This was a week of excitement! We had a "time-travel" adventure (sort of), played with the most adorable pups you can imagine, and had our triumphant return to onsite working at Eaton Corporation in the space being renovated with us in mind! We may not have celebrated any birthdays (they return next week!), but that doesn't mean we didn't celebrate! Keep reading to see how awesome our week was.
Tuesday
Today was all about meeting George Wythe. That may seem like an odd thing for our group to get "excited" about, but we felt like we knew him already. Our guys have a healthy interest in American history, and we had learned about George Wythe, including the intriguing circumstances of his death, in our recent read-aloud, Mystery on Church Hill. Interesting stuff!
First, we parked at the CW Visitor Center and rode the shuttle to the historic area. Christina, from the Art Museums of CW, had arranged this adventure for us and was planning to meet us there!
That's Christina in the black coat walking with us on this crisp fall morning to the Wythe House, located on the Palace Green.
Mr. Wythe was there waiting for us. He was going to give us a tour of his home and grounds! (By the way, we didn't talk about his untimely demise!)
Inside the house, Mr. Wythe invited us to sit in his parlor while he gave us some information about his life, this house, and being one of America's Founding Fathers. Did you know that in addition to playing a key role in the Declaration of Independence, he was also the first American law professor, right here at The College of William and Mary?! Such notable Americans as Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Henry Clay, and John Marshall studied under him...often right here in this very house. (Upstairs, in the study!)
We mentioned that the kids in a book we read had tried to find Mr. Wythe's solar microscope to help them solve a mystery. We wondered if such an instrument existed. We already knew from a lesson with Christina that George Wythe was interested in astronomy. Yes! He did have a solar microscope, and since its light source was the sun, Mr. Wythe showed us the hole in a shutter that he would have connected the microscope to, so it could project the images on the slide toward the wall on the other side of the room. That's just what Sam and Derek did in our story!
When we went across the hall to see Mr. Wythe's study, we learned that the solar microscope is not here now because it was damaged, and has been sent for repair. Hmmm....we wonder if that had something to do with Sam and Derek "breaking" in here and using it?! (We didn't rat the boys out, but Mr. Wythe seemed confident that the microscope could be fixed!)
This is Mr. Wythe's handkerchief, a smiliar one of which we had seen before at The Art Museums with Christina! He explained to us that the scenes depicted on it represented what folks back then (1780s) thought might be possible in the YEAR 2000! One picture was of a balloon type "aircraft" that was afloat because of a property of hydrogen, which had been discovered in 1766 by a chemist named Henry Cavendish. Mr. Wythe said during his time, sometimes referred to as the "Enlightenment Period," gentlemen liked to sit around and ponder possibilities, such as putting humans in flight, and they thought it might happen by the year 2000. We would just like to note here, that there were also many "gentle" women who no doubt pondered many ideas during the Enlightenment Period, too! We told Mr. Wythe that one of our mottos is "Stay Curious!" and he liked that!
This was Mr. Wythe's downstairs bedroom. He explained that he slept here during summer months when it was too hot upstairs. Yes, it's always been hot in Virginia in the summertime!
Of course, we thought the dining room was interesting! We learned that during Colonial Times in Williamsburg, the most commonly eaten meat was beef, followed by pork, and then seafood and game. That surprised us! There was a beef roast and a big plate of oysters on display here, along with some vegetables, and it made us drool! Mr. Wythe also pointed out how "wall hangings" were popular in his time. We noticed them all throughout the house, but the bright green shade in the dining room really caught our eye. It was chosen by Mrs. Wythe, and was considered very fashionable!
Abraham thought the upstairs bedroom of Mr. Wythe was very fashionable! Sam thought the bed seemed kind of small, but we didn't mention that, either!
We went to Mr. Wythe's backyard, which he referred to as his "Pleasant Garden." He enjoyed growing flowers and fruit trees, but also had vegetable and herb gardens.
Speaking of "fashionable," Mr. Wythe said these chickens, known as Nankins, were considered fashionable too, for people of "higher station," and while pretty, they weren't practical because of their size. Even though they were raised to be eaten, they yielded very little meat and very small eggs!
We were familiar with many of the herbs grown by Mr. Wythe, thanks to our stellar lessons from the master gardeners. Thanks Karen and Company!! He grows oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and sage to name just a few. We were familiar with some of the ways he mentioned using the herbs, too. 💡
Thank you, Mr. George Wythe, for the interesting tour of your beautiful home and gardens. We enjoyed getting to know you, and learning more about your Colonial Virginia!
We'd like to give a huge shout out to Christina for arranging this fun trip for us! She's tucked in behind Laura, in between Patrick and Adia, in this picture we took in front of the Governor's Palace. Christina has been friends with Mr. Wythe, whose 21st century name is Robert, for years, and he delivered a wonderful tour, just like she promised! Thank you, Christina, for always thinking of fresh and relevant experiences to do with us!
Lisa returned today, but wasn't 100% yet, so we decided to forgo our picnic so she could go home and rest. We returned to AFCC for lunch, Choice Time, dancing, Halloween crafting, and blog checking. We hope to enjoy outdoor dining next Tuesday when we visit the MGs at Freedom Park. Lisa took the camera home with her, so this is the conclusion of today's blog section! 😉
Wednesday
Our guys were in a "good" dance mood this morning, eager for our therapy dogs to arrive! Here are a couple of videos they asked us to capture!
It's hard to believe it's been a month since our furry friends from Therapy Dogs International visited. They returned today, and boy, did we have a doggone good time! They came in Halloween costumes this time! From left to right we had Carol and Casey, Kent and Leo, Caroline and Indy, Ava and Gunther, Lena and Marlo. Aren't they spook-tacular?!
Kevin asked Nan to join his group with Sam and Erik who were reading to Ava and Gunther.
Kent and Leo were enjoying the knock-knock jokes Alexis, Devin T, and Drew were reading!
Here's a video of them, too!
Annmarie chose a book about horses today. Devin B, Patrick, Caroline, and Indy looked at the pictures she showed and helped her read some of the interesting facts, too.
Lena, Marlo, Abraham, and Liz were all smiles as Michelle read a book about dogs!
With his friends Kate, Laura, Adia, and Carol encouraging him, Xavier read aloud for the first time today! Casey was encouraging, too, but was in his usual spot hiding under the table!
After reading in our small groups, we gathered back as a large group to play Halloween games. Here are a few pictures of us during the "Ghost Server Relay" where the servers (us) had to balance the ghost (balloon) on the tray (plate) and race to the other end of the room and back without losing our ghost, or dog assistant!
Lots of concentration, here!
Lots of smiles, here! And also, Carol 2 and Darby (on the right), who joined us just in time for the games!
Heading to the finish line!
Of course we had to grab a video!
We ended our party with a candy treat for all the humans! Ava and Kate both choose Star Burst, as did Xavier, but he was already eating his by the time we came by for the picture! (Can't blame him!)
We are already looking forward to our November visit with the dogs and our handler friends, and we bet you can see why! What a fabulous morning!
The rest of the day flew by. We studied the 7th state, Maryland and realized that we skipped #6, Massachusetts! We'll catch that one next time. For Maryland, we learned that crabbing, especially of blue crabs, is a huge industry for the Chesapeake Bay border state, and the oriole is their state bird. We watched a funny video of a guy named Barry who was sampling "Crab Chips," and he said they were the BEST! We were having them for lunch...like steamed crabs but no mess?! (Click on the pic if you want to hear Barry's review.)
Most of us tried the crab chips, but none of us thought they were the BEST! They were a bit spicy and quite salty, too. Everyone was glad we had a bag of sour cream and onion chips, too. That's truly one of our faves!
We looked at book trailers for Clean Getaway by Nic Stone, which is the next book we're going to read aloud. This one is about a kid who takes a road trip with his grandmother and learns about her experiences in the segregated South. We enjoy books that combine adventure and history. We will learn a lot with this one.
Thursday
Tomorrow is National Reptile Awareness Day, but we will be working at Eaton, so we studied it today. We watched a video that suggested the top 5 best reptiles for "beginners" would be bearded dragons, leopard geckos, crested geckos, corn snakes, and ball pythons! Click the photo if you'd like to watch it!
Since our friend Adia's family has a couple of bearded dragons, we decided to watch another video just about them. We were able to pause the video and ask Adia to clarify some of the information for us. She knows a lot about the care of these popular reptiles. Thanks for the extra info, Adia!
It was cool and sunny and just right for getting fresh air outside today! About half of our gang walked around chatting with each other and listening to music. Liz stopped at the garden to use an app on her phone that identified a pretty flower as a canna lily. We're always learning at the AoA!
The other half enjoyed playing with basketballs, either shooting, passing, or bouncing them to each other.
We officially began the AoA Fall Corn Hole Challenge today with our mixed teams! Meet The Minion Corn Holers: Erik, Xavier, Devin B, Drew, Liz, Adia, and Annmarie (also Abraham, but he was absent today).
Here are the members of Virginia Corn Thunder: Sam, Patrick, Alexis, Laura, Kevin, Kate, Devin T, and Michelle!
Team Minion's Annmarie really focused during this turn and earned a point for her team!
Laura is quite serious about the game, and her team loves when this lefty scores a point, as she did here!
Devin B was thrilled when Xavier took his team's advice to "throw the beanbag in the hole." Two big points!
Kate gave Kevin a high-five for landing two bags on the board for two points!
At the end of today's game, the Virginia Corn Thunder emerged as the winning team. They were pretty happy, but the Minion Corn Holers vowed to come back next time! NOTE: All of our players exhibited excellent sportsmanlike conduct today!
We're getting ready to bid farewell to Kate as she will be in Portugal next week with her family for their friend Sandra's wedding! Sandra, who is our friend, too, and came to cook Colombian food for us twice, is getting married. Congrats to Sandra and Bill! Kate's in the wedding, too! Here's a throwback picture from April when Sandra cooked for us on Kate's birthday.
Kate's family will have some time to enjoy the sights and one thing Kate is looking forward to is riding a splash boat, which looks like a bus, and goes into the water! Click on Kate's picture to see a short clip about it. We all want to join her! Have fun, Kate! We can't wait to hear all about your trip!
Since we'll be at Eaton tomorrow, we moved our yoga session to today.
As usual, lots of good stretching and deep breathing, a bit of mindfulness, and a relaxing peace out at the end!
Friday
Imagine our surprise to walk in and see so many of our Eaton friends lined up to welcome us back! Jorie remarked about how much we were missed and then asked what we thought of the changes to our room?!
We all agreed that we love the more open space, and as Sam said, "It's much roomier now!"
We also love that James can now drive the forklift further in to pick up the pallets of work as we complete them! (Which is what he is doing here in a picture we took later.) No more having to stop the forklift before the double doors, and then have us schlep things out. The double doors are gone! Shelving is going to be added along the walls, so we can store our work, and there are even plans to put in a moving assembly line for us! Stay tuned!
Look what Jorie got as a "Welcome Back" treat for us! Mini-cupcakes and we even had enough to bring some back for an afternoon treat, later. She remembered to get Xavier a gluten-free one, too! Thank you, Jorie! Thank you, James, and Andy (Plant Manager), too! We felt like rock stars when we came back today! We are so excited at what the future holds with Eaton and our vocational program. The possibilities are truly endless, and we are so thankful for your continued (and expanded) support of The Arc of GW and our Arc of Abilities Day Program!
We were all smiles when it was time to get to work! Our tasks today were PowerSlide Door assembly, sorting, and unpacking small parts. We kicked things off with Michelle putting gaskets on the amber lenses for the doors, and Sam unpacking the doors and keeping the "flow" of doors going smoothly between the work tables! 👏👏
Next up, the smiling Label Ladies! Liz, Kate, Adia, and Alexis were all needed in this position to keep the "flow" started by Sam going strong. 👏👏
It takes a lot of focus to tighten all the nuts and bolts, when the doors are "flowing" your way, nonstop. Erik was the man for the job! This team assembled 180 doors today! 👏👏
Not to be outdone, the sorting team of Drew, Devin T, and Devin B went through this huge tub, and then had time to help with an unpacking job! We're not sure, but we think there were several thousands of pieces in this tub when they started! 👏👏
Finally, here are the backsides of a fabulous team, Laura and Abraham, who unpacked over 200 units of plastic parts by themselves today! Lisa apologizes for not getting a closeup of them, because their proud smiles would have told it all. They even went back to work while the rest of us were still on "lunch break." 👏👏
It really was a triumphant return to working onsite at Eaton! Thank you to our amazing AoA members who always step up with excellent team work! Cameron picked a great day to visit, as he is missed on our Eaton team, but more importantly, because he loves cupcakes and Jorie let us bring the extras back!
What a sweet ending to a sweet week! Here's how we will send out October next week. It's going to be wild!
Tuesday: We will wrap up our fall sessions with the master gardeners today with a fun lesson about bulbs and, hopefully, a sweet potato harvest! If the weather cooperates, we'll head over to Jamestown Beach Event Park for a picnic and bocce game, and then return to AFCC to work on Halloween decorations/crafts for our upcoming party on Friday. Wear Arc shirts and bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: Today we will be busy making decorations for Tracy's upcoming Parks & Rec Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event on Saturday. It is being held at AFCC and we are helping her prepare! We will also celebrate National Pumpkin Day by making the rosemary roasted pumpkin seed recipe that the master gardeners shared with us. (We had to postpone this a couple of times.) We'll find out what the world's largest spider is, too, when we watch a Mystery Doug episode and complete a hands-on activity. Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria will be offering Chicken Sandwich or Hot Dog!
Thursday: Happy BIG 3-0 Birthday to KEVIN today! We're going to celebrate his special day with his favorite music and a team-building puzzle activity, and his family is treating us to a 30th Birthday Luncheon of subs, sides, and a special cake! Thanks, Debbie, for arranging this for us!! We will also make birthday cards for our friend James, at Eaton, and deliver them to him after lunch, before returning to the center for Jaime's Halloween yoga, so dress to stretch. (We'll be way too busy partying again tomorrow to squeeze in yoga!)
Friday: Party time continues today as we combine Alexis's Birthday Party with our annual Halloween Party! Feel free to wear a costume...simple or not-so-simple...and, as always, it's optional! We'll dance, play games, and take movement breaks throughout the day! For lunch, Lisa will treat us to party foods including Mummy Dogs, Meaty "Eye"balls, a Veggie Skeleton, Monster Popcorn, Vampire Punch, and Spider Web Cookie Bars. However, we have to do the cooking!
Saturday, Oct. 29 - If you're up for getting some treats, and in the area of AFCC, stop by for Parks & Rec's Disability Awareness Trick or Treat. Tracy and Karryna have put together lots of vendors, and don't forget that the AoA is helping with the decorations, so check it out!
What a week to come!
Happy Weekend, Everyone,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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