Our week began on Monday...and ended on Tuesday! For the Thanksgiving holiday, the Arc of Abilities has always closed Wednesday-Friday, so in order to have a 2-day week at the center, we come on Monday of Thanksgiving week. It's the only Monday of the year on which we meet, and it's always as great a day as any other! Here's a look at our abbreviated week.
Monday
Guess what we got to celebrate this week...besides Thanksgiving? Adia's birthday!! Actually, her birthday is on Thanksgiving this year, but we celebrated her on Monday. First thing we had to do: make thoughtful birthday cards for her!
Adia requested a movie day for her birthday, so while we made her birthday cards, she popped the popcorn!
Adia chose the movie Encanto, and she also checked it out from the public library for us to use! We settled in with our popcorn and friends.
Encanto was a big hit, and the room was quiet during the movie. That is, until our favorite song came on...but we don't talk about Bruno!
We did some lunch prep before watching the movie, and then Lisa and Carol finished things up for us. Here's Adia's official "birthday with friends" picture! We were missing Annmarie today, but if you look closely, you'll see Karryna popped in to celebrate with us! (So did Tracy, but she missed being in this picture.)
We recently came across a recipe for pumpkin and zucchini lasagna, which Adia asked if we could make for her birthday lunch. It also has sweet maple sausage in it, and it was sooooo good! Definitely a taste of the fall season in this one!
After we made roasted sweet potatoes a couple of weeks ago, using the ones we grew at the garden, everyone asked if we could have them again. This time we had to use sweet potatoes purchased at the store, but they were still very tasty! We just drizzle them with olive oil and honey, and then sprinkle them with a bit of cinnamon, brown sugar, and sea salt. Yum!!
We'd like to thank Adia's family for providing cupcakes and three kinds of sodas today for Adia's birthday party! What special treats! Adia, we wish you a Happy Birthday (on Thursday) and we hope all of your wishes come true!
We'd also like to thank Laura's family for providing these Thanksgiving-themed paper products for our lunch today! We are so thankful for ALL of our AoA Families!
Our Corn Hole Challenge manager, Lisa, announced some player trades today! We saw Patrick and Kate of the Virginia Corn Thunder get swapped with Erik and Annmarie from the Minion Corn Holers. Everyone was cool with our player trades! We then played just for practice, so the traded members could get used to their new team dynamics.
We were suprised when our friend Caroline, along with Therapy Dog Indy, spotted us playing and stopped by to say "hi." They had been visiting students at JRES. It was so much fun to see them!
Speaking of it being fun to see our therapy dog friends, Laura ran into Carol and Casey last Saturday at the Farmers Market in CW! What a great surprise!
Tuesday
After our dance warm up this morning, Kate wanted to show us examples of the Euro currency that is used in Portugal. We learned that 1 Euro has about the same value as 1 US dollar. Very interesting, Kate!
As a review, we watched a video about the history of Thanksgiving. Thank you, President Lincoln, for declaring it a national holiday in 1863. Next, we got unusually serious (so it seems) as we worked with partners to play a game of Thanksgiving Bingo!
Leftover Halloween candies were the prizes today. Maybe that's why everyone was so focused!
It was "warming up" nicely outside (near 50, but very sunny!) so we made our way to the garden at Freedom Park. There, we were very happy to see Krafty Karen! She was tidying up some of the beds.
Adia checked the insect hibernation box that Karen made and installed last month. She didn't see any signs of hibernation yet, but Karen said it would be used when the really cold weather sets in!
Over at the Fairy Garden, Karen showed us a new painted rock that someone left. She wanted Drew to see it, in particular, because she knows he loves French fries. This rock is painted to look like an English cottage with a thatched roof, but the roof looks like fries! Drew agreed!! 🍟
We ate lunch a little after noon, and it was perfect! There was no wind and the sun was still bright. It was a beautiful November afternoon!
Next, we were off to the trail to take a pre-Thanksgiving meal walk, also known as...
A Turkey Trot!!
When we got back to AFCC, we had time for a yoga session with Jaime before drawing names for our Secret Santa exchange. It was kind of crazy and exciting, so we didn't get pictures, but everyone who was here today brought home a red envelope with the "Secret Santa Support Form" for the person whose name they drew.
We hope all of the Secret Santas will have fun selecting gifts for their friends, and will keep the names secret until December 16th!
The name drawings brought our short week to a close. We'll resume AoA sessions on Tuesday, November 29. Here's what we have planned for next week:
Tuesday: We'll spend the morning dancing, checking last week's blog, talking about our Thanksgiving break, and learning about South Carolina, the 8th state to join the Union. The long range forecast looks hopeful for another nice November day so we plan to leave mid-morning for a visit to Yorktown for a picnic, corn hole game, and walkabout to see how they decorate for the holidays. Wear Arc shirts and bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: We are going to begin transforming our room from autumn colors to Christmas ones. We'll create a tree for our entrance wall, and begin coloring some festive pictures. We'll also create our December calendar and vote on which treats to make for our holiday party. (Just voting...no baking yet!) Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is offering Cheesy Pasta Supreme (which lately has turned out to be spaghetti) or Sub of the Day.
Thursday: Our artist friend, Jeff Helm, is returning today to work on a project with us! We'll use cardboard scraps to create artful masterpieces. Jeff suggests wearing clothes that you wouldn't mind getting getting spattered with paint! Jeff will also join us for lunch, which will be Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, apple slices (it's National Red Apple Day), and brownies. After lunch, we will have a history lesson in honor of it being Rosa Parks Day.
Friday: We're celebrating Carol's birthday today! We'll divide into teams to prepare chili with ground turkey, cornbread, and lemon bars for lunch. We'll also continue working on crafts/decorations for our room, and end the day with a new yoga episode from Jaime! Dress to stretch!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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