Happy Birthday Lisa and Erik!

We have kicked off fall birthday season...which, like spring birthday season, means a few celebrations are coming up.  This week we partied with Lisa on Tuesday and Erik on Friday!  Those events were highlights, but we also enjoyed other activities this week including bowling, volunteer work, meeting an Arc board member, visiting with Mike at the Watermen's Museum, and welcoming Christina to our place with her lunch treat of cheeseburger pies and a fun crafting experience!  

Tuesday

Today was Lisa's birthday and we spent it doing one of the gang's favorite things:  bowling!  We got to a couple of Lisa's favorite things afterward...

🎳🎳🎳

We are used to bowling on lanes 1-4, but today we had to adjust our expectations when we found out lanes 3 and 4 were out of order, and we would be playing on lanes 38-40, which are at the opposite end of the building from where we usually play.  We didn't mind, and on the bright side, we would be closer to the bathroom, AND be able to get more steps since we had parked at the end near lanes 1-4!!

Everyone quickly adapted to being on lanes 38-40, and we saw just as many strikes and spares as usual.  Annmarie, who happened to be wearing a bowling shirt, made one of the first strikes! 

We really look forward to our monthly bowling trip.  It's nice to see the gang socializing in between turns, cheering for each other, and enjoying being together!  We were proud of Kate today, who bowled the highest score at 137! 👏👏

After bowling, we picked up pizza and headed to Waller Mill Park.  It was a perfect day to eat outside and take a walk, which are two of Lisa's favorite things!  Many thanks to Cameron's family, in addition to an anonymous donor, for sponsoring today's pizza lunch, which we were able to bump up to the tasty stuffed crust variety!

Lisa feels very blessed to get to work with Lexi and Nan, and celebrate her birthday with them, too!

We hope all of Lisa's wishes come true!  She's very thankful to her AoA friends for all the love today!

Here's our pre-walk group photo.  Waller Mill Park has many great paths, but we headed to the paved one that runs parallel to Airport Road.  We went in a different direction than we usually go, heading toward Rochambeau.  We thought we might see more leaves changing colors, but there was still a lot of green.

At one point we noticed Devin had a bit of blood running down his leg, but no one had fallen during our walk.  Turns out he had picked at a scab, which we reminded everyone to try not to do!  Liz insisted on using our first aid kit, which (thankfully) we rarely get to use.  She had him cleaned and bandaged in a jiffy. She said her mom taught her what to do! Thanks, Liz!  

We wrapped up our delightful afternoon at the park by listening to Lisa read a couple of chapters from The Wild Robot Protects.  Reading aloud to us is another of her favorite things!  It was a great day for a birthday celebration!

Wednesday

It was a fairly typical day for us.  Here's a Wednesday wrap-up!

Liz, Michelle, Alexis, Gail, and Laura volunteered in the JRES Library first thing this morning.  As they were shelving books they came across The Wild Robot on the Island.  It's an illustrated picture book adaptation of the first chapter book in the series, The Wild Robot.  That means even younger readers can come to enjoy Roz the Robot as much as we do!

While one crew volunteered at Grove, the other crew put together flower arrangements for Commonwealth Senior Living.  Kate and Devin were removing excess leaves from some of the stems.

Allison and Nan coached Cameron and Kevin on color selection and carefully placing stems in the Mason jars.  We have to remind our "florists" that this is not a speed job!

Annmarie and Nan were happy with all the roses and sunflowers they had to choose from for today's arrangements!

Our GCOC crew got a workout today!  The USDA food truck delivery had just arrived so we got to help bring it into the building and unload it from the pallet.  Each tray can have up to 20 cans and they are a little heavy, but not too much if we take them one at a time.

Next, we remove the plastic covers.  Often, the other volunteers have done all this before we arrive.  It was nice that we got to do some extra work today!

Everyone chipped in extra today, because Ursula and Thom weren't able to be here.  Once the set up was complete, we were rocking and rolling alongside Joel and Peggy!

Michelle lined the shelves with the newly filled bags.  Our assembly line worked efficiently, and we kept her on the move transporting bags to the shelves!

Even though Ursula wasn't able to be with us, she still baked these delicious peanut butter cup cookie treats for us!  Thank you for this delicious homemade treat, Ursula.  We loved it!  We missed you and Thom today.  Also, many thanks to Joel and Peggy for stopping by to pick up the treat from Ursula so we could enjoy it.  You guys are so good to us, and we are grateful for your friendship!

When everyone was back together, we worked on another fall craft.  This time we used sponge painting to make owls.  We needed a little something more for our tree and windows.  Next week, we'll start making Halloween decorations!!

Whoo's tree looks great now?!

Arc board member Jasmine Sparrow stopped by to meet us.  We enjoyed getting to know her and telling her about all of the things we do each day.  We were so busy chit-chatting that we forgot to take a picture, but here's Jasmine's photo from the W&M website.  She's the Assistant Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Development.  Thanks for stopping by, Jasmine!  We love our Tribe folks!!

We take our card making very seriously!  Thomas and Bryan were putting finishing touches on Erik's birthday cards which we made today.  

We ended today with a simple lesson for National Metric Day, which is Friday (but we will be busy working and partying).  Our video explained that most countries used the metric system but the United States does not (for the most part).  These groups practiced measuring the lengths of insects in centimeters with our brand new rulers!

These groups compared items to see which were longest or shortest, and had to follow directions to color their answers correctly!  They are good listeners!

Thursday

It was great to see the sunshine today, as we were looking forward to our visit with Mike at the Watermen's Museum and spending the afternoon outside at Yorktown.  We had not seen Mike in a while, and we missed him!

Mike, in his Zombie era.

Mike's theme for the activity today was planning a Halloween party.  We brainstormed what we would need, from invitations to decorations to music and lots more.  While he told stories and gave us historical facts about Halloween, we decorated paper pumpkins and bats, and made ghosts using paper towels.  We also made masks since we'd need costumes for our party!

Of course, if it's with Mike, it will include singing!  Recognize "Great Pumpkin Is Coming to Town?!"

Trick or treating on Halloween is pretty much a modern American tradition, so Mike used some of our decorations and a jack-o-lantern treat bucket to make a decorative mobile.  While it hung from the ceiling in the Carriage House, we sang some more Halloween carols before heading out with our hearts filled with joy from a festive morning spent with the one and only Mike!

Thanks for a fun morning, Mike!  So many smiles and lots of laughter when we spend time with you!  🎃

After our delightful morning with Mike, we had lunch at the picnic area and then played bocce on the grass with a beautiful view of the York River.

Thomas, Erik, and Devin set up the games for us.

We had 5 games going at once!

After bocce, there was time to catch the trolley at the monument stop.  We rode it for a loop around Yorktown, enjoying the commentary from our driver, Boe, who knows a lot about the area.  He pointed out the York-Poquoson Courthouse and said that's where you go to get marriage licenses.  That got a big laugh out of some of our guys who said they "could wait" a while!  😂 We had a good time in Yorktown today!

Friday

Today was a great blend of work and fun.  Most importantly, we were celebrating Erik's 31st birthday, but before we could party, work was calling.  We sent a crew to Pet Supplies Plus where they worked with Scott and Roxanne to stock shelves with items from the latest delivery.

Thomas and Liz found the right spots for items related to helping dogs with their dental health!

Bryan, Kate, and the Birthday Boy, Erik , had a basket full of other dog products, including toys, which they placed in the correct spots, too.  Erik said he didn't mind working on his birthday because "it's fun to go to the pet store and work."  He has an excellent work ethic!

Here are a couple of good deals from our friends at PSP.  First, there is a "Howl-O-Ween" Party coming up on October 19 that's loaded with good deals.  Next, use the code on the orange coupon (89040) for 25% off full-service grooming.  Just be sure to book the appointment by November 12!

Look at these fun Halloween toys!  It's hard to tell who would enjoy them more - pets, our guys, or Scott!!  That's a really big croissant he's holding!  Thanks, as always, Scott and Roxanne, for your patience and guidance as we continue to grow in our vocational skills by working at the store.  We appreciate you! 

The rest of the gang was busy at the center getting ready for Erik's birthday and a visit from Christina.  Since the main course was coming from Christina, we were only responsible for sides and dessert (which Erik's family provided for his birthday)!!

The Salad Team began in the kitchen as Xavier, Gail, and Drew organized the bowls and filled them with greens, peppers, cucumbers, and celery.  Next, we moved the salads to the classroom where Kevin and Patrick topped them off with carrots and snow peas.

Gail also helped Alexis and Devin wrap our utensils in napkins trimmed with colorful "Happy Birthday" napkin rings.

We also got a jump on something for Tuesday.  We are providing pumpkin cookies at our session with the master gardeners, so we enlisted Annmarie to help with that task.  After they were baked, we put them in the freezer. 

With lunch/party prep done and 20 minutes to spare before the PSP crew returned, we headed outside to walk a few laps around the garden.  The temperature felt cooler than it did when we came in this morning, and it seemed a few clouds were rolling in, too.

Soon, our beloved Christina had arrived with her "famous" cheeseburger pies!  She wanted to make them for us and also do a craft project here at the center, and we finally worked it into all of our schedules.  It was Erik's lucky day, since we were celebrating his birthday and Christina's Cheeseburger Pie is one of our all time favorite dishes!

Happy Birthday (on Sunday) to Erik!  We hope all of his wishes come true!  Many thanks to his family for the delicious cupcakes, and for also sending gluten-free brownie bites for Xavier. 💖 We enjoyed celebrating Erik!!

The project Christina did with us today was sand art!  We were blown away by the many colorful jars of sand she provided for us to use in making 2 things, a gift we will save for our families at Christmas time, and a necklace we got to wear home today!

Neither Christina, nor Lisa, Carol, and Nan were sure how sand art might go with our gang.  It's not something we've ever done before and it could be tricky or messy.  Turns out, it was a great project for us!  Everyone was into selecting certain color combinations, and were captivated by the way the sand designs filled the jars, and Christina, Lisa, Carol, and Nan were thrilled with how well everyone was careful when pouring the sand!  We don't have a picture of our projects because they still need some detailing, and we're going to use them for holiday gifts, but trust us, they are beautiful!  Thank you, Christina, for not only tasty cheeseburger pies, but for believing in us enough to challenge us with a unique experience!  We're so proud of our projects!!  We enjoyed spending time with you today!

After sand art, we had just enough time for a game of birthday corn hole, one of Erik's favorite games.  He elected for us to have mixed-teams (instead of boys vs. girls), and after two rounds, his team was behind by 8 points.  They seemed to get their game going in round three, and the game ended in a tie!  Since we still had a few minutes, we played to break the tie and Erik's team came up short by 1 point.  It was a great game, and in the victory photo for the opposing team, we love that Erik is shaking Drew's hand and congratulating them on the win!

It was another great ending to another great week!  Next week we'll continue fall birthday celebrations, visit with our therapy dog friends, work at Eaton...and much more.  Here are our plans:

Tuesday:  This morning we will spend time with our master gardener friends learning about different types of squash, including pumpkins.  We hope the weather will be nice and we can spend extra time at the park for lunch and activities, but if not we'll return to AFCC for the same!  Please bring a bagged lunch.

Wednesday:  We'll do 2/3 of our service activities today:  JRES Library and CSL Flower Arranging.  We won't volunteer at GCOC because it's Therapy Dog Wednesday!  We'll read Halloween books and play a game with our canine friends.  We also have activities planned for celebrating I Love Lucy Day and Fossil Day.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is celebrating National School Lunch Week with a "Taste the World" menu.  Today's offering is Asian-inspired Teriyaki Chicken with Fried Rice.

Thursday:  We're celebrating Abraham's birthday today!  He's turning 30 and is so excited!  We'll play two of his favorite games, Bingo and Corn Hole, and enjoy cake and ice cream after lunch.  We're also celebrating Dictionary Day and that's a great opportunity for Brain Work!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Mediterranean-inspired Gyros today, or you can choose Domino's Pizza!

Friday:  We will spend the morning working at Eaton, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  We'll have lunch at the park and take a walk before returning to AFCC to end the week with a yoga session with Jaime...it's been a while and some of our friends miss her!

ONE MORE WEEK until the fun comes to AFCC!

Looks like a rainy weekend.  Take care!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang