We were surprised and disappointed and then surprised again on Tuesday when we arrived at Bowlero for bowling. The details are below, but we got to play in the arcade...for free! That was a big highlight of our week, but another one was celebrating Virginia's Free Fishing Days with Mike on Thursday at the Watermen's Museum. Even trying veggie burgers for the first time on Wednesday, and working at PSP or making homemade doughnuts on Friday, were lots of fun! We had another wonderful week, and we're thankful for it!
Tuesday, June 4
Today was supposed to be our friend Devin's birthday celebration, which had already been postponed due to a bout of Covid going through the center recently, and then Devin's family vacation. Well, one thing we know about Dev is he has a lot of patience, and he's going to need it because we had to postpone his party once again due to his family returning from their Alaska adventure with...you guessed it...Covid! (Except for Devin...who tested negative and isolated from his family in hopes of returning to the program in a day or two.) Have no fear, Devin! We WILL be celebrating you when the time is right. We have your cards and other decorations ready, and it's going to be worth the wait! Meanwhile, we are glad your family's symptoms are mild, and hope they get well soon! We miss you!
2022's birthday celebration
Despite missing Devin, we headed to bowling, as usual, for the first Tuesday of the month. When we arrived, we got some unwelcome news... Even though Wendy had us on the calendar for bowling, she overlooked getting in touch to let us know there would be a private event taking place, and our lanes wouldn't be available. As we heard the news, she could see the disappointment on our faces, even though we graciously assured her it was OK, and that we all make mistakes. Lisa began trying to figure out a make-up date when Wendy asked if we would like to try out the arcade instead?! We told her it was something we had been thinking about doing, and next thing we knew, she gave everyone a complimentary playing card worth 40 credits ($20). These pictures will show how quickly we got over missing a bowling day!
Patrick and Sam on air hockey!
Nerf guns for Drew and Kevin, and Intern Javante along to help! Thanks so much, Javante!
Sam and Michelle racing cars through the streets of London!
Liz and Kate raced, too!
The basketball backsides of Alexis and Kevin! They're great shooters, by the way!
With Kate looking on, Emma and Bryan made a few shots, too!
Cameron joined us today and he enjoyed this game where little white balls are thrown into cups.
Tessa had great aim - she was throwing balls to knock clowns over!
Even Nan got in on the fun!
Prizes! Everyone got something...even if just candy or a cute rubber duckie!
Beka was the first to win a ball from the giant claw machine!
Annmarie was tickled "pink" with her ball!
Thanks for turning our lemons into lemonade, Wendy! We will remember this event for a long time. Bowling is something we love, but as a backup plan, the arcade was pretty cool!
After our awesome arcade adventure, we visited the garden at Freedom Park where we harvested lettuce, onions, and parsley to use for tomorrow's lunch! It was warm and muggy outside so we picked up our pizza and returned to the center to enjoy lunch. The rest of the day was spent watering our herb garden plants, as well as the tomato and sunflower plants we are growing outside our windows. We also checked our blog post from last week and worked on a cheer card for our therapy dog friend, Marisol (Tucker's "mom"), who had knee replacement surgery this week.
Things in the garden continue to look healthy and green!
Rubbing the lemon thyme leaves between their fingers and then inhaling a sweet scent!
Harvesting beautiful lettuce for tomorrow's burgers!
We can't thank our anonymous, and very generous donor, enough for providing pizzas for us this year during the "even" months! These are just 3 of the many smiles you brought today! (Nevermind the face on the green ball...she's just sad that a ball can't eat pizza! LOL!)
Herbs like warm weather, but they need water, too!
Kate came up to proofread our letter for Marisol's card.
Drew visited Emerald Isle, NC last week and brought us a post card for our collection. Here, he was showing Bryan his favorite spot on the beach!
Wednesday, June 5
We had a full day at the center as we wrapped up our library work for the year, updated our calendar for June, learned about plant-based eating and then celebrated Veggie Burger Day for lunch! In the afternoon, we prepared for our fishing adventure with Mike tomorrow by learning about fish anatomy, types of fish and their habitats, and basic fishing techniques!
All of our library volunteers have done a great job this year. Liz, Michelle, Alexis, and Emma pose with Ms. Ortega on our last day to work in the library until next school year. We also want to shout out the others who take turns volunteering: Laura, Beka, and Kate. We're proud of all of them!
We mailed our therapy dog friend Marisol the card we created yesterday. Oh, and aren't Kevin and Xavier handsome in red?!
Alexis used the laptop to find pictures for our calendar squares, and Drew slowly and neatly colored a summertime picture of ice cream that we had outlined for him.
Michelle and Kevin reset the numbers on our calendar. They are a great team!
Bryan stretched to reach some pictures he was removing from this wall. Maybe we need a step stool!
Erik also removed older pictures from the walls/windows, and carefully removed the blue putty on the backs so we could reuse it.
We have never celebrated Veggie Burger Day before, but we will make it a regular event now! We learned about the benefits of eating a plant-based diet, with "based" being the key word. One thing we liked learning was that we don't have to give up our meats or dairy products, but we can strive to eat more plant-based foods than animal-based ones. We won't go into it, but there is a lot of research to support the benefits of eating this way!
Our small group work consisted of going through a list of plant-based foods and discussing which ones we like and which ones we might like to try.
We learned there are some of plant-based foods some of us had never heard of like bok choy, fennel, and flaxseeds.
To celebrate National Veggie Burger Day, and National Ketchup Day, we grilled veggie and black bean burgers. Some of us also chose to add a slice of cheese (the only part of our lunch that wasn't plant-based) since yesterday was National Cheese Day! What a great trio of celebrations!
Cameron, Patrick, and Emma arranged tater tots on trays so we could bake them. We know...tater tots are a plant-based food, just not one of the most healthy.
Flippin' Liz! The burgers on the left were veggie burgers and the ones on the right were black bean burgers.
Our beautiful toppings - lettuce, onions, and parsley (garnish) were harvested at the garden yesterday. We had to buy the tomatoes at the market.
Everyone said the plant-based burgers were tasty! They weren't very messy, either! 😜
We ended the day with a lesson about fish and fishing. Before we see Mike for fishing at the Watermen's Museum tomorrow, we wanted to become familiar with parts of a fish, and some basic techniques for fishing. We have been fishing with Mike for a few years, but this year, we feel more prepared!
Drew didn't make a match, but he was excited to play "Fish Anatomy Match Game" nonetheless. He loves game shows, even our lame attempts at creating our own!
We reacquainted ourselves with using rods, and other things we'll see tomorrow, like worms for bait!
We learned that fish, especially the "oily" kind, is known as a brain food because it is high in omega-3 fatty acids. Only a few of our guys said they like fish, but we did brain work anyway! This group was graphing fish types.
This group worked out a "fishy" crossword puzzle! We're ready for Mike!
Thursday, June 6
We welcomed Devin back after almost 3 weeks! His family members are feeling much better, and he never tested positive or developed symptoms for Covid. We were happy to have him back!
Thanks for souvenirs like this fossil map from Alaska's Yukon, pencils from the Space Needle, wildflower seeds from Canada, and chocolate pasta, Dev and Family! You're very thoughtful! We're eager to see what we can grow with the seeds, and we can't wait to try the pasta!!
Soon it was time to prepare for our visit with Mike at the Watermen's Museum. Since we were going to be fishing, we played fishing songs for our dance warm up. It brought out some silliness in our guys!
Silliness aside, we got down to business at the museum. Mike took one group to the pier for fishing while his friends from the National Park Service and the American Conservation Corps worked with the second group to learn about fishing techniques from the past. They also helped us with printmaking and designing a "teamwork" themed mural. It was a fun morning as we took turns with the activities!
Mike gave us a refresher on using the fishing rods.
Not everyone reeled in a fish today, but most everyone got a nibble, which sometimes resulted in losing the bait and the fish! We used shrimp and worms for bait.
Everyone was very patient... Luckily, there was a nice breeze and a bit of cloud cover, so it was pleasant and relaxing on the pier.
Drew snagged a spot! Mike couldn't convince him to hold it. 🐟
Soon, Annmarie had a bite and Caleb from the NPS helped her reel it in!
Alexis wanted to hold her catch. It was a croaker, and she could hear it croaking!
Sam is a laid back kind of fisherman. He scored two catches today!
Check out Devin's catch!
Wondering if we could catch fish using spears or seine nets?
Thank you, Watermen's Museum, Mike, and friends for working with us today. We appreciate all of the engaging activities you planned. We had a lot of fun participating in them, and hanging out with all of you!
Even though it was a bit breezy on the pier, it was still warm and even muggier on shore by lunchtime, so we returned to the center to eat. Much to our surprise, there were cookies waiting for us! They were a thank you from Ms. Ortega, the JRES Library Assistant. Thanks, Ms. Ortega, for the sweet treat! We're happy to have a great group of volunteers that work in the library. See you in the fall!
We wrapped up the afternoon with a lesson about the 80th anniversary of D-Day. History is one of our favorite topics!
Friday, June 7
Hard to believe we have arrived at the end of the first week of June already! We spent it productively, sending a crew to work at Pet Supplies Plus, and holding a crew back to do a bit of gardening AND prepare for a celebration of National Doughnut Day!
Intern Javante joined us today! He helped Lexi with some Eaton work since they were earlybirds this morning. Emma can be seen in the background checking out the fossil map Dev brought us from Alaska!
Xavier watered our sunflower plants that are growing nicely outside of our windows!
We didn't drink all the water in the cooler on yesterday's fishing trip, so Bryan used it to refill the jugs we use to water our herbs.
After we watered the herbs, Beka picked some peppermint leaves. We had an idea for an experi-mint!
We haven't been at the center for many of the school's fire drills lately, but we were here for one today. After Carol took 6 of us to Pet Supplies Plus, only 5 were left. There were 7 friends absent!
Severina stopped by to admire our beautiful peace lily. She said it's good luck when the blooms appear and we should make wishes. Then, she quietly whispered to the plant and asked it to bring her a husband!
The experi-mint we wanted to try was muddling (smashing) some peppermint leaves to add to the chocolate frosting we brought for our doughnuts. Since we didn't have a mortar and pestle, Beka used a small bowl and a spice jar to muddle the leaves.
Into the food processor the muddled leaves went, and we made mint chocolate frosting! It was delicious, too!
Our homemade doughtnuts began as canned biscuits. Bryan cut the holes out!
Devin helped flip them using wooden skewers while they were frying.
This crew also worked on preparing books that the JRES is planning to discard. The books have to be stamped with "DISCARD" and also have the bar code blacked out with a Sharpie.
At Pet Supplies Plus, Alexis and Emma took a quick break to cuddle a ferret!
Word got out and pretty soon everyone was taking a break!
Drew and Javante are a good team! They stocked catnip today!
Nice stretcn from Kate to reach the top shelf for a package of doggy diapers!
Erik filled this shelf with dog grooming supplies.
Our friend Liz was traveling with her mom and wasn't with us today, but we were tickled to run into her dad, and our friend, Greg, at the store. He was shopping with Nellie and Rose!
Once we were all back at the center, we had lunch and then celebrated National Doughnut Day by sampling the homemade doughnuts. Of course, we thought they were quite tasty! After Choice Time we had a quick lesson about Daniel Boone, an American folk hero who is celebrated on National Boone Day, which is today. Turns out, he deserves a day because he helped open our country up for westward expansion by hacking out the Wilderness Highway (with a few helpers!) through the Cumberland Gap. After that fascinating lesson, we wound down with a new yoga segment from Jaime about a ninja who needed to learn to be a bit quieter!
National Doughnut Day, 2024
Tuesday: Today we meet with the master gardeners for a lesson on pollinators and how important they are in the garden. We'll also check our crops, and see if there is anything we can harvest! The weather forecast looks promising, so we will plan to hang out at Freedom Park for lunch, walking, and games. Arc shirts optional, and please bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: This morning we will volunteer at Grove Christian Outreach Center so please wear Arc shirts. We will also make retirement cards for JRES Assistant Principal, Ms. Vallone. We missed Donald Duck Day since it was over the weekend, so we'll celebrate that, too. We always celebrate anything Disney! Lunch on your own - last day to order from the JRES Cafeteria, and the menu says Popcorn Chicken Bowl or Hot Dog. For dessert, we're going to make the chocolate pasta Devin's family got for us on their recent trip to Seattle, and we'll top it with a berry sauce and ice cream! 😋
Thursday: We are going to Eaton for a work day! You read that correctly...Eaton on a Thursday this time, not Friday!! Please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. After our work is finished, we'll decide as a group whether we visit the park for a walk, or return to the center for yoga.
Friday: We will be busy this morning packing supplies to take with us as we relocate to a classroom in the school for the next two weeks. (AFCC is closing for annual maintenance from June 17-28.) We will have a history lesson for Flag Day as well, and we'll welcome Ms. Vallone for a "good-bye" celebration. After lunch, we'll travel to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for a visit with Christina! Arc shirts optional; feel free to wear Flag Day colors! Lunch on your own. Microwave available.
Please keep these upcoming fundraisers in mind:
August 5 - WOTM 9th Annual Charity Golf Tournament at Kiskiack. Please reach out to Lisa or Carol for more information or to submit a sponsorship! Thank you!
The ALWAYS a blast 5k is on October 5th this year! Click below for a link to registration information! Thank you!
We hope everyone has a wonderful weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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