A Favorite Tradition for Cinco de Mayo

 

This week we welcomed the month of May!  It's a long month and we have many fun and busy days on the horizon.  We spent this week visiting our old friends at Mariners' Museum and weloming an Arc board member for a visit, with a new friend she introduced to us!  We also had a blast with a favorite tradition, celebrating Coach Teri's Cinco de Mayo birthday!  We wrapped it all up on Friday with an Eaton work day followed by a great walk at the park.  May is off to a wonderful start!

Tuesday, April 30

Our visit with Wisteria and Erika at The Mariners' Museum today was so interesting.  The topic was the "Global Exchange" between the Old World (Europe, Asia, Africa) and the New World (the Americas).  We learned surprising facts about which plants, animals, and other "things" were already in the New World, and which ones were brought here by explorers and settlers.

Wisteria and Erika showed a map from 1490 and explained that when Columbus made his voyage in 1492, and ended up in what is the Carribean today, he thought he had found a new route to India.  He did not know that the continents of North and South America existed between Europe and Asia.

Columbus also noted that some of the plants and animals he encountered here were not familiar to him.

A few years after Columbus made his voyages, Amerigo Vespucci came along and he was credited with recognizing that this was a "New World."  The Americas were named for him.

After we learned how our continent got its name, we moved on to what was brought here from the Old World.  Some of the not so good things were diseases like smallpox, typhus, measles, and malaria.  We did an activity where we started with a healthy sailor, then learned about the horrible symptoms of those diseases, and drew what he may have looked like after becoming ill with them.  We also talked about how the indigineous people of the Americas suffered great losses in their populations due to these diseases being brought here. 

These were our depictions of sick sailors who brought new diseases to the New World.

Next we moved on to a less "gross" part of the lesson and learned about plants and animals that were brought to the New World.  We also learned about some that were already here.  We were surprised by a few things.  Wisteria showed us a picture and asked us to guess 1 if we thought it was brought to the New World, 2 if we thought it was already here, and 3 if we thought it was always in both the Old World and the New World.

We were not surprised to learn that corn, tobacco, and bison were already in the New World.

We were surprised to learn that cattle, sheep, cats, bananas, and coffee were some of the things brought here from the Old World.

We got excited when our guesses were correct!  

Most of us didn't guess correctly that chili peppers were not known in the Old World, and are native to South America.  We wondered what Columbus may have thought if he tried one!

We were surprised to learn that dogs were native to both Worlds, but this dog, native to Mexico in the Americas, was one that Columbus thought didn't bark because it only made a whimpering sound.  Often called Xolos, they will bark if provoked, but are typically reserved.

Thanks so much for this very fun, interesting, and yes, gross lesson, Wisteria, Erika, and Amanda (who was taking photos for the museum)!  It was great to see you all again!  We had no idea that the Global Exchange was responsible for many of the foods we love and animals we enjoy.  We're sad that diseases were shared between the two Worlds, but we're grateful for modern medicine and vaccines that have helped to eliminate some of them!

After learning about all the great foods found in the Old and New Worlds, we were hungry!  We stopped by Deer Park to enjoy our lunches, and the weather was very nice.  It was warm and a little breezy, but not humid.  Some of us even got in a walk before we had to return to the center.  There was not an abundance of azaleas and dogwoods as we had hoped to see 😔, but we did see a dog! 🐕 Beka's mom met us at the park and we got to meet their dog, Alfred!

Wednesday, May 1

We welcomed the month of May with a busy day at the center!  We sent our library crew to work with Ms. Ortega.  Emma, Alexis, Laura, Kate, and Liz shelved books in the easy/picture book section this morning.

We also checked our sunflower seeds today.  Last Friday many of the seeds we had "planted" in moist cotton balls with the master gardeners had sprouted.  So today, we checked again, and many of them were growing roots and stems, and a few had leaves!

We consulted with MG Barb, who suggested we plant some of the sprouted seeds, and keep some in the cotton balls so we can compare how well (or not well) they will grow.  Here, Bryan is planting one of his sprouted seeds in this pot.

Laura and Drew helped with watering.  We hope some of these will take hold in the soil, and grow bigger and stronger so we can transplant them to our garden plot in the community garden behind the school.

Pardon our messy tables, but we also worked on updating our calendar for the month of May!  Alexis and Devin searched for clip art to help highlight our calendar squares.

Erik looked on as Liz and Beka worked together on several calendar squares.

Almost 5 full weeks of action in May!

We were very busy between getting both the calendar and lunch ready today, so not too many action shots.  But here's one of our lunch spread...we were welcoming special guests today.  Our menu was Spinach/Quinoa/Chicken Salad, Fruited Jell-O, and whole wheat crackers.  (We also had iced tea since we had guests!)

Salad closeup!

Our special guests were Sallie McClain, the Williamsburg Coordinator for the Virginia Down Syndrome Society (left) and Diane Schwarz, Arc Board Member and volunteer extraordinaire at many Arc events!  We were happy to enjoy their company for lunch, and give them all the highlights about our Arc of Abilities!

Thanks so much for visiting today, Sallie and Diane.  We loved seeing Diane again (it had been a minute!) and it was great to meet Sallie.  Thanks for all you both do for the special needs population in our community.  We appreciate you! 💕

Thursday, May 2

Have we mentioned lately how blessed we are by the many family members and friends who do so many wonderful things with us and for us?  Today we celebrated Cinco de Mayo (a few days early) with Sam's mom, and our friend, Teri.  That day is also her birthday, so it's a double celebration!  We like to call her Coach Teri because years ago, she was the bowling coach for many of us in Special Olympics, and she also taught us how to play bocce in the early AoA days.  Ever since our program began in 2016, Coach Teri has made Cinco de Mayo and her birthday a fun treat day for us by providing a taco lunch!  It's one of our very favorite traditions.  Here's a throwback to 2016 and our first Cinco de Mayo/Birthday party with her.  Meghan, Chris, Nancy, and Bo are not in our program anymore, but Patrick, Alexis, Sam, Kevin, Drew, and of course, Coach Teri, haven't changed a bit!

We're getting ahead of ourselves, though.  Before Coach Teri arrived, we warmed up to some Mexican music, did Eaton work, played Heads Up, 7 Up, and learned the history behind Cinco de Mayo.  It's not such a big deal in Mexico; just a day to remember that a rag-tag Mexican army defeated French forces three times as strong and with better weapons in Puebla back in 1862!  But here in America, and in other places around the globe...even in France...it is a celebration of Mexican culture, and a great reason to throw a party!

Fast forward 8 years, from that first celebration in 2016, and today we had a fabulous party as we celebrated May 5th once again!  Just as we were wrapping up our lesson, Coach Teri and a surprise guest arrived.  A friend of Sam's family, Mary, surprised Sam by joining Teri for today's festivities.  We loved getting to know her (she's from Ireland and has the most delightful accent), and of course, telling her about the Arc of Abilities!

Thank you, Teri, for treating us to a taco bar from Moe's!  You could tell we loved it, by our silence when eating, couldn't you?!?!

Our combination birthday and Cinco de Mayo tradition with Coach Teri is special to all of us, especially her son, Sam.  He wrote in her birthday card that his friends "appreciate you for bringing the yummy lunch."  That is a fact, and Coach Teri made a point to mention that she received many "Happy Birthdays" and "Thank yous" from our gang!  💛🌮💚🌮🧡🌮

Happy Birthday, Teri!  We hope all your wishes come true.  Thanks for being born on Cinco de Mayo, and choosing to celebrate with us each year!!

We couldn't celebrate Coach Teri without playing the game of bocce, which she taught us many years ago!  She also provided a number of playing sets, so we always have enough for our group.  Today, we played for fun, so we didn't keep score.  It was relaxing that way, and it was nice to hear everyone cheering for each other!

Friday, May 3

We'll wrap up this week's post with a few photos from our wonderful work day at Eaton.  In the midst of "Spring Birthday Season," this is an opportunity for us to be reminded that work is valuable, important, and a necessary part of being well-rounded...and grounded!  That said, we really enjoy our Eaton job!  We did sorting, unpacking, repacking, and gasketing tasks today.

Erik, Nan, Bryan, and Liz applied gaskets to rectangle parts.

Emma and Alexis also applied gaskets, and Nan was still at it, too!

Xavier repacked lids so we could consolidate space in the bins.

Laura and Annmarie sorted parts, and later they also helped with repacking to consolidate tub space. 

Devin and Sam transferred handles from the big blue bin to the tall brown boxes.

Kevin and Tessa unpacked parts from this big brown box, and sorted them at the same time.

Drew handled a sorting job at this table on his own.  His buddy Abraham has been under the weather this week, and he was missed!

Rosemary popped in to say "Hello!" and got to see Kate, Michelle, Beka, Patrick, and Devin twisting the side tabs off of these plates.

We were so proud of our guys, including Tessa and Xavier, who repacked the lids in such a neat and orderly fashion!  This saves so much space in the tubs.

An after lunch task of unpacking large yellow lenses and carefully transferring them to the blue tub we emptied of other parts earlier!  Good job, Beka, Kate, Devin, and Michelle!

We had an excellent and productive work day at Eaton, and when we were done we had enough time to stop by New Quarter Park for a walk and some time on the playground.   

Getting some steps in as we headed to Queen's Creek to show our new members Bryan, Beka, and Emma.

The tide was in and the water was choppy.  It was getting windy outside and noticeably cooler than it was this morning!

We are grateful to have a balance of work and play in the same day!

Here's a look at what we have planned for next week.  It's going to be exceptionally festive...

Tuesday:  It's time to celebrate Devin's birthday!  We're going bowling today and then hooking up with his family for a pizza party for lunch at the picnic area at WISC.  We'll stick around for a walk, too.  Thank you, Bobowicz family, for today's lunch to celebrate our friend, Devin!  Arc shirts are optional today.

Wednesday:  We will volunteer at GCOC this morning, so please wear Arc shirts today.  It's National Have a Coke Day which gives us an opportunity to do some fun science.  Experiment time!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is available for Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Sub of the Day.

Thursday:  We're celebrating another spring birthday today - Michelle's!  We'll begin with a movie morning followed by chicken nuggets and cupcakes for lunch provided by her family!  Thanks to Michelle's family for this opportunity to celebrate another special day for one of our friends!  If the weather is nice, we'll take a walk at NN Park after lunch, and stop by the Discovery Center to check on the status of the snapping turtle we recently saw in the water there.

Friday:  We're combining work and fun to end the week!  We'll begin by sending a crew to work at Pet Supplies Plus while the others catch up on chores and tasks at the center.  Then, we will meet Christina at the CW Visitor Center picnic area where she is treating us to a pizza party in celebration of our 7 years of collaboration with her and the Art Museums!  After lunch we will travel to the art museums for a fun project with her.  Wow, has it really been 7 years with you, Christina!?  Thank you so much for the pizza party celebration.  We love working with you!  We need to wear PSP shirts today, but feel free to bring something to change into for our party with Christina if you'd like! 

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang