
On Wednesday we celebrated National Flip Flop Day by playing games, completing brain work, decorating cookies, and creating this beach scene. We're looking forward to warmer weather, soon!
We heard a few of our friends asking this week, "Where did May go?" Sometimes we just can't believe how quickly it seems time passes. May, the month, may be in our rear view mirror now, but we can look back and say we filled it with a lot of great memories! Things slowed down a bit for us this last week of May (no birthday parties...sigh!), but we still enjoyed time with our master gardener friends, volunteered at GCOC (Grove Christian Outreach Center) and arranged flowers for CSL (Commonwealth Senior Living), and worked at PSP (Pet Supplies Plus)! We also enjoyed a movie morning and had a blast celebrating Flip Flop Day. It was a good week!
Tuesday, May 27
It was yet another day when we were hoping the rain would hold off so we could have our session with the master gardeners. We've had a lot of rainy Tuesdays this spring! Luckily, the weather cooperated, and the first thing we did with the MGs was a tree walk, led by Rick.
Rick is very knowledgeable about trees and we always enjoy his tree walks. Today, we learned that the beech tree trunk resembles an elephant's leg, the Japanese maple will turn a deep red in fall, and there is a tree called a button bush that has button-like pods which will soon open to reveal pretty white flowers. We also learned that the long-leaf pine takes about 15 years to produce a pine cone, and we were reminded that the Powhatans used birch trees to make canoes. Thanks for all of the interesting tree facts, Rick! We appreciate your enthusiasm when teaching us about them!

After our tree walk, we split into groups to plant more herbs, fruits, and veggies. Jay's group planted corn, beans, and squash together in the trellis bed. Jay told us that these three plants help each other grow. Beans take in nitrogen, and convert it into a form that helps the corn grow, and the corn in return provides a stalk on which the beans can climb as they grow. The squash helps both of the other plants when its large leaves provide shade around the base of the corn stalk, helping to conserve water loss. It's a neat relationship!
Over in the bed that we grew potatoes in last year, Rick's group planted watermelons and cantaloupes! We are crossing our fingers that they will produce juicy fruit for us later this summer!
Karen's group planted okra in the low bed and Italian parsley and basil in the higher one. Nan said she will cook us a batch of fried okra if it grows well, and Karen said we can use the extra basil (in addition to the basil in our herb bed at the center) to make pesto. Both sound very tasty!
Karen shared cut hydrangeas from her yard. She told us one of them was planted near the end of her driveway by Steve over 30 years ago, and it has grown so big that she sometimes has trouble seeing when backing out of the driveway when it's in bloom. Be careful, Karen! Karen also gave us a batch of her famous homemade zucchini bread, which we enjoyed when we returned to the center. Thank you so much, Karen! It was sooo delicious, as always, and a very special treat!
Speaking of hydrangeas, Beka's memorial oakleaf hydrangea, planted by the master gardeners, is blooming beautifully. 💞
Thank you, Carolyn, for creating another beautiful journal update about today's session. The MGs are lucky to have your talents in documenting the wonderful work you all do with the Arc of Abilities!
After our session with the master gardeners ended, we decided to have lunch on the patio at Freedom Park. It was cloudy, and Liz told us her weather app said it would rain in 20 minutes. We went for it...and just as we were finishing up (more like 24 minutes), it started to sprinkle. We gathered everyone up (and the zucchini bread), and headed back to AFCC!
During Choice Time, Gayle planted the marigolds we started from seeds given to us by the MGs. We cleaned out the bulb pot that was so beautiful in early spring, and hope the marigolds will grow well in it over the summer.
After Choice Time (and zucchini bread!), we listened to a few chapters in The Wild Robot Escapes, and ended the day with a game on the website Baamboozle. It was a game where we answered questions about likes and dislikes, but there were some power-ups and zingers in there, so the score kept changing! In the end, the boys won today's round, thanks to a late-game zinger where they got to steal some points from the girls! Congrats, fellas!
Here's a bonus for everyone! Our Annmarie is a star!! Her sister Sheila is in a country band, and at their gig on Memorial Day they invited Annmarie to sing "America the Beautiful." The heartwarming applause and cheers after her friends watched this were the best! Annmarie, we LOVE this! You did a wonderful job and we are so proud of you!!
Wednesday, May 28
It was yet another rainy morning, but our Rec van carpool group stopped at the Arc office to pick up the flowers from Trader Joe's. After our dance warm up, we spent the first part of the morning arranging the flowers for CSL and volunteering at GCOC.
Sam cut away the wrappings on the bunches of cut flowers while Annmarie, Abraham, Kate, and Emma removed excess leaves from the stems. Michelle added water to the 12 Mason jars we use for vases.
Patrick and Thomas showed the pretty arrangements they made. Gail, Bryan, and Devin are learning to cut the stems shorter, and Alexis and Emma enjoy experimenting with different colors in the arrangements.
Devin, Liz, Xavier, Bryan, Erik, Laura, Kevin, and Kate handled the packing of the USDA food delivery at Grove, working with just Ursula and Thom since Peggy and Joel were traveling.
Thank you, Ursula, for the blueberry treat! It was yummy!
Allison, Emma, and Gail turned Nutter Butter cookies into flip flop cookies as today was National Flip Flop Day and we had a celebration planned!
First, we watched a video about an environmentally-friendly company in Kenya that gathers thousands of discarded flip flops from beaches to upcycle them into carved art. Pretty cool!
Next, we did some brain work that involved thinking of as many examples as we could to finish ideas such as "Sharp as ____" or "Slow as ____." The cards were designed with a flip flop theme, but the creative ideas were all ours!
We decorated a table to look like waves at the ocean, with lots of flip flops in the sand. One time last year we bought ice cream cones, but ended up using bowls instead. We never got rid of the cones, and they are too old to eat now, so we crushed them to make the sand. Before eating the cookies, some of our guys went surfing!
After lunch it was time for Flip Flop Olympics! We divided into 3 teams and were ready for the games to begin.
We got great movement as we hustled back and forth during a series of relays to gather matching flip flops, return matching ones, and toss (or flip with our feet) them through the rings. After six rounds of playing, we had shared a lot of cheers and laughs!
Congratulations to Team Orange today for winning the Flip Flop Olympics with 28 points! Team Red ended with 26 and Team Blue had 24, so our games were quite competitive!
After almost an hour of Flip Flop Olympics, we still had time for more brain work! We split into groups to search for 10 differences between two flip flop pictures, and then played an online memory match game. We were kind of "toast" by the time we got to the memory game, but we persevered and completed it in about 6 1/2 minutes! Yikes! Time to go home!!
Thursday, May 29
We enjoyed a movie morning and a laid back rest of the day, too!
Bryan and Carol took advantage of the sunny morning to assemble and hang our new bird feeders.
Before the movie, Bryan and Gail set up the concession stand and got the popcorn ready for everyone!
We had trouble with streaming the movie we wanted to watch on Netflix, so we had to resort to a good ole DVD. We found Cop Dog in our stash, and it was pretty good!
We took a nice walk outside after the movie, and also checked on the herb garden. Due to the technical difficulties earlier, and also pausing the movie when the school principal stopped by for a visit, we were running behind and didn't have time for Paper Clip Day and Tap Dance Day. We may get to them in the next week or so.
After lunch and Choice Time, we continued reading our book, The Wild Robot Escapes. We are on chapter 69, and there are 90 chapters in the book! However, each chapter is only 2-4 pages long! When Lisa finished reading, Sam picked up the book and pretended to read more, because Lisa had stopped at a suspenseful part!
Near the end of the day, we welcomed a new Arc family for a visit. They are interested in the day program, but we currently have a waitlist. We showed Sean and his mom, Gita, around, and invited Sean to spend a couple of days with us next week. If he still seems interested in our program, he can join the waitlist. We didn't get a picture of him today, but we will next week when he visits.
Before it was time to go, we got this picture! Our friend Drew is missed by everyone this week as he enjoys time with family at Emerald Isle. Looks like beach life suits him, though! We'll see you soon, Drew!
Friday, May 30
This morning we appreciated our "early birds" (as always) because we had a few things to get done before officially starting our day. Gail surveyed everyone to see who wanted cheese on their burgers, and Laura checked the day's attendance, as she always does. Annmarie agreed they were both doing a great job! Sam glued the labels to our calendar squares, which is his specialty job when we update the calendar. Sam had to leave shortly (along with Gail) to report to work at PSP!
We didn't get a video before the PSP Crew left, but we know they would have joined in for the rest of the dance warm up time!
Once we finished dancing, there were two tasks to accomplish: Set up the June calendar, and prepare lunch for our celebration of National Hamburger Day, which was Wednesday!
Devin removed MAY related words and pictures from the walls. Thomas and Emma removed MAY calendar squares and reset the numbers for JUNE. Abraham inserted the new calendar squares detailing all the activities we have planned for June. Laura was very proud of the JUNE letters she colored, and how we surrounded them with extra flip flop pictures we colored on Wednesday.
Alexis and Patrick (and Liz, before heading to PSP) used the computers to find pictures to match our June events. Here, they are pointing to a couple of activities they are looking forward to, like eating lunch at Sal's one day, and going fishing with Mike!
Time to get lunch ready. We were really excited about having burgers!
Emma whipped up a simple recipe for cake mix cookies, Annmarie made a concoction of raspberry lemonade, and Devin and Thomas were our burger grill masters!
Over at Pet Supplies Plus, there was plenty of work going on, as well! A huge delivery had come in, and we had a lot of product to stock on the shelves. Bryan, Gail, and Xavier worked together on one end of the fish aisle, while Kevin and Liz teamed up at the other end. Later, Xavier and Gail hung toys for cats, and Sam and Erik worked with Scott on stocking food for them!
Before leaving, the PSP Crew chose pet toys (featuring SpongeBob SquarePants) to showcase for our blog readers. Can you spot Roxanne and manager Thomas in the photo, too?!
Look at this van load of completed work we took to Eaton after we finished at PSP!
We enjoy having Eaton work to do at our center during the week. Thanks for keeping us busy, Rosemary and Ethan!
Lunch was almost ready when the PSP Crew returned. It smelled like a burger joint in the room! Everyone raved about our celebration of National Hamburger Day (or for some, cheeseburger). They were very tasty, along with juicy watermelon and a bag of chips. Many thanks to Xavier's family (Leah and Steve) for leaving us the extra chips after his birthday last week. 😋
After lunch, Choice Time, and read-aloud (we're up to chapter 76), we joined Jaime for a Little Mermaid yoga session, followed by a Peace Out segment that definitely relaxed us as it was 14 minutes long! (In the first photo, we were doing mermaid pose.)
After a good yoga stretch, we're ready for the weekend!Quickly, it seems, we've come to the end of another week, and for us, another month. When we return on Tuesday, it will be June! Here's a look at our plans for next week:
Tuesday: It's June, and we'll welcome it with bowling and pizza for lunch! Today we are being joined by Laura's parents, who are sponsoring lunch, and we'll get to meet her grandmother, too! Thanks Tom and Lisa, for treating us today! The forecast looks great for having lunch at the park, and sticking around for a walk, too!
Wednesday: This morning we will work on flowers for CSL and we'll volunteer at GCOC, so please wear Arc shirts. We'll also make birthday cards for a Krafty friend of ours 😍, and we have a surprise visitor scheduled to come after lunch?!?!?! Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is offering Asian Chicken with Rice, BBQ Flatbread, or Manager's Choice. NOTE: The last day for ordering lunch from the cafeteria will be next Wednesday, June 11.
Thursday: Today we are joining Mike at the Watermen's Museum for our traditional free fishing day experience! June 6-8 are Free Fishing Days in Virginia, but Mike gets a head start with us each year. We'll fish on the pier and have crafts and education on the pavilion. It looks like the weather will be sunny, warm, and muggy, so wear your sunscreen and bring your hats. (We have sunscreen, too.) We'll follow it up with a picnic lunch by the river if it's not too hot, so please bring a bagged lunch. Thanks, Mike! It's going to be a fun day!
Friday: This morning we will work at Eaton. Please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. It's National Donut Day, so we'll celebrate with a donut and juice before we go to Eaton (so don't eat a big breakfast)! If the weather cooperates, we'll have lunch at the park and enjoy a walk and a game of bocce.
A few updates...
#1: The Arc office and the Arc of Abilities day program will be closed in observance of the Juneteenth Holiday on Thursday, June 19.
#2: The Arc of Abilities will be closed the week of July 1- 4 for Summer Break. We will reopen on Tuesday, July 8.
#3: The WOTM Golf Tournament is coming on August 2nd at Williamsburg National Golf Club. Please consider supporting us with a Hole Sponsorship ($50), or more! The course always looks great with all our friends' pictures on the hole sponsor signs! We also need AoA members to volunteer that morning. Touch base with Lisa about these opportunities! (Checks can be made payable to WOTM 1755.) THANK YOU!!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang