Happy Birthday, Gail!

August is officially here, and what a great week we had with a break from the recent heat and humidity!  It may have been cloudy or a little rainy, but it was cooler, and we enjoyed it.  Cloudy or not, we had a lot of "sunshine" on Thursday when we celebrated Gail's birthday with an amazing lunch, the highlight of the week!  We also had a great time at bowling on Tuesday with a fabulous pizza lunch at Bowlero!  We volunteered at GCOC and arranged flowers for CSL on Wednesday, and on Friday we worked at Eaton.  Check out our wonderful week!

Tuesday

Our first day of the month bowling league was so much fun today!  We would like to acknowledge a contribution from an anonymous donor that we used toward our bowling fee today.  Thank you so much!           🎳🎳🎳

The lights at Bowlero were dimmed but the lanes were glowing as we got into teams and started our games.  Action shots are hard to get, but here are today's team photos!

Patrick and the ladies - Alexis, Gail, and Kate - were all smiles!

Drew, Dev, Thomas, and Erik posed for BGQ magazine (Bowling Gentlemen's Quarterly)!

Kevin, Bryan, Abraham, Annmarie, and Michelle wanted to pose for a magazine, too.  How about Sports Illustrated for them?!

Xavier and the ladies of Lane 1 - Emma, Liz, and Laura - took a sweet picture together!

Liz asked us to add this photo to the blog.  It shows how each of her team members either bowled a strike or a spare during the 7th frame! 👏

🍕🍕🍕 Many thanks to Kate's family for sponsoring our lunch today!  We got to enjoy pizza and sodas at Bowlero, which is a fun treat!  Your generosity made our day, Elizabeth and Mark! 🍕🍕🍕

After we returned to the center and had Choice Time, we worked together to get our calendar updated for the month of August.  We have a lot going on, so good thing it's a long month!

Before removing some of our July work from the walls, Lisa took pictures to show what we did since there weren't blog posts during her travel time.   Here, we show projects we did for Amelia Earhart Day, Pina Colada Day, and Moon Day.  We were busy learning and creating while she was gone!

One day during Lisa's absence we had a lesson about a poetry style called "clerihews," which are short and usually nonsensical poems about people.  Aren't we creative?!

Time ran short for a kickball game so we just had some free time in the gym at the end of the day.  Gail said, "No worries.  We can play kickball for my birthday on Thursday!"  Thanks, Gail.  That sounds like a plan!

Wednesday

We kicked the morning off with our usual Wednesday activities, arranging flowers and volunteering at Grove.

We are improving in our skills of filling the jars carefully, trimming stems, and removing excess leaves so they won't get yucky in the water!

We worked efficiently with Peggy, Joel, Ursula, and Tom to pack USDA food distribution bags at GCOC, and then Ursula treated us to an "old German recipe" she called Butter-Almond Cake, but we called "Dee-licious!"  Thank you, Ursula, for sharing with us!

Alexis and Lisa shared photos from their recent trip to Alaska.  We learned that Alaska is our biggest state, and that Texas could fit in Alaska over 2 and 1/2 times!  It was hard to imagine that less than 1% of Alaska is inhabited and, no roads lead to its capital of Juneau.  To get there, you have to fly or take a boat!

After lunch, we continued our Alaska theme with a lesson about the life cycle of salmon.  Salmon are very important to the culture, economy, and wildlife in Alaska.  Alaskan salmon are born in small creeks and streams, and they must travel to the Pacific Ocean where they grow and live for an average of 4-5 years.  After that, they return to the very same creeks or streams where they were born to spawn, or reproduce.  In fact, most of them return to the exact same spot in the streams where they began life as eggs to lay their eggs!  Nature is amazing!

Our video was about the amazing life cycle of the salmon and it also had a lot of Alaskan wildlife in it like bears, eagles, seals, whales, and caribou.  For a treat, Lisa and Alexis brought back smoked salmon for us to make a dip with, and fireweed lemonade mix.  Fireweed is a wildflower that blooms all over Alaska during the short summer months, and can be used in jellies, ice creams, and drinks.  It's pretty and tasty!

Laura helped mix the salmon with cream cheese, and Devin mixed the fireweed lemonade.

Most of our guys tried the salmon dip, and for some of them, it was so good they asked for seconds!  Thanks Lisa and Lexi, for thinking about us and bringing a tasty treat all the way from Alaska!

Please keep our master gardener friend Krafty Karen in your thoughts.  She had outpatient surgery on her neck and back this week, in hopes of helping to ease her pain from arthritis.  She said she was not feeling great today, but she knows she needs to give herself a little more time.  We made cheer cards and a flower arrangement for her.  Since Dev lives in her neighborhood, he and his dad, Scott, were kind enough to deliver them to Karen.  She said it made her day to see Devin's smiling face!  Thanks Dev and Scott for making sure Karen got our package of love! 💖

Thursday

We were excited for today's celebration of Gail's birthday, but we had almost the whole morning to fill with activities before it would be time for her party, so we got busy.  Today is National Lighthouse Day, and we decided to celebrate by making a craft to help decorate our room for August.  We read about the history of lighthouses and learned that they aren't as necessary in the 21st century as they were back in the day.  We have modern technology that helps ships navigate now.  It was fun to learn about them, though.  We watched a short video that featured a lot of pretty lighthouses in the United States, and Kate brought a lighthouse decoration from her home to share with us. 

Our craft was simple:  We used colored strips and sharpies along with two different sized cups.  Some of us choose certain colors to represent our favorite schools or teams.  After decorating our lighthouse, we put a battery-operated tea light in top and believe it or not, there were lots of "oohs and ahhs" when we turned them on!

Happy National Lighthouse Day!

We still had time before the party, so we took a jammin' walk in the gym!

Next, we played Disney music trivia, in the dark!  

Finally, it was almost time for the party.  This was Gail's first birthday as a member of the AoA, and she was so excited when her brother Ashley arrived with lunch for us from Bonefish Grill!  (The rest of us were pretty excited, too!)

Arc's intern Emma, Gail's cousin Nita, and Allison put the finishing touches on the set up for lunch.  We were having blackened fish, blackened chicken, and Bang-Bang shrimp tacos, along with fresh bread, tea, lemonade, or water, and lots of tasty sauces, too!  😋😋😋

Along with the delicious taco lunch, we got to meet several of Gail's extended family members.  What a joy it was to talk with her cousins, aunt, and of course, her brother Ashley and sister-in-law, Zelda.  We love to socialize!

Gail did not know her aunt and cousins were coming, so it was a delightful surprise for her!  Thank you very much, Ashley and Zelda, for coordinating such a wonderful lunch and party for our sweet friend, Gail.  Your thoughtfulness and generosity meant a lot, and we are grateful for this opportunity to get to know you and your family.

💙💚💛 We enjoyed meeting Gail's family!  On the back row are cousins Norman and Vicki,  brother Ashley, and cousin, Connie; On the front row are Gail's sister-in-law Zelda, Gail, her aunt Mary Ivy, and cousin Nita  💙💚💛

Happy Birthday, Gail!  We hope all your wishes come true, and we're so happy you joined the Arc of Abilities this year!

We continued to celebrate Gail after lunch with a game of Birthday Bingo.  She won some Mickey Mouse / Donald Duck socks!  How perfect because she asked us to decorate with a Disney character theme for her party!

Our fun day ended with a kickball game in the gym. 

It was boys vs. girls and the girls got off to a great start with 5 runs!

Devin, who was sporting some nifty glasses from the Bingo prize box, told his team not to worry...and then he delivered on a home run!

By the time the boys were up for their last inning, they were trailing the girls, 9-5.  

The girls defended well and held the boys to just 2 more runs, so they won 9-7!  Birthday Girl Gail is holding our ball with a sad face, but the girls were anything but sad after pulling off the victory!

Friday

We went to Eaton for a work day this morning.  It had been 3 weeks since we last worked, but we never lose our touch, or our great work ethic!

Today we had so much to transfer to smaller tubs and then sort!  Drew, Thomas, and Abraham made quick work of their first tub of mixed parts!

Xavier and Devin transfer mixed parts from the big brown bin to the smaller tubs.  Gail and Patrick prefer to sort as they go and Gail even packs her rectangle parts in stacks!  In the background, Bryan works solo on emptying a brown bin.

Laura, Annmarie, and Michelle sorted several different types of parts before passing them to Liz, Alexis, Erik, and Nan who applied gaskets.  

We got thousands of parts transferred to gray tubs and sorted!  Great job by our team!

Great teamwork as we loaded some work to take back to the center, too!

A short drive to Newport News Park and we enjoyed a well-deserved lunch!  Our "preferred" Shelter 18 was not available, so we settled at Shelter 17.  There was a gentle breeze and it was very nice to be outside!

Cornhole, followed by a walk to the bridge to see turtles, and we were ready to head back to AFCC for dismissal...and the start to our weekend!

Here's what we have planned for next week:

Tuesday:  We are staying at the center today (field trip tomorrow).  We will welcome The Arc's amazing intern, Emma, to do a lesson with us that highlights her recent semester abroad in Berlin, Germany!  It's National S'mores Day, so we will make a special treat for that, and we'll end the day with a celebration of National Book Lovers Day, so bring your favorite books or magazines to share!  Lunch on your own; microwave available.

Wednesday:  This morning we will make flower arrangements for CSL and volunteer at GCOC, too.  Please wear Arc shirts.  After an early lunch at 11:30, we will head to the Virginia Musical Museum for a group tour.  We'd like to thank The Arc of GW for sponsoring this with their arts grant!  Lunch on your own; microwave available.

Thursday:  We'll be at the center today for a lesson to mark Navajo Code Talkers Day.  We have learned about them before, but it's good to revisit since the history about them is so interesting!  We will watch an old version of The Mouse and the Motorcycle, since we read the book while Lisa was on her trip.  It's fun to compare books to movies!  We are also going to play card games, including a couple of new ones that Lisa picked up on her Alaska trip.  Lunch on your own; microwave available.

Friday:  We'll work at the pet store today, so please wear your PSP shirts.  The lunch crew will stay at the center to prepare Mexican Chicken Casserole for lunch.  It's National Relaxation Day, so we will probably just chill after lunch and read aloud time...with an option to do yoga with Jaime!

It's time to mark your calendars for the 16th Annual Williamsburg Landing 5k Run/Walk for The Arc!  Registration is open so go ahead and sign up...the price increases September 1st!  Click the pic to head straight to the registration link!

Have a Wonderful Weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang