We didn't complain about the rain we got most of the week because we needed it, and also because we had enjoyed a couple of really nice weeks before this one. We're ready to welcome fall this weekend, hopefully with milder weather and changing leaf colors! Despite the weather, we had a nice week, visiting with Christina at the Art Museums, hanging out with the therapy dogs, joining Moose Patti for the presentation of the golf tournament proceeds, working at Pet Supplies Plus, and representing The Arc of Greater Williamsburg for Charity Day at Tidal Wave Auto Spa! A little rain won't stop us!
Tuesday, September 17
This morning was unusual because we cooked! We usually have outings on Tuesdays, but since we didn't need to leave today until after lunch, we decided to cook a pasta lunch so we could make an extra dish to include in a care package for Heike. She just returned from Germany where she was with her family following the unexpected passing of her beloved mother.
We welcomed Thomas to hang with us today. He is an Arc client who is interested in joining the Arc of Abilities. We put him to work with Bryan browning the ground turkey for our pasta sauce. He did a great job!
Annmarie, Erik, and Laura assembled fresh garden salads for our lunch!
We don't always make dessert when we cook lunch, but since we were making a care package for Heike, we included chocolate chip cookies, thanks to our bakers Carol, Michelle, and Emma!
These are the flowers we got for Heike, and the sympathy cards with thoughtful messages that we made last week.
We thought lunch was tasty, and we hope Heike will enjoy it, too.
We missed Heike while she was away for 3 weeks spending time with her family. It's nice to have her back. 💗
After an early lunch, we dodged rain bullets as we made our way to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for our monthly visit with Christina. Our lesson today was on the subject of things that remind us of fall. We took a walk through the museum and learned about several objects that fit the theme. This is a coverlet/blanket that was made in the 1850s and features oak leaves. It was made on a Jaquard loom, using a "punch card system," which was a revolutionary way to program patterns into the loom, and is often considered a predecessor to modern computing! We didn't quite understand that connection, but we know that falling leaves and wrapping up in blankets are signs of fall!
Here, Christina was pointing out artwork that featured harvesting wheat and creating hay bales, another sign that fall is coming. Several of us raised our hands when Christina asked if we had ever been to Fall Festivals and seen hay bales as part of the decorations.
Speaking of raising our hands, when Christina inquired about who likes fall beverages, lots of hands went up! Some favorites are pumpkin spice lattes, hot teas, chai, and hot chocolate! Here, Christina reminded us that in Colonial Times, tea and coffee were very common beverages...but they wouldn't have enjoyed the many flavors we add to ours!
In the Education Room, we gathered for a "how-to" lesson on drawing scarecrows, which are a sign of fall, too. We always enjoy doing step-by-step drawings with Christina, and seeing how everyone's drawings turn out the same, yet different.
Thanks for another fun visit, Christina! We appreciate what you taught us today! And even though you are a little sad to see summer slipping away, we're kind of excited for fall because we know lots of birthdays and holidays are coming up and celebrating is one of our favorite activites!
Wednesday, September 18
It was another rainy morning, but things seemed quite bright once our therapy dog friends arrived! We enjoyed reading fall-themed books with them today, and then we made a cute scarecrow dog craft! Thanks, handlers and dog friends! We love our time spent with you each month!
Michelle, Annmarie, and Emma read with Aja.
Bryan and Sam read with Nan, Marisol, and Tucker.
Caroline and Pip read with Drew, Devin, and Beka.
Leo listened as Xavier, Patrick, and Alexis read with Kent.
Carol D. and our new friend, Janet, read with Erik, Kate, and another new friend, Thomas. Darby was under the table!
Laura, Liz, and Kevin read with Casey and Carol S.
Tucker couldn't resist posing for our scarecrow dog craft!
Thanks to volunteer Allison for putting the scarecrow dogs on the windows! They are so cute!
After therapy dog time, we introduced Thomas, who was hanging out with us for a couple of days, to our pool noodle volleyball game. Allison blew up 4 balloons for today's round, so we were bopping like crazy!
We still had a little time before lunch so we assembled the sun catchers from the kits Krafty Karen gave us last week. We used dried flowers and leaves which had to be delicately placed between sticky pieces of contact paper. Here, Sam and Emma carefully their placed dried items.
The sun catchers look great as part of a garland made with the leaves we made last week using shaving cream and paint. Fall is coming! Thanks for another beautiful craft project, Karen!
After lunch, we listened as Carol shared details about her trip on the Mississippi River cruise from St. Louis to St. Paul. She had maps, brochures, and post cards that helped us picture her fun adventure. She joyfully explained about visiting the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal Missouri, and the John Deer factory in Davenport, Iowa,
In Red Wing, Minnesota, Carol visited the National Eagle Center and very kindly brought us a book about one of our favorite animals that we study! Thanks, Carol. We really enjoy learing about eagles, so your book with be great for us! We are so glad you enjoyed your trip, and we're also happy to have you back!
We ended the day with a game of Fall Bingo. Our new friend, Thomas, is a big fan of Bingo, just like we are!
Earlier today...
We sent a crew to work in the JRES Library. We can't refer to them at the "Library Ladies" anymore, because Bryan volunteered to help Emma, Liz, and Alexis today, and he rocked it! Mr. Nonnemacher and Ms. Ortega appreciate our help. 😊 What a great team, and thanks for finding the great fall-themed books for us to read with the therapy dogs!
Later today...
We joined Moose Patti, Allison, and other WOTM friends at the Lodge where we accepted the proceeds from their most successful golf tournament ever!!!! We appreciate the families who were able to join us tonight as we accepted this generous donation. Moose Patti, we can't say enough how much we appreciate your friendship, support, love, and hard work on behalf of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and The Arc of Abilities! You are so dear to us! 💖💖💖 It was great to see Pam's smiling face, too, and we know Patti will enjoy the treat Pam brought her! 😍
Thanks once again to the generous golf tournament sponsors!
Thursday, September 19
Just one year ago on September 19, we were celebrating our friend Tessa's 23rd birthday. She loves computer games so we played Hangman, and then enjoyed delicious cupcakes!
This year, we are all keeping Tessa and her family in our thoughts as she remains hospitalized dealing with the effects of a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic. Happy Birthday, Sweet Tessa! We wish comfort and healing for you, and we send you a lot of 💖💖💖💖💖.
Today was Talk Like a Pirate Day, so we celebrated all day with pirate themed music, brain work, games, fun, and a treat!
Drew, Alexis, Liz, Devin, and Michelle danced along to a pirate song by the Wiggles.
We played a silly game that ended with each of us having a silly pirate name like Green Lip Bill or Big Mouth Bart! Carol led the boy's game.
Lisa led the girl's game and they ended up with names like Stump Eye Sue and Black Bottom Bonnie! We made name tags and called each other by our pirate names all day!
For morning movement, we had to follow commands from our pirate ship captain (aka, Lisa). From swabbing the deck to swimming away from sharks, we got active on our pretend ship (our room). Here, we were working with partners to "row the lifeboats."
We always enjoy brain work, and there were plenty of pirate-themed worksheets to challenge us today! Our favorites were crossword puzzles, word searches, I Spy pages, using context clues to determine the meanings of pirate words, and color by number math pages.
We colored our own pirate portraits, and after a discussion about adjectives that could be used to describe pirates, we picked the ones that fit us. Some of us even added adjectives that weren't included in the activity like "educated" and "athletic" because our pirates are as amazing as we are!
Thank you, Laura, for asking your retired teacher mom to send us a fun pirate story to read! We got a kick out of Pirates Don't Change Diapers!
After lunch we made treasure chests by decorating paper bowls we turned upside down. We added colorful designs and stickers. We got our chests were filled with a pirate-worthy snack: peg legs, bones, and gold! (Or it may have been pretzel sticks, white chocolate covered pretzels, and Rolo candies!) It was silly, fun, and tasty!!
We ended the day with a rousing game of corn hole which Team Jack Sparrow won over Team Elizabeth Swann, 18-16. Talk Like a Pirate Day was fun!
Friday, September 20
We had to divide and conquer to get things done today! It was Charity Day at Tidal Wave Auto Spa, so a group went there to represent the Arc of GW and help raise donations. It was also our usual Pet Supplies Plus work day, so we sent a group to work there, too. There are a lot of us, so we had a third group that stayed at the center to work on organizing our craft beads. We had a productive morning all around!
The Car Wash Crew consisted of Liz, Drew, Patrick, and Devin.
Justin, who works at Tidal Wave, came over to support us with a donation! The entire team at Tidal Wave was great to work with, and we enjoyed our time with them.
We worked our way around the vacuum bays several times with our big donation bucket! We handed out information about The Arc and Tootsie Pops, too! The best part was chatting with the customers and thanking them for supporting us on Charity Day!
Lisa was thrilled to see Haley and Jordan stop by with a donation!
Later, Bryan counted the tip money the Car Wash Crew collected and it was $104! Portions of the day's sales at Tidal Wave will also be donated. Thanks to Tidal Wave Auto Spa for selecting The Arc of Greater Williamsburg as a benefactor of their Charity Day! We are thankful for their support.
Today's Pet Supplies Plus Crew consisted of Sam, Bryan, Erik, Emma, Alexis, and Michelle. They arrived just in time to help stock the shelves after a huge delivery was dropped off by this truck!
After putting a lot of product on the shelves, the crew decided to showcase parakeets! These little birds can be easily trained and are quite friendly. They can even learn to mimic spoken language!
Xavier, Laura, and Annmarie were part of the Craft Crew that held down the fort with Nan at the center. They spent part of their morning sorting colorful beads. Volunteer Allison is planning some craft projects for us!
Beka and Kevin were on the Craft Crew, too! We appreciate their attention to detail on this task.
Our Car Wash and PSP Crews were on their feet all morning, and a little sweaty from working. They requested that we skip a trip to the park and enjoy a leisurely lunch and "extra" Choice Time at the center instead. The Craft Crew didn't mind, so we had a "chillaxing" afternoon!
On a short walk outside, we ran into our favorite school system electrician, Jerry. He gave us an update on the "school cat" he keeps an eye on and feeds. We see her outside our window every now and then. Jerry said she recently had kittens!
"Mary Poppins" is Jaime's new online yoga segment, so we checked it out today. Stretching with her is a great way to end a busy week!
Even as one busy week ends, we are gearing up for another one to come! Here are our plans for next week as we wind down September. Can you believe that?!
Tuesday: We return to the garden at Freedom Park today for our second of four fall sessions with the master gardeners. We're going on a tree walk led by MG Rick! We hope to take advantage of nice weather and hang out at the park for a 5k practice walk before returning to the center. Please bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: We will volunteer at GCOC today, so please wear Arc shirts. Last year we helped a doctoral student named Sierra with her research project. She was successful in her studies and is now Dr. Sierra! She wants to thank us, and celebrate, by treating us to a pizza party for lunch! We'll also have fun with musical activities as we celebrate National One-Hit Wonder Day.
Thursday: Today we will have our traditional lesson for Johnny Appleseed Day, which includes watching the 1948 Disney movie about his journeys around the country planting apple trees. We'll also make birthday cards for Mike at the Watermen's Museum, since we're going to see him next week on his birthday! Our day will end with a fun session of laughter yoga with our friend, Laughter Laura! Lunch on your own. Microwave available. JRES Cafeteria is available for Domino's Pizza, Yogurt Combo, or Chef Salad.
Friday: It's an Eaton Work Day so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. We'll keep an eye on the weather and decide about walking at the park or returning to the center for corn hole and/or yoga with Jaime!
Our 5k is in TWO WEEKS!! Will we see you there? If you can't make it in person, choose the "Virtual" option! We appreciate your support!
On a personal note from The Arc of Abilities, we want to send big THANK YOUs to our many AoA families who have signed up, Moose Patti for coordinating a Williamsburg Moose Lodge team, and our therapy dog handler friend, Caroline, for coordinating a team from Williamsburg United Methodist Church!! We cannot wait to walk with y'all!
Happy Weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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