Snow Time, 2025!

 

We can't recall ever having a one-day week before, so this might be a first!  As everyone arrived on Tuesday they were excited about the prospect of a lot of snow, so we hope everyone enjoyed it.  That rascally ole groundhog must have known what he was talking about! 

Here's a look at our fabulous one-day week!

Tuesday, February 18

Even though most of us came in with the snow forecast on our minds, we managed to harness our focus and have a great day!  We welcomed Heike's daughter, Destiny, to volunteer with us.  She recently changed jobs and works in Williamsburg now instead of Norfolk, so she has some extra time.  Thanks for working with us, Destiny.  We always enjoy making a new friend!

Destiny helped us make birthday cards for our favorite Arc Executive Director, Pam...just in case we aren't here later in the week.  Pam's birthday is Monday. 🥳

Sam rides the WATA bus that usually arrives by 8:30, so he is one of our "early birds."  Today, we enlisted his help making snowballs out of scrap paper so we could have a snowball fight later in the morning!  Thank you, Sam! ❄❄❄

After we finished making Pam's cards, we took the snowballs to the hallway for a Girls vs. Boys Snowball Fight!  What better day than today?!  We were pretty certain we would not be here for at least the next couple of days due to the forecast for 6-10 inches of snow on the way!

We could have used a wider space, but everyone was up and down a lot gathering and tossing the snowballs!

 Snow much fun!  😀

Since Monday was a federal holiday meant to honor either one or more presidents, we watched a video that tried to explain it!  Did you know that the federal government considers it Washington's Birthday (as does the state of Virginia) but other states consider it President's Day, Presidents' Day, Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays or even something else?  It seems the only thing they all have in common is recognizing George Washington as being an excellent first president of our country!

Click on the picture for a link to the video we watched.

We had lunch early so we could join Christina at 12:30 for what turned out to be a timely lesson about snow days!  In a reverse of our usual routnine, we worked on our project before taking a tour in the galleries.  Christina had prepped snowflake canvases for each of us, and she had us paint over the tape using just three colors - purple, blue, and white.  She explained that we would return later to remove the tape and reveal our one-of-a-kind snowflakes!

Christina, we appreciate the prep work you did for us so we would be able to create beautiful pictures.  Thank you for the experiences you provide for us!

Christina even had aprons for us.   Arc-tists Patrick and Laura were ready to create!

Xavier was all smiles as he used brush strokes to cover his canvas.

There was a lot of concentration as Thomas, Erik, and Sam worked.

Destiny was ready to encourage and assist Annmarie, Drew, and Abraham as needed.  

Nan reminded Kevin to use strokes, and keep going.  The canvases were big and it took a while to cover them with paint!

While our art work was drying, we visited the galleries to look for objects related to having a snow day.  We found some great examples to fit the theme!

Warm beverages, hot soup, and a toasty fire seemed fitting for a snow day!

We also found lots of objects that suggested things to do on a snow day.  We could play outside in the snow, enjoy toys or games inside, and then bundle up in a warm quilt or blanket and read a book!  (We didn't find any televisions at the museums today!)  Christina gives us a brief overview of each object we find, so we always learn interesting things, too!

After gathering lots of good ideas about how to spend our snow day, we returned to the Education Studio to remove the tape from our canvases.  We could hear many "oohs and ahhs" as our snowflakes were revealed.  Thanks again, Christina!  The snow day lesson was sooo perfect for today, and we enjoyed it very much!

And with that, our week was over!  The forecast looks excellent for a four-day week to come, and here are our plans.  We've got some make up work to do!

Tuesday:  Luckily the weather looks great for our visit to Jamestown Settlement where our friends Jay and Lara are going to give us a lesson on "Heroes and Villains."  Doesn't that sound like fun?  If the temperature warms up enough and it's sunny, we might be able to enjoy lunch outside and take a walk, so please bring a bagged lunch.  Arc shirts optional today.

Wednesday:  We will volunteer at Grove, so please wear Arc shirts.  We'll make up last week's lesson about why some people are scared of bugs, and learn about symmetry at the same time.  We'll also celebrate National Pistachio Day with a lesson and sample.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria menu lists Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Assorted Wraps as options, though that could change if they are "making up" meals from last week.

Thursday:  Today is National Chili Day so we will make chili and cornbread for lunch.  We're welcoming Tracy and her new supervisor, Connor, to join us.  Connor took Rachel's place after she moved to Charlottesville, and we look forward to meeting and working with him!  We will also make up Love Your Pet Day, so feel free to bring photos or other mementoes of your pets!

Friday:  Today is an Eaton Work Day, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  We will plan for a yoga session with Jaime in the afternoon, too.

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

Valentine's Day, 2025

Happy Valentine's Day, 2025!  We had a great time celebrating and exchanging cards with each other on Friday, which was a highlight of our three days together!  The week began with a snow day on Tuesday, then we spent Wednesday and Thursday keeping busy with volunteering, learning, cooking, and celebrating Heike's birthday.  We also worked at Eaton before our Valentine party on Friday.  It was a jam-packed three days!

Tuesday, February 11

Snow Day!

Wednesday, February 12

While one group went to volunteer at GCOC, the other group worked on a couple of card projects.  First, we made thank you cards for a friend of the program named Sean.   He's a good friend of Kelly's and Scott's (APEX-PT), and enjoys hearing about the Arc of Abilities.  Last year, and again this year, he donated several boxes of Girl Scout cookies to us for a taste test!  (Cookies coming in a couple of weeks.)  We hope to meet Sean in person one day, but until then, we hope he likes these thank you cards we made today.  When we have the cookie taste test, we'll send him some pictures, too!

We also made cards for our favorite custodian, Heike.  We're celebrating her birthday tomorrow!

Here's the group at GCOC today, all set up and ready to pack the food bags.  Each member will put 1-2 items in the bag and pass it to the next member.  We usually fill about 140 bags of food!

We are grateful for Grove and its members and volunteers who keep this community food bank going.  We appreciate the opportunity to serve!

Thank you, Ursula, for the delicious brownies!

Movement time!  We set up exercise stations in the hallway, then took turns spinning the wheel to see which one we had to visit before coming back in the room to spin the wheel again, as Thomas is doing here!

Thanks, Dev, for counting for us!

It was nice to have an extra set of hands in Allison as we decorated bags to put Friday's Valentines in during our exchange.  Xavier enjoyed working with her!

Most of us knew that chocolate is not good for dogs, and can make them sick.  We watched a Mystery Science episode to learn why that happens.  There is a chemical stimulant in chocolate that dogs cannot metabolize as well as humans can, and it can build up in their bodies and make them sick. 

Luckily, we can metabolize the chemicals in chocolate, and we proved it by enjoying tasty chocolate cookies dipped in white chocolate that Allison made for us.  She won't be able to join us for the Valentine party on Friday, so we celebrated with her today.  Great timing, Allison!  We 💗your chocolate cookies.  Thank you for making them for us!

Emma is learning to be one of our JRES lunch helpers!  Liz is doing a fabulous job training her!

We ended the day with card games!  Some of them were new, like Spoons, Old Maid, and Pizza Party, while Go Fish was an old favorite.  We got a new set of card games, and will add game time to our regular routine now!

💕💕💕 Congratulations are in order!  We'd like to wish Drew's sister (and our friend), Alex, and her husband, Scott, all the best as they begin their married life together in Florida!  We are very happy for you!  💕💕💕

👀👏 Look at our friend, Drew!!  He was the ring bearer for Alex and Scott and WOW, did he do a great job!  Drew, you are so handsome and we can see that you took your job seriously.  We knew you would rock it!!  We're sooo proud of you! 😎👍Now, get back to the center.  We have missed you!

Thursday, February 13

There was excitement in the air as we prepared to celebrate Heike's birthday today, but first we welcomed Drew back!  He missed a few days in January due to illness and the snow days, and then he left for Alex's wedding in Florida, so it's been a while since we've seen him.  So nice to have you back, Drew!!

After our dance warm up, we got right to work preparing for Heike's birthday lunch.  She stopped by to tell us she was "going to make it happen" and would be able to join us for lunch after all.  (She's been short-staffed lately, so we were planning to make her a take-home meal.)  First, we made decorations for her birthday board.

Isn't it lovely?  We found some new bubble letters that are kind of whimsical, and have flowers on them!  Her cards we made yesterday are on the sides of the board.

Today's cooking team worked nicely together to make tortellini soup (it's National Tortellini Day), Caesar salad, and birthday brownies!

The soup was soooo good, we included the link to the recipe if you click on the photo!  Easy, quick, and quite tasty!!  Our secret tip:  Add extra spinach!  😋😋😋

Our group created an acrostic poem using the letters in Heike's name to think of words that describe her, such as:  Helpful, Energetic, Incredible, Kind-hearted, and Encouraging. She's so special to us, we wrote even more words using letters that aren't in her name!

Thanks Devin, Thomas, and Emma for your excellent presentation of Heike's birthday poem!

Heike was very touched by our thoughtful poem.  It wasn't hard for us to write at all!  She is very special to us!

Heike, we hope all your wishes come true...and that this is your best year yet!  Thank you for everything you do to help us, and for being one of our best friends!

Last week we began a new read-aloud called The Wild Robot.  Several of us mentioned that there is a movie based on this book that came out last year, and we would like to watch it after we read the book.  That sounds like a good idea!

We missed our lesson for Inventors' Day, which was Tuesday, so we made it up today.  We watched a video about some famous, and not so famous, inventors, and had a discussion about the proverb, "Necessity is the mother of invention."  That was interesting!  After that, we used a variety of objects we gathered (string, craft sticks, clothespins, paper squares, tape, etc.) to see if we could invent something like a new game or toy.  It was an interesting activity, but we probably need a little more time to work on our inventions...or not! 😉

Friday, February 14

This morning we were eager to get to Eaton and get our work done so we could return to the center for a Valentine Party!

We did most of our usual tasks at Eaton:  sorting, unpacking, and assembling PowerSlide Doors.  Here are some photos from our productive morning!

Annmarie and Laura sorting parts, and later, stacking them neatly in the tubs.

Our hard-working PowerSlide Door assembly team working it like clockwork!

Patrick and Drew appreciate Devin's flexibility in being able to get in the big box to reach the parts at the bottom!

We didn't overlook getting a picture of Erik this time!  He's a whiz with that electric screwdriver!

Busy as bees!

Sam unpacks and Michelle inserts the amber lenses with precision.

Bryan aced a new job today - folding packing paper from one of the big tubs so it can be reused.

Checking in with David and Ethan!                           

💗💗💗 Back at the center we ate lunch, listened to a Valentine playlist, and enjoyed our dessert of chocolate/cherry cake while socializing with one another.  Next, we exchanged Valentines.  Everyone remembered their stash, and there was a lot of excitement in the air!  Despite our best efforts at making the exchange simple and organized, it had some challenges, but friends helped friends!  We weren't able to get many pictures, but in the end, everyone went home with a smile and a nice collection of Valentines from their sweet friends! 💗💗💗

It was another week where we kept busy and engaged even though  the crazy weather took one of our days!  Looks like something could be brewing for next week, too, so we'll keep our eyes peeled just in case... Meanwhile, we made plans for a 4 day week!

Tuesday:  This morning we will have a history lesson since yesterday was Presidents Day, and we enjoy learning interesting things about presidents!   Please wear Arc shirts because after lunch we'll visit Christina at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is available for Beef Soft Taco, Taco Salad, or Pizza.

Wednesday:  We will stay at the center today and welcome our therapy dog friends.  We haven't seen them since December!  We'll also watch a Mystery Science lesson to learn about why many people are scared of bugs, and tie in a lesson about symmetry with it, too!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Popcorn Chicken Bowl or Hot Dog.

Thursday:  Today we are looking forward to welcoming our friend Mike from the Watermen's Museum for a visit and lunch.  He's going to do a belated Valentine lesson with us and we're going to thank him for his continued partnership with us!  It's also National Love Your Pet Day, so feel free to bring pictures and stories about your pets to share with everyone.  Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad and Wild Berry Muffins for lunch (it's National Muffin Day).

Friday:  It's a Pet Supplies Plus work day, so please wear your PSP shirts.  The crew that stays at the center will clean and organize things, something we need to do often!  We'll make birthday cards for our favorite (and only!) executive director of The Arc, and end the day with yoga, so dress to stretch.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Cheeseburger or Fish Sticks today.

Happy Valentine's Day,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang