We officially kicked off "Spring Birthday Season" this week when we celebrated our friend Sam on Thursday with a visit, and lunch, at the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown. For the first time ever, we visited a history museum for a birthday event! It was definitely the highlight of a fun week that also included bowling, learning about solar eclipses, and working at Eaton. Here's a look at how we welcomed April:
Tuesday, April 2
If it's the first Tuesday of the month, we must be bowling...two hours that we enjoy very, very much!
Erik, Drew, Kate, and Tessa, with Liz's help, queue up for their turns.
It may look like Abraham is about to get a spare, but what actually happened here was his ball completely stopped on the lane!
This is Trish, who had to carefully walk the space between the lanes to retrieve Abraham's ball!
Someone just had a good turn! Lots of cheers here!
Laura bowled well today. Here, she was watching and hoping for a strike...
Here, she is a little more animated and yes, she got the strike!
Liz keeps track of her scores each week.
Drew enjoys watching his friends bowl, and doesn't sit much while we're at the lanes.
🍕🍕🍕 Our after-bowling pizza lunches are very popular. 🍕🍕🍕 Today, we thank an anonymous donor who has pledged to sponsor pizza for us every other month this year. We are grateful for such a generous gift, and send our sincerest thank you to this cherished friend of the Arc of Abilities. Also, we're in vans from The Arc's main office this week, due to the Parks & Rec vans being used for Spring Break Camps. Thanks, Pam, for supporting our use of the vans, and big thanks to board member Greg Kline for prepping them for us!
After lunch we finished the day with Choice Time. Some decided to take advantage of the gym being available this week, while others stayed in the room for their usual Choice Time activities: puzzles, coloring, computers, personal devices, and socializing with each other. We also checked last week's blog (the one with a thousand photos!) and ended the day learning about the history of April Fools' Day and hearing funny jokes.
Emma loves to draw and she has created a character named Camilla, which she drew in this sweet picture for Lisa. Doesn't it look pretty in that spot that needed just the right touch?!
The story behind the cards we are holding here is kind of amazing. The folks at Chick fil-A on Mooretown Rd. recently participated in a "Day of Caring," and some of their customers made these bright and cheery cards. Somehow Chick fil-A had heard that we like to make cards for others, so they decided to make cards for us! 💗💗💗 That was so thoughtful of them! Thanks for returning the love, Chick fil-A!
Wednesday, April 3
We expected stormy weather and were glad we weren't going out today. So, we got all set to hunker down, but it never rained very much or very hard. We spent the morning making birthday cards for Sam and learning about the upcoming solar eclipse. We even got to celebrate National Walking Day with a trek around the JRES campus since it's spring break week and the grounds are quiet.
Using balloons to understand the relationship between the sun, earth, and moon.
Except for a small area of grass around the back of the school, we were able to walk on concrete after the rain stopped. JRES is a large campus, so it's a good walk all the way around it and on the perimeters of the blacktop areas. It took us almost 30 minutes!
We walked around and between the buses...just because we could!
Lisa tried to challenge us with a Disney trivia game that had us guess the characters from just a view of their eyes. We knew them all...😊
Our new read-aloud is Lone Wolf by Kristine L. Franklin. It's a story about a boy and his reclusive father who are coming to terms with past tragedies.
This is a picture Krafty Karen sent us showing how our plot in the community garden behind the school looks. This is where we will place the raised bed the master gardeners are giving us so we can grow herbs. Karen and her husband Steve weed-wacked, sprayed, put down weed prevention fabric, and mulched earlier this week. It looks amazing! They also transplanted the strawberry plants at the Freedom Park garden into this planter so we can tend to them here. Thank you very much, Karen and Steve, for what you have done. We appreciate your hard work. We will keep an eye on the strawberries and also pull any weeds that may pop through the mulch. We're looking forward to the arrival of the herb garden bed!
Today was also National Find a Rainbow Day. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy for us to try to create rainbows using water and sunshine, so we settled for watching a cool video that explained how the sun's white light is scattered through water, such as a raindrop, to form rainbows.
Soon, we found a rainbow when we noticed that Tessa was wearing a sweater that had colorful stripes, similar to a rainbow, as well as a "Rainbow Ponytail." Check out the colorful bands in her hair!
On our walk earlier in the day, we found a rainbow on the blacktop!
From the video we watched we also learned that even though it looks like rainbows end, they are actually complete circles! Of course, we couldn't talk about rainbows without including a song!
At the end of the day, we had fun creating Rainbow Trail Mix with a few ingredients like Trix cereal, multi-colored Goldfish crackers, and colorful marshmallows. We thought it was tasty! It was a nice day and we didn't miss the stormy weather!
Thursday, April 4
Our Spring Birthday Season got off to a historical start today when we visited the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown to celebrate Sam's big day (which is officially on the 7th). Unfortunately, he was a bit under the weather with a cold, so he didn't spend the entire day with us, but he and his parents met us for part of the tour, and to treat us to lunch and pie before Sam went home, had a cup of green tea, and fell fast asleep!
We've said it before, but it's worth repeating. The American Revolution Museum in Yorktown is well worth a visit, and locals get in free!
A good starting point for the visit is the film Liberty Fever.
A friendly docent named Tom gave us the low down on the uniform display. We learned that the British hired German soldiers called Hessians to help them, but when we won the war, George Washington welcomed the Hessians to stay here and start small farms.
We saw Thomas Jefferson and remembered that he helped get our freedom rolling by writing the Declaration of Independence.
This is an example of a "gun" that the French Army brought to the war (they were on our side). It could fire cannonballs up to 24 pounds!
These hologram displays are pretty cool. Sam and Drew stopped to chat with a soldier from one of Washington's regiments!
We always enjoy interactive displays when we visit museums!
A highlight at the American Revolution museum is the movie, Siege of Yorktown.
The seats vibrate during battle scenes and it's not too hard to imagine being there...
After our morning tour, we picked up boxed lunches from the 1781 Cafe and were thrilled to find out that the weather had improved significantly and we would be able to have Sam's birthday lunch outside! We want to thank Sam's parents, Teri and Tim, for treating us to this delicious lunch (the cafe is run by Aromas) for Sam's special day. The sandwiches were delicious, and the chocolate pie Teri and Tim provided for dessert was even more delicious!
Sam is our resident Revolutionary War expert, and it was his idea for us to visit and have a lunch celebration at the museum today.
The 1781 Cafe by Aromas did not disappoint. The sandwiches in the boxed lunches were very good!
Happy Birthday, Sam! We hope all your wishes come true and you have a great year to come!
Did we mention the chocolate pie was extra delicious?! Thanks again, Teri and Tim, for joining us and for providing our lunch today. We enjoyed visiting with you and of course, celebrating our friend, Sam!
On a less celebratory note, our friend Kevin has been absent this week with a case of shingles! He's been quite uncomfortable, and we really feel for him. Hopefully, he will feel better next week. We sent him a cheery video message today, and his mom said he watched it over and over! 💙💙💙 Feel better soon, Kevin!
Friday, April 5
Today we did our thing at Eaton! We're so proud of our work, and look forward to our time working at their site every couple of weeks. Today we had one crew apply gaskets to tubs and tubs (7 to be exact) of parts while the other crew sorted and packed tubs and tubs (16 to be exact) of parts that will need gaskets in the near future!
Erik, Emma, Nan, and Alexis applied gaskets to what we call "rectangle" pieces.
Liz applied gaskets to "lid" pieces.
Tessa and Annmarie sorted rectangle pieces and lids.
Drew and Abraham enjoyed sorting with Mallory.
This was a huge container filled with handle parts. Michelle, Patrick, and Bryan transferred them to smaller tubs so they could be easily stored in the warehouse.
Devin was transferring parts from a large container to smaller tubs. Good thing his arms are long!
We had fun joking with Xavier that he needed to pick up his toys and sort them into the correct boxes!
After Eaton we tried to go to New Quarter Park for a walk, but there was a lot of road construction taking place and we were afraid we might not get back to the center in time for dismissal. We returned to AFCC and went out to check our plot in the garden that Krafty Karen and her husband Steve had spruced up on Monday. It still looks great and there are a few flowers on the strawberry plants! After checking the garden, we did a few laps outside and soon it was time for the weekend!
We were missing 5 of our friends today!
Greetings from Laura who is in Elk County, Pennsylvania. She visited the museum and found these turtles for Mallory!
Tuesday: It's finally here! Today is the first day of our spring sessions with the master gardeners! We'll join them at the Williamsburg Botanical Garden and Freedom Park Arboretum this morning for a lesson on square foot gardening (which relates to our raised bed project), and we'll plant seeds, too. Hopefully the weather will be nice for us to remain at the park for a picnic lunch and walk after our session. Arc shirts optional today...feel free to wear spring colors instead! Bring a bagged lunch, too.
Wednesday: We will be busy this morning as we send a group to volunteer at GCOC while the other remains back to prepare lunch. We have invited JRES librarian, Mr. Nonnemacher, and assistant, Ms. Ortega, for lunch to thank them for supporting us as library volunteers. It's National Library Week! We'll also have fun "celebrating" Unicorn Day, which was yesterday. Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad and Fruity Jello for lunch. Please wear Arc shirts today!
Thursday: We are working at Pet Supplies Plus today since we needed to switch days for Mike at the Watermen's, so please wear PSP shirts today. Thanks, Scott and Roxanne, for your flexibility! The group that remains at the center will help with spring cleaning, and later we will all make birthday cards for our Eaton friend, Jorie, and enjoy a game of Spring Challenge Corn Hole. Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is available for Domino's Pizza, Yogurt Combo, or Chef Salad.
Friday: We're off to Yorktown to visit with Mike at the Watermen's Museum today! He's going to do a lesson for National Submarine Day (April 11)! If the weather cooperates, we'll stay in Yorktown for one of our favorite ways to spend an afternoon: picnic, games, and a trolley ride. We'll also relax with Jaime and yoga when we return to the center. Please wear Arc shirts and bring a bagged lunch.
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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