We welcomed October this week. It's a big month for birthdays around here (5 of us!), and we kicked off our celebrations with Lisa's on Friday. She prepared bbq just like Gdad used to, and we really enjoyed it. We also worked at Pet Supplies Plus this week, finished our very cool watercolor and ink projects with Artist Jeff, had a blast at bowling, and welcomed Caroline and Tracy as substitutes. October is going to rock!
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But first...look what happened on Saturday, September 30th:
Our very own Adia attended the Community Art Day event and participated in the Chalk Art Contest! We are so proud of you, Adia! Your recreation of one of the pieces from the Muscarelle Museum's collections is beautiful! Way to go! 👏👏
Tuesday
It didn't take long for the first of many high fives to happen at bowling today! Drew got a spare on his first turn and his friends were ready to salute him!
Bowling is fun, but it's also relaxing. Some of the guys like to stay up near the action and keep their eyes on their teammates or the scoreboard, while others prefer to chill at the tables in between their turns.
Xavier and Kate had just let their balls go and were watching for pins to fall, while Kevin had positioned his ball on the rack and was about to let it rip!
Sam and Michelle enjoyed chatting today!
Erik, Kevin, Kate, and Abraham were almost finished with their turns, and were hoping it was getting close to pizza time!
After the games, we picked up our 🍕🍕🍕 from Domino's and headed to Freedom Park. It was an unbelievably gorgeous day to eat outside with friends! We also had grapes and bananas to celebrate National Eat Fruit at Work Day. 🍇🍌 Adia commented, "But we aren't working." Lisa, Carol, and Nan replied, "Some of us are," as they served hot pizza as quickly as they could! 😉
We walked over to the garden and noticed that our sweet potato vines still look good, as do the mustard greens and Swiss chard. The beets and kale seemed small and sparse, but maybe they need a little more time.
We had perfect attendance today! 👀👀
After checking the garden, we got in a walk of just under a mile (round trip) before time turned us around. About 1/2 of our guys are gearing up for Saturday's 5k and Fun Mile walk!
We stopped by Grove Christian Outreach Center on the way back to our center so we could give Ruth farewell cards and well wishes. Ruth is the beloved Food Ministry Coordinator at GCOC, and she has served in her role with all of her heart for over 10 years. The time has come for Ruth and her husband to return home to Pennsylvania where they will spend time with grandchildren and help care for elderly parents. We adore Ruth, as she was the first contact we had at GCOC when we held our first food drive back in 2016. She will be very missed by us, her Grove community, and especially her coworkers. We wish you all the best, Ruth. Thank you for all you've done for the Grove community.
We have to throw in this picture of the outside of the Abram Frink Community Center, which is having an outside door put in so the kitchen/meeting area can be accessed without having to enter the main part of the building. No workers were here today...we wonder when the job will be finished?! Stay tuned!
Wednesday
Wednesday is JRES Library Day! Laura, Liz, and Lexi have an efficient system for shelving books. Laura sorts them by section and brings them to Liz and Lexi who quickly place them in the correct spots on the shelves before they all move to the next section!
The library gals were excited to see JRES Principal, Mrs. Washington today! She thanked them for being such good volunteers!
It was the girls' lucky day when they also ran into JRES Assistant Principal, Ms. Vallone! She's always happy to see what AoA members are up to, and complimented the girls for their great work today!
We are getting our room ready for the fall season, and one thing that says fall is apples! Sam and Michelle worked on the homework Krafty Karen gave us at last week's garden session. We made spinner wheels so we could review the stages of the apple's life cycle. Thank you for the materials, Karen! The spinner makes it easy to follow the apple's life cycle phase by phase, and we reminded ourselves that the cycle could take up to 8 years! 🍎🍏🍎🍏
The apple spinners ended up as part of our window display, along with some fall pictures and acorns. On the window sill are the cute squirrels we made recently using toilet paper rolls, and a paper pumpkin craft we made this morning. All the fall decorations put us in the mood for fall favorites, like roasted pumpkin seeds and freshly baked pumpkin bread...which were next on our agenda!
October 4 is National Pumpkin Seed Day! We used a pie pumpkin this year to get our seeds, because we also wanted to make fresh pumpkin puree to use in a pumpkin bread recipe. We learned that large pumpkins are grown for decorations, like jack-o-lanterns, and the smaller pie pumpkins are better for cooking. Abraham was excited to twist the stem off for us!
We watched a video that suggested we use a large knife and mallet to split open the pumpkin, so with Carol's assistance, Liz gave the knife (one of Gdad's "substantial" ones) a couple of good whacks, and the pumpkin split apart!
Next, we scooped out the insides and removed the seeds, which we roasted for a snack. We were surprised at how many seeds were in the small pie pumpkin.
To make the pumpkin puree, we needed to salt and then bake the pumpkin halves. Adia added the salt, and we popped them into the Nina for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, we worked on a pumpkin craft. As Patrick, Alexis, and Annmarie show, we had a template that looked like a flower. We colored it orange, and then added doodles with black markers or crayons. Each "petal" had a hole punched on the end, and the next step was to fold each one up and over a pipe cleaner stem to make a three-dimensional pumpkin.
Here are a few from our pumpkin patch!
While Laura held her pumpkin, Drew and Xavier checked the baked pumpkin halves to see if the pulp was soft and tender. Their thumbs up told us it was time to make pumpkin bread!
We decided to bake the pumpkin bread in our brownie pans, so we would have individual servings. It turned out very moist and flavorful, and we decided that using these pans is a good idea for baking breads. Our roasted pumpkin seeds were crunchy and tasty, too!
Artist Jeff is coming tomorrow, and we will be busy with art, so we started lunch preparations today. Erik cooked and seasoned the meat for our taco salads. Today is National Taco Day, but we will celebrate tomorrow!
Meanwhile, we also updated our calendar with October activities. It was a busy morning with everyone chipping in to get a lot done!
After lunch and read-aloud, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and played a girls vs. boys game of corn hole. It was a close game most of the way, but the boys pulled ahead in the last round and won, 22-16. Congrats, guys!
Thursday
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We're feeling sad for our friends Carol and Kate who have lost loved ones this week. Carol's family is in our thoughts as she travels to Minnesota to celebrate the life of her beloved sister-in-law, who passed away after a courageous and dignified experience with a cancer diagnosis. Kate's family is in our thoughts as they mourn the loss of her father's mother, Kate's beloved grandmother, after a lengthy illness here in Williamsburg. Carol and Kate, please know we are holding you close in our hearts and wish for peace and comfort for both of your families during these difficult times.
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We were pleased to welcome our friend Caroline to fill in for Carol today. Caroline, also known as Pip and Indy's "mom," has joined The Arc of Greater Williamsburg's volunteer corps, and we're thrilled to get to work with her! Thanks so much for the assist today, Caroline! It's nice to have an extra set of hands when one of our instructors is absent. (Or paws, if you bring Pip and Indy next time. LOL!) We appreciate everything you did to help our busy day run smoothly!
October 5th is National Get Funky Day, which is a day to spread positivity and good cheer. We wore our funkiest colors and beads today, so Caroline snapped a picture of us before our Funky Festivities began!
Of course there was dancing...look closely and you will see Devin's unique brand of funky! 😎
Is there a better way to spread positivity than with high fives? One of our favorite activities is complimenting one another, and every now and then we purposefully do so. Today, everyone picked the name of someone else to high five and compliment. Tessa told Kate that Kate's shirt was pretty and colorful!
Adia delighted in telling Kevin how much she loves the cheerful way he greets her (and everyone) each morning when he arrives!
Annmarie stretched to give Patrick a high five and said he is "a good man."
When it was Pat's turn, he had Drew's name and didn't hesitate to compliment Drew for being a great Buddy Ball Baseball player. We'd like to add that Drew was rocking his funky vest, too!
Liz drew Caroline's name and complimented her for being very sweet and helpful, and we couldn't agree more! We couldn't include everyone's high five compliments, but trust us, they were sincere and on point, and everyone nodded in agreement to what they said about one another. 👏💖
Soon it was time to work with Artist Jeff! We were adding ink drawings to our watercolor backgrounds today, and planning to put them on display for this weekend's An Occasion for the Arts. Jeff set up his easel so he could give us some Halloween themed drawing lessons. We could follow along, step-by-step, or draw whatever else we felt like. Jeff is very encouraging of our creativity and uniqueness!
Abraham worked on pumpkins following Jeff's steps. Michelle went with werewolves and zombies!
Jeff taught us an easy way to draw a spider, and Tessa nailed it!
In addition to teaching us how to draw Halloween themed pictures, Jeff also encouraged us to use patterns and doodles to fill them in, giving them texture and causing them to come to life on the paper. It was an interesting, fabulous, and FUNky, and lesson!
Devin and Sam were rightfully very proud of their drawings of Frankenstein, spiders, and haunted forests.
Devin was excited to show his finished product to Jeff, who has a way of pointing out more to it than what meets the eye, and that always amazes us!
We haven't taken many food pictures lately, but today's taco salad was sooo good, we just had to show it off! It kind of looks like a work of art, doesn't it?! 🤣
But wait...there's more! We made blueberry crumb bars for the first time yesterday and they were wonderful. We forgot to take them out of the fridge so they wouldn't be so cold, but it turns out we kind of liked them that way!
The only other picture we took today was with Jeff and our watercolor/ink masterpieces. Everyone was here today, so this is a lot of creative expressions! Jeff, thanks again for a wonderful couple of weeks and a lesson that we enjoyed very much. You inspired us once again. We love working with you and look forward to our next adventure together!
Don't forget that Jeff will be one of the featured artists in the 2023 Greater Lanexa Studio Tour the weekend of October 21-22! Everyone brought home a brochure last week. Click on the picture below for more information, and if you have any questions, just reach out to Lisa. Jeff and the other local artists would love for us to stop by and see their amazing work!
Friday
The highlight of today was celebrating Lisa's birthday, but we took care of business first, as it was also a Pet Supplies Plus work day. We were thankful for Tracy today who filled in for Carol and took our wonderful work crew to PSP for the shift. They were very busy, too...and Tracy only got this one photo, but isn't it great?! Thanks for a job well done: Sam, Erik, Laura, Michelle, Adia, and Tessa, and Tracy, too!
The wonderful crew who remained at the center helped Lisa and Nan with lunch and party preparations. Lisa treated us to bbq sandwiches for her birthday, and also as a way to honor Gdad, who would have insisted on doing this himself were he still with us. 💕
Alexis, Kevin, Abraham, and Patrick helped decorate the white board with Lisa's pretty birthday cards!
Xavier, Annmarie, Devin, and Drew did their part to help with decorations, too. The room looked very nice!
As lunch time neared, Lisa used Gdad's custom-made chopping tool and one of his large dish pans to chop the beautiful Boston butt she had cooked "low and slow" all night long in her oven!
Lisa added chips and baked beans, and Nan supplied her very tasty cole slaw, and everyone agreed that Gdad would have been proud of Lisa's bbq. We'll look forward to having this meal for a long time to come! Thanks for the legacy, Gdad. 💞💞💞
After the bbq, we wished Lisa a "Happy Birthday" with brownies topped with salted caramel frosting! Yes, they were as tasty as they sound! 😋
At the birthday girl's request, we agreed to replace today's yoga with a walk at Colonial Williamsburg. She said we need to take advantage of this beautiful weather! We walked around Bicentennial Park (across from the Art Museums) and across part of its lawn.
We made our way down Duke of Gloucester Street where we saw artists setting up for An Occasion for the Arts.
Some of us even made it over to the parking area behind Baskin-Robins where the booth for The Arc of Greater Williamsburg will be located and will feature lots of OUR artwork! Check it out over the weekend!
After our walk it was back to the center where we listened to a few chapters from our read-aloud (they are short chapters) and called it a week. We left with lots of anticipation for next week...we're celebrating TWO more birthdays!! Here's a look at our plans:
Tuesday: We're celebrating Abraham's birthday today! 🥳 It's also a master gardener day, so after our lesson with them, we will remain at the park for lunch, cake, and outdoor games. Please wear Arc shirts and bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: We are volunteering at GCOC today, so please wear Arc shirts. We'll also make birthday cards for a couple of friends outside of the AoA, and have a lesson for National Fossil Day. After lunch, we'll meet a new therapy dog friend, Aubree, and her handler, Vicky! They will be joining our other therapy dog friends for monthly visits. 🐶 Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is available and is offering Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Sub of the Day.
Thursday: The birthdays continue...today we are celebrating Erik's special day! We're heading to Yorktown for a fun day outside with a scavenger hunt, walk, a trolley ride, and cupcakes! (Mike had to reschedule our Watermen's visit to October 26.) Please bring a bagged lunch. No dress code!
Friday: We return to Eaton for a work day, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. We'll vote on whether to return to AFCC for yoga after work, or take a walk in the park if the weather is nice!
Have a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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