Happy Birthday, Kevin!

This week began last Saturday with the Disability Awareness Trick or Treat held at AFCC. The Arc was represented as one of the vendors, and several AoA members attended.  Our "regular" week began on Tuesday with a trip to visit Christina at The Art Museums of CW.  On Wednesday, we did our service projects and also played kickball outside!  Thursday was a cooking day that included a fun celebration for Boston Cream Pie Day, and we also celebrated Horror Movie Day with zombie movie!  By Friday, we were ready to celebrate Kevin's birthday, but first we worked at Pet Supplies Plus.  It was another busy week!

Saturday's Disability Awareness Trick or Treat

Tracy and Katrina knocked it out of the ballpark again with this year's Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event held on Saturday, October 18.

Tracy was excited to welcome everyone, and she and her team did a great job on decorations.  There were over a dozen vendors in the gym, all set up to give out treats and share information about how their organizations serve as a resource for the disabled community.

Debbie and Kevin, Alexis, and Liz were early birds who stuck around for the entire morning, not only having fun, but helping Tracy and Katrina with last minute details.  Here, they were part of the welcoming committee as visitors arrived!

This was the Sensory Room, which is our usual classroom.  It was transformed into a quiet, calm space for anyone to visit who may have felt over-stimulated in the gym.  Great job, Tracy and Katrina!  We can see why this is an award-winning event! 

The Arc was a proud vendor.  Lisa and Carol met many families as they stopped by with their young children, and told them to keep The Arc in mind for the future!

Alexis and Liz visited the vendors, chatted a bit, and got treats!

Soon Cowboy Jack, also known as Drew, joined the fun!

The trackless train is always fun to ride!

Thomas stopped by, too!  Our AoA friends had a fun morning at the Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event.  We just hope they didn't eat all of their candy treats in one day!

Tuesday

Today kicked off a beautiful fall weather week.  We spent the morning learning about reptiles, and then visited with Christina at the Art Museums where we learned even more!

We made turtle-shaped reptile wheels that highlighted some of the facts we learned for Reptile Awareness Day.  

In our video about reptiles, we learned that most of them lay eggs, but some snakes have live births, such as the garter snake.  Carol was excited to show us a picture of her son, Matt, taken last Sunday when they came across a garter snake while walking in the woods!  Something we learned from our reptile wheel is that a lizard-like reptile called a tuatara is very unique because it grows very slowly, lives to over 100 years old, and is the only survivor of an ancient group of reptiles that roamed with dinosaurs over 200 million years ago!  It's native to New Zealand.

Even though is was a pretty day outside, we opted to do fitness stations indoors.  This is our version of "step jacks."  😊

Here we are in various stages of squats!

Wall push-ups help us with upper body strength.

Before lunch, Annmarie told us about the wonderful time she had on her trip last week for a family reunion at Winter Clove in the Catskills of New York.  She was very proud of the hike she took with her cousins!  Way to go, Annmarie!!

After an early lunch, we joined Christina at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for a fun afternoon celebrating Reptile Awareness Day!  We didn't know that would be Christina's topic, but she was excited to point out that their are many examples of reptiles in the museums!  We were excited to share all the information we knew about reptiles!  She was impressed!

A few of the pieces we saw were a ceramic alligator, a silver soup-tureen in the shape of a turtle, and lots of snakes made of metal, ceramic, wood, and even gold-plated silver.  We compared alligators and crocodiles, and learned that the only place in the world where they coexist is in south Florida, primarily in the Everglades!  We also learned that turtle soup was very popular in Europe in the 1800s, and even though horses fear snakes, a trophy for a horse race was once made that featured snakes as the handles!

In the classroom, we enjoyed using markers to decorate toy wooden snakes.  They were very flexible, like real snakes, and some of us were surprised to learn that snakes are vertebrates, which means they have backbones.  How can they squirm like that?!!

After a relaxing few minutes of coloring, we played a game called "Huckleberry Beanstalk" which goes back to the 18th century.  While one player hides the snake in plain sight, the others turn their backs and sing "Yankee Doodle."  Then, everyone searches for the hidden snake, and the first to find it very casually returns to home base and says "Huckleberry Beanstalk!"  It was fun!

Some of us made it over in time for a quick photo with Christina, who had to dart off to a meeting.  Thanks for a fun afternoon, Christina.  We loved seeing how giddy you were at all the reptiles in the museums!!  Your enthusiasm was contagious!

All of us made it into this group shot outside of the museums!  We were missing Abraham today.  He's under the weather.  

Wednesday

Our busy morning included volunteering at the JRES Library and Grove Christian Outreach Center, as well as arranging flowers for Commonwealth Senior Living.  We have a great team who splits up and covers all the bases!

Ready to roll with the assembly line!

Yum!  Thanks, Ursula, for the peanut butter cookies!!

Our flower crew knows what do do...after setting up the tables they open, sort, and trim the flowers.  They also prepare the Mason jars by adding a small amount of water and making sure the ribbons are straight.

We only had one tub of flowers donated by Trader Joe's this week, so we did the best we could making 12 jars.

The jars aren't as full as usual, but they still look bright and cheerful!

It was a gorgeous day to finally play kickball outside!

We're getting the hang of this game and soon we'll try a more "kickball" type of ball.  The big one we use now doesn't pitch very fast...or go very far on a kick!

In the afternoon we learned that vampires are not real, but they do drink human blood in folklore.  However, vampire bats are real, and they do enjoy drinking animal blood...usually by landing on an animal's back for a bite, though! 

We also learned that wolves don't howl at the moon!  They howl to communicate with their packs and are most active during dawn and dusk when it's not quite dark enough to fully see the moon.  We ran out of time to make our werewolf craft, so we'll try to fit it in tomorrow.

Thursday

We enjoyed a full day at the center doing one of our favorite activities, cooking!  We're good at dividing up the tasks, so we got busy after our dance warm up this morning.

Lexi and Gail washed the potatoes for our baked potato bar.  They rubbed and scrubbed as hard as they could so we would be able to eat the potato skin!  Later, Lexi joined Laura and Patrick to make napkin rings featuring pictures of piping hot baked potatoes.  Drew, Bryan, and Kevin (with Nan's offscreen assistance) cooked a pot of green beans that would be one of our side dishes.

Kate, Devin, and Annmarie made our other side dish.  We'll let them share what it was!

October 23 is Boston Cream Pie Day, so we made minis.  We learned that it's really a cake, but it's called a pie because back in the day, pies and cakes were all baked in pie tins...so the word "pie" was used for both.  It didn't matter whether it was pie or cake to us!  Our minis were delicious!

Here, we had colored 16 pages that, when put together in the right order, would form a large banner.  It didn't matter which colors were used on each page, we knew it would look great once we got it assembled.

Voila!

Finally, those potatoes were baked and it was time for lunch!  Devin approved before even taking his first bite! 😋

We ended the day with a movie in honor of National Horror Movie Day!  Ours was a Disney version, but still....most of us enjoyed Zombies 3.  Others worked puzzles or colored.  Everyone was content!

Dancing at the end of the movie before putting away tables and chairs.  We had a good day!

Friday

This morning we split up and sent a group to work at Pet Supplies Plus while the others made a delivery to Eaton and got things set up for Kevin's birthday party.

A delivery truck had not arrived in time for us to help stock today, so we dusted, swept, folded towels, and stocked a few things.  Erik and Bryan got a workout lifting bags of dog food!

We didn't get a lot of pictures today, but the group insisted Carol get a shot of Sangria and Pina Colada, the latest two kittens that are up for adoption!  They're very cute, and we hope they find a fur-ever home very soon!

Our PSP group wants you to know that there is still time to pick up a Halloween costume for your pet!  Hurry over to PSP soon to make your selections!

Meanwhile, for our other group, it was nice to see Ethan, Rosemary, and Sam when we made the Eaton delivery.  We do appreciate the opportunity to do extra Eaton work at the center!

After our quick trip to Eaton, it was time for this group to get things ready for Kevin's party.  We put up decorations, made napkin rings, salads, and sweet potato tots, and also heated the chicken nuggets Kevin's dad dropped off this morning.

When the PSP group returned, we got the party started!  Kevin enjoys puzzles, so we pulled up a Halloween version of a matching puzzle and put Kevin in charge.  He took the first turn!

Each time the puzzle changed, Kevin called on a different friend to give it a try.  Kevin gave lots of help and encouragement, too!  He's a great teacher!

Kevin also loves to sing, and some of his favorite songs are by The Wiggles!  So of course, we had to have a Wiggles sing-a-long...led by Kevin!

We'd like to thank Kevin's family for providing a delicious lunch today!  Debbie, you know you can't go wrong with nuggets from Chick fil-A!  We also loved the sweet potato tots!  Thank you very much for treating us, and for hanging out with us, too!

Kevin, we hope all of your wishes come true!  Also, we loved having you lead us in singing to you!!

We ended the week with one more of Kevin's favorite activities, a walk!  We're grateful to be so close to Newport News Park and its great trails.  Kevin knows, and we agree, that a brisk walk after a filling lunch feels really good!!

That's a wrap on another fun week!  We'll close out October next week (wow, how did that happen?) by starting AND ending with parties!  LOL!  Here's a look at our plans:

Tuesday:  Believe it or not, we're celebrating another birthday today, and it's for Alexis!  First, we'll wrap up our fall sessions with the master gardeners as we travel to Freedom Park to work with them.  We will plant garlic and onions, prepare our annual bulb pot (for a spring surprise!), and go on a scavenger hunt before telling our friends goodbye for a few months.  When we return to the center, we'll celebrate Alexis with chili, cornbread, and birthday brownies for lunch.  After lunch Lexi has requested a game of pool noodle volleyball and a round of Disney trivia.

Wednesday:  We'll volunteer in the JRES Library and at GCOC today, and arrange flowers for CSL.  Please wear Arc shirts.  After volunteer work is done, we'll welcome Marisol for a Halloween edition of fun with the corgis!  After lunch, we'll learn more about pumpkins and Halloween, and carve the pumpkin we grew with the master gardeners!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Assorted Wraps.

Thursday:  Today we'll combine two national days for a fun lesson:  Candy Corn Day and Wicked Day (the Broadway show and movie).  We'll learn about the history of each, create a tasty snack, and watch a few video clips.  We'll also work on preparations for tomorrow's Halloween party, including transforming our corn hole boards for a scary version of the game!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Domino's Pizza, Chicken Wrap, or Chef's Salad.

Friday:  Happy Halloween!  We're going to party most of the day with dancing, games, and stories.  If the weather is nice, we'll end it with a walk at Bicentennial Park (behind the art museums).  Lunch will be Mummy Dogs, Spooky Fruits and Veggies, Haunted Chips, and a treat or two, too!  Feel free to wear your costumes and maybe bring a change of clothes in case you get uncomfortable.  Costumes optional!

Reminder:  We will be in session during Thanksgiving Week on Monday and Tuesday, November 24-25.  This is the only Monday of the year on which we are open!  We'll be closed November 26-28 for the holiday.

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

Happy Birthday, Abraham!

We took this photo with the lights off because Abraham had a light up "Happy Birthday" decoration on his cake!  It was very sparkly!

This week we not only welcomed Abraham back after a weeks-long visit with family in Missouri, we also celebrated his 30th birthday!  That was a highlight in a week that kept us busy with many activities.  It was rainy on Tuesday, so the master gardeners came to us for a "tasty" lesson and on Wednesday, the therapy dogs and their handlers came for their monthly visit!  It was Thursday when we celebrated Abraham, and on Friday we had an Eaton work day.  We had a very enjoyable week!

Tuesday

Our plans to work with the master gardeners at Freedom Park changed when the weather remained drizzly today.  The MGs adapted, as did we, and we held the session at AFCC.  It was all about winter squash, and it was informative, fun, and delicious!  Thank you, Joanne, Barb, Karen, Rick, Debbie, and Carolyn for bringing the lesson to us on this rainy day!

Krafty Karen kicked things off by giving us an overview of types of winter squash.  They are varieties with thick, hard rinds that can be stored for long periods, such as over the winter.  Winter squash is usually harvested in the fall.  

Winter squash varieties are shown in this picture.  They are all nutritious and delicious!  Our MG friends brought us samples of spaghetti, butternut, and delicata to taste.

Rick baked spaghetti squash, Joanne did the same with delicata squash, and Karen roasted butternut squash.  They all used a dash of olive oil and kept it simple so we could taste the differences in the three varieties.  Everyone liked all of the samples!  Rick and Karen scooped out the spaghetti and butternut for us, but Joanne cooked the delicata by slicing it, and not peeling the rind, which is thinner and edible.

What a tasty way to learn about winter squash!  

Thanks, MGs, for teaching and treating us!  

MG Debbie joined Patrick, Bryan, Thomas, and Xavier for the taste test.  Laura said her favorite was the spaghetti squash!

The fun wasn't over after our squash tasting!  The MGs brought little gourds for us to decorate with stickers.

MG Barb is so cute!

Liz, Kevin, and Devin were in deep concentration as they applied stickers to decorate their gourds.

Annmarie loves a craft activity!  

Assisting Patrick and Thomas was MG Carolyn (of the beautiful journal page fame...see this week's installment below).

We'll add these to our window sills.

Before finishing the lesson, MGs Barb and Joanne shared pretty flowers from their yards that are still blooming.  Thanks again, master gardeners, for the time you spent with us this morning.  Everyone had a great time!

Carolyn can be seen getting her phone ready to take a photo for the journal page and ...

Ta-da!  Here's the beautiful journal page created by Carolyn that summarizes our awesome morning with the MGS! 💖

We spent the rest of the day having lunch and Choice Time, then listening to our read-aloud and making cards for Abraham's birthday.  We didn't take any additional photos, except for this one when Erik, Devin, and Liz helped Tracy unload supplies and decorations for this weekend's Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event.  We're such good helpers!

Wednesday 

This morning the sun was shining as we welcomed our therapy dog and handler friends for a Halloween-themed visit!  All 7 of the handlers were here, and 9 dogs in all!

After greetings, and observing some of the dogs in their cute Halloween costumes, we began our reading rotations.  Many thanks to our library helpers for checking out this great selection today!

Michelle and Annmarie read with Susan and sweet little Aja while Laura and Kate enjoyed reading with Vicky and Aubree, whose ladybug costume was so cute.  Out in the foyer, Devin and Patrick were reading with Carol and Casey when Casey suddenly caught his reflection in the mirror, and couldn't stop looking at himself!  Kevin and Erik had great Halloween stories which kept Nan's and Marisol's attention, but Tucker was so comfy he almost fell asleep!

Alexis, Xavier, and Gail read with Kent and his two dogs.  Leo was dressed as a peacock, and Tavish was sporting a kilt as a Scottish highlander.  Drew and Liz got a kick out of reading with Caroline and Pip and Indy, who were in Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes.  Dr. Seuss would have loved it!  Our 7th group today was Bryan and Thomas, who read with Carol and Darby.  Darby was wearing her Night to Shine tutu and Carol wants us to remind everyone that registration is open for February's Night to Shine event.  Almost 100 folks have registered, and 225 will be the cut off.  Here's the link for registration:  Night to Shine, Williamsburg

After a couple of reading rotations, we played a matching game of Spooky Clues.  We decided to have a race to see which group could match all 12 clues first.

There was a lot of concentration in the room as everyone raced to match the answers to the clues.  Liz and Drew, working with Carol and Casey, finished first, but everyone else quickly followed!  

A morning of reading and brain work calls for a treat!  We had pretzels today.

A morning of reading and brain work and pretzels calls for a brisk walk outside!  It was actually warming up a little and very nice outside.

Happy National Fossil Day!  Our video taught us that fossils are preserved remains of ancient organisms and they can tell us a lot about life in prehistoric times.  We also learned that paleontologists are scientists who study ancient life by finding and studying fossils.

Our favorite part of the lesson was using a chisel and brush (toothpick and watercolor brush) to "dig" for fossils, also know as chocolate chips, in cookies!  Look at how determined our amateur paleontologists were at carefully removing the "fossils" from the cookies!  Fun!  And yes, we were also able to eat our fossils!

We also did our service projects of volunteering in the JRES library and arranging flowers for CSL.  Since it was therapy dog Wednesday, we didn't go to Grove, and our guys didn't work on flowers (for the most part).  Carol and Allison made lovely arrangements while our guys were reading.

At the end of the day we celebrated "I Love Lucy" day, in honor of the iconic comedy from the 1950s!  We talked about how extremely popular the show was, and how it has endured to this day.  We also discussed that our culture was different back then, especially when it came to the roles of men and women.  

The episode we watched was called "Job Switching" and it's the one where Lucy and Ethel attempt to work in the candy factory while Ricky and Fred attempt to clean house and cook meals.  We weren't sure how funny it would be to our 21st century friends, but they all got a kick out of it, and the hilarity of it kept them in stitches!  What a fun show, and we will watch more episodes in the future, for sure!

Thursday

We were so happy to welcome Abraham back after his extended absence to visit family in St. Louis, and super excited to celebrate his 30th birthday!

Before we started celebrating, we had our lesson for National Dictionary Day.  We learned that Noah Webster spent almost 20 years researching and writing An American Dictionary of the English Language, which he published in 1828.  That was 100 years before the complete Oxford English Dictionary was published!  We played games racing to find words in the dictionary, and Bingo with sight words.  It was a bit of "throwback" fun since we wondered:  Does anyone use dictionary books anymore?!

Abraham asked if we could play birthday corn hole outside, so we did!  It was a beautiful, but cool, sunny day!  He also picked for the teams to be Boys vs. Girls.

Annmarie was absent today, so we only had 6 girls to play against 9 boys.  Lisa took a turn and tried to help the girls, but she only added 1 point!  In the end, the boys won, 21-16, but everyone was happy since it was for Abraham's birthday!

We're not sure what happened with this victory picture when it went from the photo card to the blog???  It was such a great picture of our handsome guys, too.

So, we tried editing it to black and white...and maybe you can see them a little better.  Congrats, boys!  You came from behind and pulled off a fun birthday victory today!

After lunch we enjoyed cake and ice cream for Abraham's 30th birthday.  We thank his mom, Mona', for treating us to the cake, ice cream, and toppings for the ice cream, too!  Another favorite activity of Abraham's is Bingo, and when we played our birthday version, he was the FIRST winner! 

Abraham, we hope all your wishes come true!  

We still had time before dismissal to make spider art.  We needed to fill the empty space on this wall.  It kind of looks like an art gallery exhibit, we think!  We had a great afternoon.

Friday

Today was a quick one!  We worked at Eaton this morning, enjoyed lunch at the park, and wrapped up the afternoon with a "Ghostbusters" version of yoga with Jaime!  

We unpacked many parts and sorted today, too!

There were 13 boxes of doors to assemble and the team was ready!  That's 156 doors that were assembled in two hours!

We are truly thankful to our vocational partners at Eaton!

Everyone came in this morning wearing jackets, and most of us kept them on at New Quarter Park where we stopped for lunch.  It wasn't cold, just a brisk fall afternoon, and we enjoyed eating outside for the only time this week.

After eating, we took a short walk down to the creek.  Most of the leaves are still green here, so we'll have to check back in a week or two for more fall color.

A few of our friends were absent today, but there was still plenty of friendship to go around!

Back at the center, some of us enjoyed Choice Time, but Erik, Kate, Michelle, and Devin helped Lisa and Carol hang decorations for tomorrow's Disability Awareness Trick or Treat event.  It's a tradition for us to do this on the Friday before to help Tracy get a head start on the many decorations that give the event a festive Halloween feel.

It's been a while since we had yoga with Jaime, so we pulled out our mats at the end of the day and joined her for a new episode based on the movie Ghostbusters.  The music was great, and so was the stretching!

💖💖💖💖💖

Our day at Eaton and the park was fun, but here's the best news of the day...another Tessa update!!  Michelle sent these beautiful photos and said Tessa was able to enjoy a full day of autumn activities last Saturday.  They visited the Yorktown Fall Market where Tessa walked around for 2 hours using her rollator!  She got to paint a pumpkin and enjoy tasty snacks.  After a rest break at home, she then visited Holly Fork Farm where she not only picked out pumpkins, but was able to pick them up herself to put in the basket! Her hand strength is back to normal and her balance is much better.  Tessa, we are so happy for you!  We knew you could do it.  Continue to enjoy all the fun fall and holiday activities coming up, and you'll get stronger every day.  We can't wait to welcome you back to the Arc of Abilities!

Wow, that was a lot of good news and good fun this week!  There is more to come next week.  Here are our plans:

Tuesday:  This morning we'll have a lesson for Reptile Awareness Day, always an interesting topic and good day for brain work.  We'll have an early lunch and then visit with Christina at the Art Museums for a fun afternoon.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Chicken Fajitas or Pizza.

Wednesday:  It's Service Work Wednesday so we'll volunteer in the library, prepare flower arrangements, and fill food bags at Grove.  Please wear Arc shirts.  We'll also learn why wolves howl at the moon and if bats really drink blood - Mystery Science will help us with that!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Spaghetti with Meat Sauce or Philly Cheese Steak.

Thursday:  This morning we'll split into teams to prepare lunch and a simple dessert for Boston Cream Pie Day.  We'll also organize the pantry!  After lunch, we'll "celebrate" Horror Movie Day with a showing of Disney's Zombies 3.  Baked Potato Bar, fruit salad, and green beans for lunch.

Friday:  Today we are celebrating Kevin's birthday!  In the morning, we will send a crew to work at Pet Supplies Plus, so please wear PSP shirts.  The AFCC crew will do a deep clean of our tables and chairs and set up for the party.  Thanks to Kevin's family for providing Chick fil-A nuggets and sweet potato tater tots for lunch.  After lunch, we'll play puzzle games and take a walk, two of Kevin's favorite activities!

🦃🦃🦃 Families, please mark your calendars.  It's almost time for our only MONDAY session of the year!  As a reminder, the Arc of Abilities will meet on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving Week, and close Wednesday-Friday for the holiday.  This year we will be in session on Monday, November 24 and Tuesday, November 25.  Carol will notify WATA, but families, please follow up.  🦃🦃🦃

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang