Happy Birthday Patrick and Elizabeth!

 

Alas, our fall season of birthday celebrations came to an end this week as we honored Patrick and Elizabeth, each with birthdays on Tuesday!  We'll take a break for a few weeks and then kick off the winter celebrations in early December.  Oh, what shall we do until then?!  Haha!!  

In other news, we had a great Service Work Wednesday, volunteering in the library, at Grove, and making flower arrangements.  On Thursday we welcomed Mike from the Watermen's Museum for a Friendsgiving lunch and on Friday we worked at PSP, cleaned up around our center, and went on a heartwarming shopping trip in support of the food drive.  We also welcomed Sara to visit on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday as she is on the waitlist for our program.  You'll see her in some of this week's photos!

Tuesday

Our morning was busy as we began with our dance warm up and then turned our attention to card making.  It's only once a year that we get to make two birthday cards for the same day, and today was it!  We made cards for Pat and Liz that filled the birthday board with color and good wishes.  Next, we had a discussion about Veterans Day, and made a list of the veterans in our immediate AoA families.  We composed a message to thank them for their service, colored the cards, and sent them home today.  Many thanks to our AoA veterans, and all American veterans, for their service and sacrifice for our country!  We also squeezed in some indoor movement, followed by a stretching session, too!

Soon it was time to celebrate our birthday twins Elizabeth and Patrick!  Liz turned 31, Pat turned 34, and don't they look great?!  They have been sharing their special day with us for years, and we always look forward to it!

We love when our families are able to join us!  Today, Liz's mom, Lise, and Pat's parents, Sue and Kevin, treated us to a delicious lunch of baked ziti, salad, bread, and cupcakes.  We missed Liz's dad, Greg, who had a follow up appointment for his recent knee replacement surgery.  Thank you, Lise, Sue, and Kevin for delivering such a tasty lunch and for spending time with us to celebrate your great kids!  Greg, you'll have to visit us soon, too.  We missed you!

Pat and Liz, we hope all your wishes come true!  

It turned out to be too chilly, and windy, to head to the park, so Liz chose a Thanksgiving version of Jeopardy for a party game.  We knew a lot of the answers about Thanksgiving foods, symbols, and traditions, but something we didn't know was that the average American consumes over 4,000 calories on Thanksgiving Day.  Say it isn't so?!

Patrick chose corn hole for our other party game.  He, like his friends, really enjoys playing this game.  Today, Pat and the boys played against Liz and the girls, and the boys were on fire!  

Congrats to Pat and the guys for a 23-12 win today!  Birthday fun for everyone, despite the score!

Wednesday

In her second trial day with us, Sara expressed her interest in volunteering at the JRES Library.  She has library experience, and she did a fantastic job!  That's Sara on the right behind Laura. 

Our CSL flower team had mostly sunflowers to work with this morning.  Devin, Kate, and Nan filled the Mason jars with pretty bursts of fall color.

Liz and Kevin colored pictures we will use for tomorrow's luncheon with Mike.

Our GCOC group arrived with this week's Food Drive donations.  We added another 45 pounds to the contributions from The Arc!  Thank you AoA families for supporting our efforts to assist Grove as they serve those in the community who are living with food insecurity.

As usual, we helped set up the assembly line.  We worked with Joel and Peggy today.

Michelle mentored Drew on transferring the filled bags to the storage shelf.  She reported he was quick to learn how to place the bags and push them toward the back of the shelf so they could fit more!

Thank you, Peggy, for baking very delicious lemon pudding cookies for us!  Joel said he "tested" them at home to make sure they were "OK" and we are really glad he didn't eat all of them because they were awesome!!  🍋🍋🍋

Back at the center we had a movement activity and made crafty pumpkin pie slices to use for decorations for tomorrow's lunch.  Then, we watched the trailers for three Disney movies from the early 2000s that Lisa thought we might like.  She gave us a ballot so we could vote for which one to watch this afternoon.  It was a close vote, with Tiger Cruise edging out Hounded by one vote!

After lunch and Choice Time we watched Tiger Cruise and Gail offered to run the concession stand so we could have popcorn at intermission!  Thanks, Gail.  Your popcorn is the best!

We enjoyed Tiger Cruise, which was about "Navy brats" who get to spend time on with their parents who are stationed aboard an aircraft carrier.  They learn how important their parents' work is during the course of the cruise, and come to see them in a different light by the end of it.  Turns out it was a good choice considering we observed Veterans Day this week!

Thursday

Yesterday we had done some prep work for today's Friendsgiving Luncheon, but we still had work to do this morning.  Liz shared her Aunt Anne's recipe for corn pudding.  It turned out to be a very popular dish! 😋

We were also having roasted sweet potatoes with a citrus glaze.  That's one of Carol's recipes, and Gail help with its preparation by zesting and then squeezing the juice out of fresh lemons.

We worked with partners to make cards for Mike so we could express our appreciation for his contributions to our learning and fun throughout the year.  Alexis helped Drew with some tricky coloring of tiny turkey feathers.

Here are the finished cards, along with the pumpkin pie decorations we made yesterday, and our "Happy Friendsgiving" message.  (Mike's contribution to the luncheon was going to be a pumpkin pie cheesecake dessert!)

There was time for a game of Thanksgiving Bingo.  We found a version that used a slideshow instead of traditional calling cards.  It was cool to look at the screen to see what was called, and it was easy to find it on our Bingo cards, too!

By late morning it was beautiful and sunny outside, so we enjoyed walking, ball bouncing, and basketball hooping.

Heike surprised us with a drop by visit, too!  She said she really likes her new job as a supervisor for Parks & Rec.  She oversees the cleaning at the Rec Center on Longhill as well as at Legacy Hall, the Human Services building on Olde Towne Road, and the office complex on Palmer Lane.  It's keeps her hopping!  It was a joy to see her!

Finally, it was lunchtime and Mike arrived!  He brought a turkey marionette that had belonged to his late mother.  He told us about how she loved to create through knitting, crocheting, sewing, and such, and that she specialized in Colonial inspired projects.  Maybe Mike got his thirst for history from his mom!

We chatted a bit with Mike before eating and learned that he is very busy these days doing all kinds of programs in communities near and far that will lead up to America's 250th Anniversary next year.  He's got such a passion for Colonial American history, and it shows!  Way to go, Mike! 

 

Our Friendsgiving bounty consisted of turkey and dressing casserole, corn pudding, pumpkin pie cheesecake, roasted sweet potatoes, and cranberry salad.  We served this deliciousness on festive Thanksgiving plates that were provided by our friend, and Laura's mom, Lisa P.  It was a beautiful table!

After lunch we enjoyed more time hanging out with Mike.  It had been a couple of years since he came to our place.  Our "Mike Speeches" team of Liz, Devin, Kate, and Thomas shared heartfelt words about our friendship with Mike, and he read each of the cards.  Next, he served the very tasty pumpkin pie cheesecake dessert he made, presented on a holiday tray complete with a festive turkey centerpiece!  And of course, there was singing before he left!  

Thanks for spending Friendsgiving with us, Mike!  We always relish time spent with you, and the joy and fun that comes with it!

Our day ended with a look at the website for Food Lion, which is where we are going shopping tomorrow.  We received a cash donation for the food drive, so we're going to divide into groups and shop within a budget to purchase nonperishable items.  Today, we learned that it's important to compare prices and sizes, and to realize that convenience products don't always go as far as the basics.  We're looking forward to spending wisely tomorrow!

Friday

Today was a good work day for us.  We sent one group to the pet store, and the other group got a lot done around the center!

Our big task at AFCC this morning was to try and purge some of the stuff we have accumulated in the storage closet we share with Parks & Rec.  We began by clearing away some extra boxes and sweeping the floor.  Then it was just a matter of consolidating things to make the shelves look a little neater.  This was about 1/2 way through our job that took an hour.

Erik, Patrick, and Kevin recycled a lot of the extra boxes we finally let go!  In other chores, Annmarie counted out fresh crayons so we could add them to our crayon tubs, and Nan and Michelle prepared a cart of books from JRES Library for discarding.  Down in the kitchen, Gail and Alexis reorganized our mixed-up cooking utensils!

Kevin and Patrick helped rearrange the shelves in the storage closet and Devin and Erik sorted and restocked a couple of our pantry tubs.  (Drew also helped Devin clean tables and chairs, but their photo didn't transfer to the blog correctly.  Still trying to figure out the problem with that!)  

Meanwhile, today's experience at Pet Supplies Plus included plenty of stocking.  Abraham and Liz introduced Sara to the routine!

Bryan and Laura teamed up to empty this card pretty quickly!

Scott welcomed Xavier's help lifting bags of dog food for Scott to put on the high shelves.

We got to work with both Scott and Roxanne today!  After finishing our shift, we showcased Thanksgiving toys because we know our pets would love some turkey, too!  Thanks, Scott and Roxanne, for another engaging and productive work experience.

After lunch we took a trip to Food Lion.  One of Laura's generous neighbors gave us a donation to use for the food drive.  Our goal was to get as many food items as we could while staying within our budget.

We divided into 4 groups and used the skills we discussed yesterday to make our selections.  Sara, Devin, and Alexis were the Protein Group.  Laura, Xavier, Erik, Abraham, and Carol were the Fruit Group.  Liz, Gail, Nan, and Kevin were the Pasta/Rice Group.  Bryan, Lisa, Patrick, Michelle, and Drew were the Veggie Group.

 

We'll share more details next week after we have a follow-up lesson on Tuesday, but we think we did really well with our selections and our budget!

The shopping trip was the ending to our day and the week.  We enjoyed getting to know Sara (pink jacket in the photo), and we hope she liked spending time with us.  Next week Carol will be on a trip to Utah for her brother's wedding, but we'll carry on (somehow) without her!  Here's a look at our plans...and what she'll miss!

Tuesday:  We'll welcome Kasey to help out today in Carol's absence.  Our activities will include card making, a celebration of Princess Day (we're making it Prince Day, too!), and a visit with Christina at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.  Feel free to bring your prince or princess stuff!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Walking Taco (?!) or Pizza.

Wednesday:  Today we get a visit from our therapy dog friends!  We'll have reading rotations and games with a Thanksgiving theme.  We'll also celebrate National Play Monopoly Day by playing board games, and we'll arrange flowers for CSL, too.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Assorted Wraps.

Thursday:  Today is National Absurdity Day and we're going to explore what "absurdity" means while having fun with some silly activities.  We'll also prepare grilled chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, and green beans for lunch, and peanut butter fudge for dessert to celebrate Peanut Butter Fudge Day.

Friday:  Kasey will join us again for work at Eaton so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  We're hoping for nice weather so we can eat at the park and get in an early Turkey Trot!  We'll also stop by GCOC to drop off this week's food drive donations.  Time permitting, we'll wrap up the week with a yoga segment with Jaime.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support of the Arc of Abilities!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

Happy Birthday, Thomas!

 

Oh, how we love birthdays!  This marked the 5th week in a row that we have celebrated at least one friend's birthday.  It was Thomas this week, who is our youngest member at 25.  We partied with him on Thursday, and we worked in National Nacho Day, too!  Earlier in the week we kicked off November with bowling and pizza for lunch on Tuesday, and completed our service work on Wednesday.  By Friday, we were ready to wrap up the week with an Eaton work day and a beautiful afternoon at the park.  Check out our first week of November!

Tuesday

It was nice to see sunshine as we began the first week of November with bowling!  We were thrilled that our favorite lanes 1-4 were up and running, and ready for us when we arrived.

We forgot to bring the camera, so we just took a few pictures with Lisa's phone.  We couldn't overlook a photo with Thomas, Alexis, and Devin who bowled today's highest scores.  They each hit 138 in one of their games!  Wow!  Great job to "The 138 Club."  🎳🎳🎳

Cameron joined us today, but Michelle and Abraham weren't able to be here.  We missed them!

We changed up our usual pizza spot and tried Papa John's today, which is conveniently just across the street from Bowlero.  We liked the pizzas, of course, but thought Domino's has a tastier crust. 

We took the pizzas to Freedom Park since it was such a nice day and we wanted to check the garden.  Huge thank you to Cameron's parents, Brian and Stacey, for treating us to pizza for today's lunch!  Cameron loves pizza, and so do his friends!

Some of us wore jackets, but in the sun, it was very mild.  We couldn't complain about the view, either.  The trees are changing colors and are beautiful!

Due to rain, we had our last two master gardener sessions at our place, so we were happy to be in the area and able to check the garden today.  We had planted many fall veggies, and they all looked to be growing well except for spinach (it was missing!) and beets, which looked kind of small.  We harvested mustard greens and collards.  We'll cook them for Thursday's lunch...how will they go with nachos?!

In the collard bed, we also noticed the cabbage, brussels sprouts (we think) and kohlrabi were growing well.  We weren't sure if the broccoli we planted was growing or not.  We couldn't tell that there was another plant that could have been broccoli.  We'll have to send Krafty Karen a message and inquire!  We enjoyed our afternoon at the park and garden.

Wednesday

We got right into our Wednesday routine this morning!  First up, the group that stayed at AFCC completed a variety of tasks.  Erik, Kate, Alexis, Gail, and Nan arranged flowers for our friends at Commonwealth Senior Living.

Patrick, Drew, and Thomas took down Tracy's Halloween decorations in the hall that had been up since the Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event.

Next, this group completed a "Happy Birthday" banner for tomorrow's party!

We also had time to cook the nacho filling ahead of time for tomorrow's birthday party for Thomas!  Erik and Drew handled this task!

Our Grove group was busy, too.  Upon their arrival at GCOC, they met Laura's mom, Lisa, who delivered a trunk full of food drive donations collected from their neighborhood!  After helping to unload Lisa's car, our guys took the donations inside and Grove volunteers weighed them.  There were 200 lbs of donations!  Many thanks to Lisa and Tom Palmer, and their neighbors in the Southport neighborhood at Ford's Colony, for helping us get our Food Drive off to an amazing start!  Our friends at Grove Christian Outreach Center, and all of us, are grateful for your generosity.

Next, our guys helped carry trays of food to the tables and remove the shrink wrap to set up the assembly line.  Then, they got to work filling food distribution bags with our favorite volunteers, Peggy, Ursula, Joel, and Thom!  What a great team we all make!

We volunteer because we want to serve in our community, but we sure do love the treats we receive in return.  This week, we enjoyed gluten free chocolate cookies baked by Ursula.  Joel said they were as light as a cloud.  They were sooo good!  Thanks, Ursula.  How thoughtful to find a gluten-free recipe so Xavier could enjoy the cookies, too!  (Note:  We always have gluten-free cookies or snacks on hand for Xavier, so he never misses out on a treat!)

Before lunch, after everyone was back together, we were seriously working on creating a few turkeys so we could replace some of the jack-o-lanterns on our walls and windows.  We are leaving most of the other fall decor in place for the month of November, but we felt we definitely needed some turkeys!  Thanks, Allison, for preparing the materials and guiding us as we crafted these fun turkeys!

Aren't they terrific?!

After lunch, we were caught seriously working on updating our November calendar, removing Halloween decorations, and getting the room ready for a Thanksgiving look!

Bryan removed our spider web art gallery; Cameron glued the event labels on our calendar squares; Devin and Thomas took jack-o-lantern stickers off of the gourds so we could use them for November; Annmarie and Cameron colored fall pictures while Patrick searched for pictures for the calendar squares.

November will be a short, but busy month!  (Not sure what happened to the 12th?!  We'll be here doing something!) 🦃🦃🦃 Also, remember...we only come on ONE Monday a year, and it's during the week of Thanksgiving.  We will be here on Monday, the 24th and Tuesday, the 25th.  We will be closed for the holiday Wednesday-Friday. 🦃🦃🦃

Thursday

Fall Birthday Season rolled on as we celebrated Thomas turning 25 today!  We began with a dance warm-up, where Thomas got to pick the tunes.  We already knew he liked country, but today we found out he likes it all the way back to before he was born!  And most of his friends do, too!  Yee-haw!

After our dance warm up, we had a visit from someone on the waitlist for our day program.  Her name is Sara and she's very nice.  We showed her around and invited her for a trial visit next week.  After that, we had time for indoor recess.  We worked out to a GoNoodle video and also took a 10 minute hallway hustle.  It was getting close to lunch time and we needed to burn a few calories!

Before we celebrated Thomas's birthday, we wanted to show off our latest collaborative banner creation.  It's a great time to say we are feeling thankful for our master gardeners who helped us grow collard and mustard greens (which we harvested Tuesday) AND for Nan who took the greens home on Wednesday night and cooked them for us...the old fashioned southern way!  Most of us who tried them today agreed that they were good!!

We're also thankful that Thomas's mom, Lori, and sister, Allison, could join us for his birthday lunch!  Today is National Nacho Day, and our lunch was very tasty, even if we didn't get a picture!  What a great day to have a birthday party!

Lori and Allison hung around after lunch and enjoyed watching Thomas and his friends play UNO during Choice Time.  Lori and Allison, we loved hanging out with you today!  Thank you very much for the cake and ice cream.  It was the perfect ending to our nacho lunch!!

Thomas, we loved your Washington Commanders-themed cake!  You're such a loyal fan!  We hope all your birthday wishes come true, too!

Our party (and the day) ended with Birthday Corn Hole!  It was Thomas and the Commanders vs. Devin and the Eagles, and the Eagles won, 23-21.  Such a close game, but everyone had a great time cheering for each other...no matter which team they were on!  Devin and the Eagles even invited Thomas to be in their victory photo since he was the Birthday Boy!!  How cool is that?!

Friday

Everyone was recovered from yesterday's party and ready to work this morning as we headed to Eaton!  When we arrived, we found out that there wasn't as much work to do as usual, so Lisa took a group back to AFCC to work on some thank you cards, and Carol and Nan stayed at Eaton with a group to get that work done.  At lunch time, we all reconnected at New Quarter Park for a really nice afternoon outside!

Devin and Patrick teamed up to unload this large bin.

Bryan prepped gaskets and Liz applied them to lids.

Erik, Nan, and Lexi applied gaskets to rectangle parts.

Great job today from our "mini" Eaton team!

Here is the rest of our team, trying to show "sad faces" because they weren't needed at Eaton.  They were heading back to the van!

But they WERE needed back at the center!  We made thank you cards for several groups in Laura's neighborhood who sent over 200 combined pounds of food for our Fall Food Drive this week!

We loved today's weather!  It was cool at the picnic area, but warmer in the sun.  We had a great afternoon.

Erik found a book by James Patterson in the Free Little Library box and decided to take it home for his father.  How thoughtful, Erik!

A few of us headed for a brisk walk.

Others enjoyed the slides on the playground!

It's always nice when we can spend time outside for fresh air and exercise.  The weather looks to be turning chillier in the coming days, but as long as the sun shines and it's not freezing, we can zip up our jackets and continue to enjoy the fall season.  Here's a look at our plans for next week: 

Tuesday:  We'll wrap up Fall Birthday Season today with a double celebration for birthday twins Patrick and Elizabeth!  Many thanks to their families for providing Baked Ziti, Salad, and Cupcakes for lunch!  We'll also have a lesson to commemorate Veterans' Day and if it's not too chilly, we'll take an afternoon walk at Newport News Park!

Wednesday:  It's Service Work Wednesday so please wear Arc shirts.  We're having a special luncheon tomorrow so we will spend the morning on preparations.  We'll also vote on a movie to watch after lunch.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Asian Chicken w/Rice or Flatbread Sandwich.

Thursday:  Today we're welcoming Mike from the Watermen's Museum for a Thanksgiving lunch.  He's providing pumpkin pie and we're cooking turkey/dressing casserole, roasted sweet potatoes, corn pudding, and cranberry relish.  We'll also do research for tomorrow's shopping trip.

Friday:  It's PSP Work Day so please wear PSP shirts.  Our group that remains at the center will catch up on cleaning tasks!  After lunch, we are going shopping for our Fall Food Drive.  We were given a generous donation which we will turn it into a lesson on planning and budgeting.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Corn Dog Nuggets or "Special" of the Day!

Families, don't forget we will be in session on Monday and Tuesday, November 24 and 25, and then closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday Wednesday-Friday.  Carol has notified WATA, but please follow up for those who use that service.  Thanks!

Please support our Fall Food Drive!  We're collecting donations which we will take to Grove Christian Outreach each week when we volunteer.  Thank you for the donations we have received so far!  Our donation box has lots of room!

Have a good weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang