Birthday Boys!

This week we celebrated TWO birthdays, Abraham's and Erik's!  Their special days on Tuesday and Wednesday were the highlights of our week, but we had a LOT of other fun and engaging experiences, too.  Everyone was in attendance and we were happy to welcome Lisa, Nan, Alexis, Laura, and Devin B back from their travels on Tuesday, though Lisa's was short-lived.  We had a super gardening session with the MGs, tried a new recipe, and had a blast with Mike at The Watermen's Museum in Yorktown, too.  Here's a look at our big, beautiful, and busy "Birthday Boy" week!

Tuesday

Before we settled in to celebrate Abraham's birthday with lunch and dancing, we visited with our master gardener friends for a wonderful lesson on fall spices, followed by a fall scavenger hunt!

MG Jay talked to us about nutmeg, which he said was brought to the Americas in the 1600s.  It doesn't grow well in North America, but it does in Central and South America.  He also gave us a recipe for pumpkin pie that was from the Jamestown days...as well as an updated and "modern" version, both of which use nutmeg for seasoning!

Barbara gave us the scoop on cloves, which we learned are the unopened buds of a flower from an evergreen tree that grows about 25 feet tall and is native to Indonesia.  She mentioned that cloves (sometimes whole, sometimes ground) are used in a variety of cooking to flavor such tasty things as baked ham and warm, mulled beverages.

Liz shared information about one of our favorite spices, cinnamon!  She likes that cinnamon has a lot of health benefits including to aid in managing blood sugar and blood pressure.  She said it's easy to enjoy cinnamon on things like oatmeal and toast, or in tea, and get "tasty" health benefits at the same time! 

Krafty Karen finished up the spice lesson by teaching us that ginger grows as a "rhizome," which means it's actually an underground stem, not a root, even though it's often called ginger root!

Next, we enjoyed delicious homemade (by Karen) ginger snap cookies which also contained nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves!  Karen gave us a jar of homemade apple butter, which contained today's spices, too!  Thanks, Karen!  We absolutely love your homemade treats!

Another "treat" we got today was a pot into which ginger rhizome has been planted so we can grow our own!  This was left at the garden for us by MG Elizabeth M, who isn't able to join us at our regular sessions, but who is always thinking of ways to get us excited about plants.  She's the MG who gave us the avocado tree plants, of which two are still growing for us!  Thanks, Elizabeth M, for your thoughtfulness.  We look forward to watching the ginger grow...and to cooking with it in the future!

After enjoying our ginger snaps and apple juice, we headed out for a fall scavenger hunt in the garden! 

 Here, Joanne's group was examining a leaf from our sweet potato plants.  We had to find two different kinds of leaves.

Erik and Patrick were looking for a pine cone and finally found a small one!

Here's a collection of items found by one of our groups.  What a fun way to explore the garden!

Here is MG Carolyn's journal page detailing today's visit.  MG Rich was back to help with pictures, and as always, they create a beautiful documentation of our time spent in the garden!

After our morning at the garden, we were excited to get back to the center to celebrate Abraham's birthday!  We had prepared a chicken pasta salad before we left, and we knew it would be chilled perfectly by now.  Abraham's mom sent a beautifully decorated confetti cake, so we were set for lunch!  Thank you, Mona', it was great!  AND,  all 16 of our members were here today, too!  Yay!

Here's the Birthday Boy after he had blown out his candles.  We hope you have a great year ahead, Abraham, and all your wishes come true, too!

🎵🎵 Happy Birthday to you! 🎵🎵

Abraham loves to dance, so we ended the day with a dance party to all of his favorite tunes!

Wednesday

Today Lisa had to stay home because of sore throat symptoms, but everyone rallied and we had another fantastic birthday celebration.  This time, it was for Erik!

We spent the morning making Erik's cards and assembling The Arc's November mailing.  We also went outside and enjoyed the nice weather.  But when it was finally party time, pizzas from Domino's showed up to join a beautiful salad Erik's mother made, along with a selection of his favorite sodas, Fresca and Black Cherry!

This was Erik's first birthday party with the AoA, and we hope it won't be his last.  Thank you so much, Diane and Art, for sponsoring this yummy lunch.  We are so happy Erik is part of our team, and we hope all his wishes come true!

For many of us, it was our first time trying Erik's favorite soda, Fresca!  We thought it was different, and refreshing!

For a different kind of birthday dessert, we made frozen chocolate-covered bananas!  We have never tried this before and it was a big hit!

Happy Birthday, again, Erik!  We had a blast today!

As we mentioned earlier, we assembled The Arc's November mailing, so be sure to check out the upcoming events and send your sign up sheet to Kellie by October 21st!

Thursday

We thought Lisa might be back today, but she's still sick, so we had to cancel our Pet Supplies Plus work day.  We are grateful to Scott and Roxanne for rolling with us on short notice, and we will look forward to getting back to the store soon!

It also rained today...but we rallied again and had a great day!  (We just didn't take many pics.)

Liz and Carol got the beef browned for our vegetable beef soup.  That was going to hit the spot on a rainy day!

October 13 is Yorkshire Pudding Day, and in America, we call it "popovers."  On their trip to New England, Lisa, Nan, and Alexis enjoyed popovers and tea at Acadia National Park in Maine, so we were curious to try and recreate popovers at the AoA...

Laura's mom, Lisa P, has a popover pan which we borrowed (thanks, Lisa!), and we found an easy recipe.  Unfortunately, we didn't master the art of popovers, as ours were a bit dense, but we still celebrated Yorkshire Pudding Day and had fun trying!

While the popovers left a little to be desired, the veggie soup was delicious, and we had left over salad from Erik's birthday, too!  It was a great lunch!

Since we'll be in Yorktown tomorrow, we moved yoga to this afternoon.  

We enjoyed a new segment with Jaime, based on a children's book called Grandude's Green Submarine by Paul McCartney.  It was fun, and as always, some good stretching!

Friday

We were thrilled to see sunshine and temperatures predicted to be in the 70s for our trip to The Watermen's Museum and a lesson with Mike.  Lisa was still under the weather, so we welcomed Liz's dad, Greg, to help us out today.  Thank you, Greg!

We have a lot of pictures, too!

Mike's lesson today centered around fall decorations and how items found in nature were used for decorating long ago, and still are today, so we took a little walk outside to look for leaves.  He mentioned that the decorations long ago were often used to help ward off evil spirits!

We helped gather leaves so he could use them in a decoration for the Victory in Yorktown weekend event.  It's the anniversary of the surrender by British forces to General Washington, and Yorktown will be hopping with activities this weekend.  If you're out and about, stop by!

Back inside, Mike gave us materials to make 3D pumpkins that can be used as decorations, such as on a table.  

Mike said Halloween is a "big party to keep away the evil spirits" but we know it's much more fun than that!

Everyone decorated one or two pieces for each centerpiece.  

We had a lot of creative ideas!

Greg worked with this group to come up with decorating ideas for their pumpkin pieces.  

We used the leaves we found outside and Mike's real pumpkin to make this table arrangement.  It will be one of the decorations for Victory at Yorktown Weekend!

Our 3D pumpkins came back to the center.  We will use them as decorations at our Halloween party later this month!  Thanks, Mike, for a fun and engaging time, as usual!  You really grab our attention!

Here's a closeup of our adorable 3D pumpkins!

It was a perfect day to eat outside near the York River, and we were able to snag the shelter at the park.  Nice!  After lunch, we went for a walk and took a ride on the trolley, which will end service for the season soon.  We'll miss it!  

Back at the center, we enjoyed Choice Time.  Sam, Devin B, and Laura played Candyland.  In the backgroud, on the sofa, Patrick checked scores on his phone and Alexis solved a puzzle on her iPad.  Also in the background, Devin T and Drew listened to music, Liz read on her iPad, and Kevin solved a jigsaw puzzle.

Soon, a certain favorite song of Drew's and Devin T's came on, and Greg couldn't resist joining in on their dance moves!

We ended our day (and week) with a fun game of corn hole outside on our "lawn."  This was the last time we would play boys vs. girls for a while.

Next week we'll begin our Fall Challenge series, and we're going to form mixed teams!

Carol had a surprise for us after Corn Hole!  Today was National Dessert Day, so we celebrated with Little Debbie Cakes!   Awww!!  Thanks, Carol!

As October rolls along, we are thankful for a good week and the support we had during Lisa's absence.  Thanks to EVERYONE for stepping up and keeping our team moving forward!  

Here's what we have planned for next week.

Tuesday:  This is a day we are very excited about!  We're going to hook up with Christina for a tour of the George Wythe House in CW, and we'll get to meet George, too!  We recently read a book from the Virginia Mystery Series that featured the George Wythe House, so this is a great opportunity.  We'll follow our visit with a picnic and walk if it's not too cool, so bring a bagged lunch and wear your Arc shirt.

Wednesday:  This is another day we are excited about...the therapy dogs and their handlers are coming!  We'll read, play games, and socialize with them during a fun and engaging visit.  We are also planning to study the 7th state, Maryland, today.  Since crab cakes, are out of our budget, we will try to find Utz "Crab Chips" to enjoy with grilled cheese sandwiches, fresh veggies, and fruit salad for lunch! 

Thursday:  We'll explore Reptile Awareness Day (Oct. 15) with science lessons and fun videos.  We'll officially kick off our Fall Corn Hole Challenge and this season, we're playing on mixed teams.  We will also move yoga to today, so dress to stretch.  Lunch on your own, but the JRES Cafeteria is available with choices being Domino's Pizza, Steak and Gravy w/ Dinner Roll, or Chef Salad!

Friday:  Guess what?!  Another exciting day is here:  We return to EATON for a work day!  It's been months since the AC conked out at Eaton, and it was too hot for us to go during the summer months, as Eaton waited on parts to arrive to repair the system.  In the meantime, they have done renovations to "our" room, and we cannot wait to see the space!  Bring a bagged lunch and wear Eaton shirts!  This will be a celebratory day!!

What an amazing week in store for us!  

Also, in case you missed it, the 5k was rescheduled for November 5th at Williamsburg Landing!  If you weren't able to make it on the original date, we hope you can join us on November 5th.  Registration has reopened through November 1st at this link:

Arc 5k Registration

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang