It was a good week for us as we had 4 really good days! Each one found us interacting with good friends who mean a lot to our Arc of Abilities program. We spent Tuesday and Friday "on the road" visiting friends, while on Wednesday and Thursday, they came to us. Check out our week of good times with good friends!
Tuesday, February 20
We had a low-key morning checking last week's blog post and talking about the Presidents Day holiday, which was yesterday. We watched an interesting video about our U.S. presidents and learned fun things like: James Madison was the shortest and the lightest president at 5'4" and less than 100 pounds! Franklin D. Roosevelt was president for 12 years and 11 weeks! (The 22nd Amendment changed that possibility from ever happening again!) We also learned Gerald Ford was the only president not elected (long story...)! After our video we made cute faces of Washington and Lincoln to add to our February room decorations, and then it was time for an early lunch before heading to see Christina. That's when we realized we only had these two pictures from the entire morning!
We added Washington and Lincoln to our groundhog and snowmen decorations. Yes...we still hold out hope for a snow day!
Christina keeps up with the National Day Calendar, so she knew it was National Love Your Pet Day, and that was the theme of her lesson with us today. She's been one of our good friends for almost 7 years, and that is a lot of good times spent with her, for sure!
We talked with Christina about the kinds of animals that would have been pets in the 18th century such as horses and dogs, and many would have also served as working animals.
George Washington was an avid dog breeder, but during his time leading our country to freedom during the Revolutionary War, many of his own horses came along, too!
Emma loves bunnies and rabbits, so she was excited to see this painting of a family holding a pet rabbit!
Christina said that girl children were often depicted in paintings holding cats or kittens.
Boys were often depicted with dogs. Yes! This is a boy. During the 18th century (and before), boys and girls had similar hairstyles and boys often wore skirts or dresses, especially if they were younger and were learning how to make it to the bathroom in time! (Dresses were easier...)
Our favorite pet at the museums is Prince. He's the star of the book Down on the Farm, as well as the exhibit with the same name. The book was written by our beloved Christina and her coworker and friend (and our friend, too), Jan!
Our project in the Education Room today was creating a miniture pet house toy, complete with a pet and a few accessories. We each started with a small metal box, and some recyclable objects.
We created leashes, blankets and artwork for our pets, and even added a button to represent a feeding dish. We were happy to have Mallory along to help today!
Christina said kids in the 18th century would have made small toy kits like these.
Thanks for a fun afternoon, Christina! We love visiting with you, and we're so glad you're our friend!
💖💖💖 Bonus Pictures!!! 💖💖💖
Christina led a "Paint Night" event for the Arc of Greater Williamsburg tonight and it was a beautiful success! Christina, you are a rock star! Thank you for sharing your talents with so many Arc friends! Check out these pictures taken by Carol, who volunteered at the event, and Tessa's mom, Michelle, who attended with Tessa. Thanks, Carol and Michelle!
Christina provided all the supplies, and then in her magical way, led her Arc friends step-by-step in creating beautiful masterpieces!
Tessa enjoys art projects and was clearly into this one! That's our Emma on Tessa's right...she also enjoys art, and was deep in concentration on her painting.
Alexis and Beka painted beautiful art, too. The AoA's Devin and Kate were also at the event, and we know they created great art as well!
Well-done, Emma!
Soooo pretty, Tessa!
We began today at the JRES Library where Emma was a first time volunteer. She did a great job! The girls shelved a lot of books and then checked out several about presidents that we needed for our visit with the therapy dogs.
JRES Librarian, Mr. Nonnemacher, helped us find books about presidents.
Soon it was 9:30 and a delightful time with our therapy dogs and handler friends got underway! There are always lots of hugs and kisses during the first few minutes after they arrive.
We had a new dog and handler join the group today, but it was someone many of us knew from back in the pre-pandemic days when she taught us yoga: Patti and her Goldendoodle, Guinness! It was great to be reunited with her, and it was like we never missed a beat!
Patti and Guinness reading with Xavier, Alexis, and Kevin
We had a couple of reading rotations and then everyone gathered in the multipurpose room for a round of Presidents Day Bingo and Trivia. Our visit with these wonderful friends proved that time does fly when you're having fun!
Bryan and Michelle reading with Kent and Leo
Caroline and Indy reading with Tessa and Devin
Nan, Emma, and Laura reading with Karen and Tessa
Erik and Annmarie reading with Vicky and Aubree
Drew, Liz, and Patrick reading with Carol and Darby (under the table)
Beka, Kate, and Sam reading with Carol and Casey
Presidents Day Bingo and Trivia
Thanks so much to all of our handler and therapy dog friends for another great visit this morning! We look forward to this good time each month. Our friendships with you are a special delivery!
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After lunch we continued our read-aloud, Zorgamazoo. We're getting to the part where strange and scary creatures start appearing and today they "gobbled up" our main characters...we'll be curious to see what happens next because we are only halfway through the book and the main characters have been eaten by blimp-sized creatures with tentacles?!?!
Later, we began preparing for tomorrow's luncheon with our master gardener friends. We prepped some of the food and also started on decorations. We're excited to see the master gardeners tomorrow!
Erik sauteed and added onions to our ground turkey. We will add the rest of the chili ingredients in the morning.
We baked sweet potatoes and then Pat and Devin helped Carol mash them so we can make sweet potato biscuits in the morning! 😋
Liz helped put together the eclair "cake" that will be our dessert tomorrow!
Thursday, February 22
Today we were excited to welcome our master gardener friends, as well as the executive director of the community garden behind the school, for lunch and a planning session about our raised bed for herb gardening! We also celebrated National Chili Day and National Cook a Sweet Potato Day for lunch with our guests, so how cool is all of that?!
First, some preparations:
Emma learned what a slow cooker liner is! (Hi, Laura!)
Drew and Devin drained beans for the chili. We were using black beans and navy beans for this recipe. Check out the extra shelf Carol's husband, Gene, and neighbor Richie, made for the top of our new cart! Now it has 3 usable spaces instead of 2! Thanks, Gene and Richie!
Sam and Alexis transferred the beans to the slow cooker, and added our "secret ingredient" (Hot & Spicy V8) and lots of spices, including chili powder, garlic, cumin, and allspice.
Michelle and Patrick helped whip up the sweet potato biscuits.
Everyone chipped in to cover the tables.
We were ready for our guests!
Welcome Master Gardeners and Terrylynn!
Our celebrations of National Chili Day and Cook a Sweet Potato Day were successful as our turkey chili and sweet potato biscuits were very tasty!
Yum! Eclair Cake for dessert. You can get this simple recipe by clicking here. 😋
After lunch we walked out to the Rob Till Community Garden where Terrylynn showed us a plot right in the middle that she thought would be a perfect spot for our raised bed garden that the MGs are giving us!
Thank you, Master Gardeners for your sweet friendship and now, a beautiful raised bed so we can raise our own herbs. We can't wait to get it next month and begin working with you and Terrylynn to bring it to life in the garden!
Our raised bed will look like this, but without the plants included! 😜
Thank you, Terrylynn, for welcoming us to the garden and for offering us such a great spot for our raised bed herb garden.
This will be a great spot for our raised bed herb garden as it will get lots of sun!
Here's Terrylynn (in the pretty dress) standing beside MGs Joanne and Carolyn. MGs Angie, Karen, and Barbara are between Abraham and Annmarie. MG Pat had to leave after lunch but we welcomed her today, too. We're so grateful for another great day with great friends!
Friday, February 23
It may seem that our Eaton pictures look very similar each time we have a work day, but that helps us show our consistency and efficiency, right?! Today, we assembled PowerSlide Doors and unpacked (then re-packed in different boxes) things called amps. We even met Mo, who started training some of us on a new assembly job we may try next time! It may have been dreary and rainy outside, but we were as bright as the sun getting so much work completed during our busy day!
We appreciated Mallory's help again today!
We're adjusting to our new, but tighter, space!
A possible new assembly job!
After our very productive work day, we returned to the center where we polished off the leftover eclair dessert from yesterday, and then relaxed with a yoga session with Jaime. It was too rainy and dark to get good yoga pictures, so here's our last picture of the week: Mallory had to do some homework so she logged onto the computer in the Rec office where the lighting was brighter! Our gang went home relaxed after yoga and Mallory went home with one more assignment completed...we hope!
After yoga, and before we parted for the weekend, we talked about what good times with good friends we had this week, and we counted our blessings for all of them. 💗
Here's what's up for next week:
Wednesday: This morning we will volunteer at GCOC, so please wear Arc shirts again! We're also starting our annual "Stuff the Eggs" project for the Powhatan Secondary neighborhood's egg hunt. We'll set up an assembly line and fill plastic eggs with candy...there are 1,000 eggs this year and we'll aim to finish half of them this morning! Thanks to Sam's mom, Coach Teri, for being our agent for this job. It's a fun way to earn some extra pizza money! Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is available for Popcorn Chicken Bowl or Hot Dog.
Thursday: It's Leap Day so we will celebrate by learning about this day that only comes around every 4 years! We'll also begin preparations for next week's Eaton Appreciation Luncheon. We're celebrating 8 years of partnership with them this year! Lunch on your own. The JRES Cafeteria is available for Domino's Pizza, Deli Sub, or Chef Salad.
Friday: Today is a PSP work day so please wear your Pet Supplies Plus shirts. The crew that remains at the center will update the calendar for March. After work, we're celebrating Drew's birthday! His family is treating us to a chicken nuggets luncheon, which is great because it's also National Dadgum That's Good Day! 😉 Depending on the weather, we will either take a walk or have yoga with Jaime after the lunch party, so dress to stretch, too!
We wish everyone a fabulous weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
