ring Master of the Greatest Show in Town, the AoA, posed in front our our party spread! From Mummy Dogs and BBQ Eyeballs, to Monster Popcorn, Vampire Punch, and the Veggie Skeleton, we couldn't wait to dig in! Thanks, Lisa, for providing this fun feast for Lexi's Halloween Birthday Party. And Lisa would like to thank Kevin's mom, Debbie, for providing all the veggies!
Aren't these Rice Krispie Treats kind of scary?! They tasted great, though!
Nan had been with Gdad all week while he's in the hospital, but she wanted to see us today and celebrate Lexi's birthday. 💖 She and Lexi were so happy that some of Lexi's cousins could stop by and party with us. Welcome Misty and Sydney (from Orlando) and of course, Kelly, Haley, and Jordan!
Another round of movement we had was this video in which we did an exercise for 20 seconds and when the "hot lava" appeared, we had to find creative ways to get our feet off the floor. Our chairs came in handy! We want to remember this one.
It wouldn't be a party without Bingo! We played a new version of Halloween Bingo and Xavier and Devin were our first winners! We had a very generous bag of snack-sized candy bars that Annmarie brought to share, so they were our prizes today! Thank you, Annmarie and Family!!
In fact, we hit the jackpot with candy today! In addition to Annmarie's contribution, Devin B and Devin T's families also sent treats! We saved the goodie bags for take home treats, and nibbled on the loose ones throughout the day. You're never too old for "Trick or Treat" at an AoA party! Many thanks to Devin B and Devin T's families, too. We appreciate the time it took to make the goodie bags! Our AoA families are the best!
We ended the day with a Mystery Doug Double Feature. First, we learned why some pumpkins are orange, and then we learned that most bats eat insects and/or fruit, but there is one bat who eats blood! Don't worry, vampire bats only suck blood from other animals, like pigs, and the animal "victims" don't even realize it's happening!
On that note, we wrapped up a funtastic week of triple parties with a bit of quiet fun tossed in, too! Believe it or not, we will take a party break next week...but the week after we will celebrate TWO more!! 😂😂😂
Here's our plan for the first week of November:
Wednesday: We will update our November calendar this morning, with lots to squeeze in this month! We also have Eaton work to do at the center. We'll play another round of Fall Corn Hole Challenge with our mixed teams, and begin a bird watching activity the master gardeners gave us. Today is also Stress Awareness Day, so we will review the many strategies we have learned for managing our sometimes stressful situations, whether it be "positive" or "negative" stress. Lunch on your own. The JRES Cafeteria is serving your choice of Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Sub of the Day. 😋
Thursday: It's a PSP Work Day this morning, so please wear PSP shirts today! It's also National Men Make Dinner Day, which we will turn into Men Make Lunch Day! Since it's also National Sandwich Day, the men who are not working at PSP this morning will be preparing the rest of us a lunch of classic BLT sandwiches with a side of pasta salad. We'll spend the afternoon catching up on our read-aloud and having a yoga session with Jaime, so dress to stretch with your PSP shirts.
Friday: We're headed to Eaton for a work day! Wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.
Saturday, November 5th: It's time for the 5k! We look forward to seeing you at Williamsburg Landing for our 13th annual race. It's our biggest FUNdraiser of the year, and we are grateful for your support! Here's a shoutout to our official sponsors!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
