The next celebration for Spring Birthday Season came this week as we celebrated Bryan on Tuesday! We also had a fun visit with Christina at the Art Museums in CW on Tuesday...doing something a little different this time. On Wednesday our therapy dog friends visited and that's always a great time. Thursday was a gorgeous day so after making bunny cakes for Friday's dessert, we spent the afternoon at the park. Friday was a busy day working at the pet store and around the center, and then celebrating Easter with an egg hunt and games. It was a great springtime week!
Tuesday, April 15
For some folks, April 15 is the dreaded "tax day," but for our friend Bryan, it's his birthday! But, before we got to his celebration, we finished our painted pasta egg craft.
We began this project last week when we colored the egg background and glued different shapes of dried pasta on them for decorations. Today, we painted the pasta. Laura and Annmarie added bright touches to their pasta shapes with our pretty spring paint colors.
Nan checked in on Liz and Kevin who were delicately brushing paint over the pasta.
Emma not only painted her pasta, but added extra touches of paint around the pasta shapes. She inspired others to do the same. Check out our finished products! 🠟
Bryan was all smiles today as everyone wished him "Happy Birthday," and we were all smiles as his family treated us to key lime pie and sodas at lunch time! What a treat! Bryan requested a game of rock/pop music trivia for his party, so we played one before lunch. On Friday, Devin made a mental note that Bryan wanted to play rock music trivia, and today, Devin wore his Bon Jovi t-shirt to celebrate! Nice way to support Bryan, Dev!
Bryan, we hope all your wishes come true! We had fun celebrating your 29th birthday with key lime pie and sodas and we hope you did, too! 🥳🎉
Our celebration with Bryan continued after lunch when we traveled to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for our monthly visit with Christina. She had a different plan for us today: We joined her in the Hennage Auditorium for a program called "Crack the Code." We had reserved seats on the front rows, and the rest of the auditorium was filled with folks who were visiting town.
The program was about how codes and ciphers were used during the Revolutionary War because George Washington recognized how important "good intelligence" was as a means of "frustrating" and eventually defeating the British. He also noted how "nothing requires greater pains to obtain" than good intelligence. We agree, after working hard to crack some codes during Christina's program!
We worked really hard to figure out the secret messages. Luckily, Christina and her daughter Cate (home on a college break) were able to help us, as well as Carol, Lisa, and Nan. We persevered, and learned some fun things about spying, too!
Thanks for this fun and interactive program, Christina! We always knew George Washington was smart, but we didn't know he had so many smart spies helping him defeat the British! It was great to try the "Crack the Code" activity and we loved getting to see Cate again, too. We wish her well as she prepares to graduate from your alma mater, Houghton University in upstate New York, on May 10! Go, Cate, Go! 🎓
(Some of our friends had already started heading up the stairs when we took this photo.)
Wednesday, April 16
Who let the dogs in?! Why us, of course! Our monthly therapy dog day was here! We missed Kent with Leo and Tavish, and Carol S. with Casey, but we welcomed five other handler friends, and a total of 8 dogs!
Carol D. and Darby brought Janet today. We have met her before and always enjoy it when she can join us with the dogs. They read with Thomas, Erik, and Annmarie. Carol D. and Janet were the co-chairs of February's amazing Night to Shine event, and we're so happy to call them friends!
Caroline, Pip, and Indy read with Laura, Bryan, and Kate. Our theme today was Earth Day, and this group was discussing the use of wind turbines.
Little Aja listened to reading from Kevin, Alexis, and Sam. It was Sam's turn to read about helping the environment.
For the first time ever, Marisol brought all 3 of her corgis for the entire session. Emma, Devin, Michelle, Xavier, and Nan agreed that Tucker, Nellie, and Louie are three cuties.
Sweet little Aubree was so content as Drew, Patrick, and Liz read with Vicky. Aubree is for real, even though she almost looks like a toy in this picture!
After a couple of reading rotations, we learned about Earth Day with a scavenger hunt. Everyone learned interesting facts, such as cutting down trees reduces the amount of oxygen in the air. Did you know that one large tree can provide a day's worth of oxygen for 4 people? After finding the scavenger hunt answers, we had a great discussion about all of the Earth Day facts we learned.
In other news today, we took a brisk walk outside before lunch and learned about the Titanic since yesterday was the anniversary of the "unsinkable" ship's tragic sinking in the North Atlantic. We also made bunnies using paper plates so we could decorate our walls with them alongside our painted pasta eggs. We didn't get pictures of our walk or Titanic lesson, but here are a couple of photos of our colorful Easter decorations!
Thursday, April 17
We were expecting sunny weather today, and we got it! The park was waiting for us, but before heading out, we decorated mini-bunny cakes for tomorrow's lunch. We have never tried group cake decorating, but it was a lot of fun!
To this...didn't our guys do a great job?!
An after lunch walk led us to this pretty spot for a photo op.
It was heartwarming to cross paths with Beka's mom, Susan, and her friend, Judy. They were walking on the same trail. We gave Susan a lot of hugs, and asked how she's doing. Of course, she said it's been very sad for her since losing Beka. We told her how often we talk about Beka, and that we will always keep her picture in our room, and that made her smile.
Before leaving the park, we set up cornhole on the patio area near the Discovery Center. Today, the Easter Bunnies played the Easter Eggs! The Bunnies won, and the Eggs finished in second. It was a great game, and great weather!
Friday, April 18
We couldn't believe it was Friday already, but we followed our plans and sent one group to Pet Supplies Plus while the other group did housekeeping and lunch prep at the center.
Our PSP crew was very helpful with stocking new product on the shelves, straightening product already on the shelves, and assisting Scott with, in Sam's words, "the heavy lifting." As usual, our PSP team always works diligently and efficiently! Good job today, Alexis, Patrick, Kate, Michelle, Laura, Erik, and Sam!
Meanwhile, at AFCC, we had cleaning, decorating, and cooking going on simultaneously! Good job dividing up the tasks and helping us get them all completed Liz, Bryan, Gail, Thomas, Kevin, Annmarie, Drew, Xavier, Devin, and Emma!
Liz and Bryan cleaned our yoga mats from top to bottom and front to back. Gail peeled the little Cuties for lunch. Thomas and Kevin helped Nan prepare coleslaw using green cabbage we bought and purple cabbage we harvested from the garden! Gail, Drew, Annmarie, and Xavier colored pretty Easter pictures that we used to decorate our serving table at lunch. Speaking of lunch, Devin and Emma prepared the mac and cheese.
Lisa cooked a Boston butt overnight at home so we could have bbq sandwiches with our mac and cheese, Cuties, and coleslaw. Our bunny cakes were worth the wait, too! Lunch really hit the spot!
We ended the day with an egg hunt and a round of egg-themed games.
Eggs (filled with treats) were hidden in the office and kitchen area and we each had to find just one. We had to look up and down, under things, behind things, and even inside some places. Finding the eggs wasn't too hard, but they weren't exactly hiding in plain sight, either!
During this game, Xavier, Kevin, Kate, and Thomas tried to balance plastic eggs on toilet paper rolls and transfer them to other TP rolls. Not too many bounced on the floor!
In this game, each player had a clothespin and the object was to pass around a paper egg using the clothespin to make the transfer. This one took a bit of practice!
Our last rotation was a game of egg exchange. We rolled a die and had to follow a direction such as trade eggs with the person across from you or pass the eggs to the right. At the end of this game, we got an extra treat...thank you, Laura and family, for the m&ms!! They complemented the non-chocolate candy in our eggs very nicely!
After our games, it was time to call it a week! We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend. We'll be back next week. Here are our plans:
Tuesday: It's going to be an action-packed day as we visit the master gardeners in the morning and then return to the center to celebrate Kate's birthday! Prepare to make seed bombs (!) with the MGs, and later, enjoy Sandra's delicious Colombian pork and rice for Kate's birthday lunch! We'll also dance with Sandra, and play Birthday Bingo!
Wednesday: We will volunteer at GCOC today, so please wear Arc shirts. We'll also have fun learning about William Shakespeare as we celebrate Talk Like Shakespeare Day, and play a fun game comparing his writing to that of Taylor Swift! Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is offering Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Assorted Wraps.
Thursday: One of today's lessons will include activities centered around earning and spending money for Teach Children to Save Day. We will learn about lima beans, too, since it's National Lima Bean Respect Day. It's also Pigs in a Blanket Day so we'll make pigs in a blanket and lima beans for lunch!
Friday: We are scheduled to work at Eaton today, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. We will keep our eye on the weather and hope for a chance to enjoy lunch and a walk at New Quarter Park. It's National Celebrate Trails Day! (Yoga with Jaime as a backup.)
Don't forget about The Arc's Community Pickleball Challenge spring fundraiser which is coming up in a few weeks! Registration is open if you're a player. If not, come out anyway to support The Arc and see what pickleball is all about!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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