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