Pam was delighted to see us when we stopped by the new building on Tuesday to wish her a "Happy Birthday!"
Tuesday
We were happy to be back this morning since the weekend snowstorm didn't really amount to much. We're still counting on Chesapeake Chuck's forecast, and looking for that early spring!
Our morning was spent at AFCC where we got the day started with our dance warm up and blog check. After that, we made get well cards and pictures for one of our dog handler friends, Vicky. She recently had surgery and is doing well, but we thought some cheer from us might speed things along!
There wasn't much to celebrate on the National Day Calendar, so we watched a Mystery Science lesson about how telephones work. It's hard to believe that our voice vibrations can be turned into electrical signals and sent all over the world via today's technology.
We tried to imagine sending voice vibrations by making and testing cup and string telephones, like our parents might have done when they were in school "back in the day!" As long as we could keep the string taut, most of us could receive the sound of our friends' voices. That was kind of cool!
Next we tried playing Telephone, the old-fashioned game where messages were whispered from friend to friend, and the last person hopefully heard the same message as the first person spoke. We got a few laughs out of this!
We had better luck playing a game of pool noodle volleyball, which got our heart rates pumping before lunch!
The highlight of the day came after lunch when we took a trip to Wendy's for Frosty treats! Our friend, Laura, received a Wendy's gift card for her birthday a while back, and she chose to treat us to Frosties. It just took us a while to coordinate the trip! Thank you so much, for your generous treat, Laura! It was very thoughtful of you to share your birthday gift with your friends.
Some of us chose chocolate and some vanilla, but most chose the limited edition Girl Scout Thin Mint Swirl flavor. EVERYONE loved them, even on a chilly afternoon!
After our Frosty stop, we went to the Arc office on McLaws to deliver a Frosty to the birthday girl, Pam! 🥳🎉🎈
Pam, we hope all your wishes come true! Thank you for being an amazing leader for The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and for all you do to make it the best Arc ever! We can't wait to be in the new building and get to see you every day! 😉💞
We also began our move in today! We dropped off some of our seasonal items that we won't be needing until after we move to the new space.
We have a lot of "stuff" to move, but a lot of helpers, too! Thanks, everyone!
Wednesday
There was a lot going on for our service work morning. First, we sent this lovely group to work in the JRES Library where Mr. Nonnemacher had a big stack of books for them to shelve! Thanks, Sara, Liz, Lexi, and Laura for your efficient and accurate work!
Next, we sent Devin, Liz, Xavier, Bryan, Erik, Annmarie, Laura, and Kevin to work at the GCOC Food Pantry. They worked alongside Peggy and Joel today, while Thom and Ursula worked in another part of the building.
Thanks Peggy and Joel for the Rice Krispie treats! You guys are always so thoughtful...and we appreciate the treats you give us. 💖💖💖
Back at the center, we appreciated Drew and Thomas for making sure our green beans would be cooked to perfection. We were grateful to Gail for washing the sweet potatoes (and later peeling the mandarin oranges), and we were thankful to have Pat to cook the meatballs. Today's lunch was so tasty!
At the same time cooking was taking place, Gail (she's everywhere!), Tessa, Alexis, and Sara handled flower arranging duties.
Today's arrangements were particularly colorful. Commonwealth Senior Living will be very pleased with these "bursts of spring" this week!
We can't forget to mention that Kasey was helping us today. She led the flower arranging and was very impressed with our skills! Later, we did a lengthy Go Noodle workout followed by a balanced breathing exercise, which Kasey really enjoyed!
After lunch Kasey led us in an engaging lesson for National Pink Shirt Day. This day recognizes kindness, inclusion, and antibullying. It was easy for us to share ways in which we practice kindness, inclusion, and antibullying each day, as shown by Erik's and Dev's examples here.
We even designed our own pink shirts! Thanks to our friends who wore pink shirts in support of today's lesson, and thanks to everyone for being kind every day, no matter what color our shirts are! Thank you, Kasey, for a lesson that is always a good reminder of what we stand for at the Arc of Abilities! We had fun hanging out with you today! 🩷
Thursday
The rainy weather came back today, but we had sunshine anyway in the form of Moose Patti! She's been able to squeeze in some volunteer time during Allison's absence, and we have enjoyed having her! This rainy morning seemed like a good time to play board games.
Patti taught Alexis, Patrick, Sara, and Bryan the ins and outs of Yahtzee, a game we have not played before. They stuck with it, and paid close attention to Patti's lessons on strategy, while they hoped for luck!
Nan, Kevin, Laura, and Gail played Candyland, which is one of our all-time favorite games. Gail was excited to have drawn a lollipop card so she could advance several spaces on the board!
Xavier, Drew, Tessa, and Thomas played Chutes and Ladders with help from Carol. The counting wasn't so hard, but following all the chutes and ladders on the gameboard was tricky!
Liz, Devin, Erik, and Lisa played a card game called Garbage, which also involved some tricky strategy. It was frustrating at first, but after the first round, they wanted to play again!
After card games, we showed Patti how to make bird feeders with TP rolls and peanut butter. This is always a good activity to do when we have an extra set of hands! We didn't hang them outside due to the rain, but hopefully we can put them out tomorrow. Thanks for spending part of your day with us, Patti! We love catching up with you. You put lots of smiles on our faces!
After lunch we listened to our read-aloud and then did "random" math brain work. One group worked on solving multi-step word problems and the other learned about 3D shapes like cylinders, cones, and spheres.
Friday
Today began with clouds, but at least it wasn't raining as we arrived ready to head for a work morning at Eaton. Before heading out, Alexis, Liz, and Bryan filled our birdfeeder and also hung the ones we made with TP rolls yesterday.
Later in the day we noticed a number of chickadees eating from our TP feeders.
Our tasks at Eaton today were packing something we'd never seen before called "beauty plates" and unpacking fragile lightbulbs.
There were four large bags of yellow plastic parts called "beauty plates," but the parts in each bag looked slightly different from one another. We set them up at four different tables for packing into gray bins, which Gail, Tessa, Laura, Kevin, and Patrick are shown doing here. We apologize to Bryan and Thomas who had the fourth bag and were overlooked by Lisa who was taking pictures. Also shown here are Drew and Xavier who worked on unpacking a large tub of white plates, also putting them into gray bins.
After lunch we returned to our read-aloud, George Washington's Socks. In today's chapter, our time-traveler Matt runs into a couple of "Indians" before being reunited with a couple of his friends, who inform him that one more friend and his little sister have been kidnapped by Hessians. Devin, Patrick, Bryan, Thomas, and Erik helped read and act out today's part of the story! Patrick was perfect for the part of one of the "Indians" since the story said he was wielding a tomahawk, and Patrick had one on his Braves shirt!
We ended the week with a brief lesson about it being National Pokémon Day! Only a couple of our guys had memories of collecting Pokémon cards, playing the games, or watching the movies, but it was interesting to learn about how the character came to be.
Our online yoga instructor, Jaime, has a segment based on Pokemon, so we finished our lesson with a relaxing yoga break!
It feels good to stretch!
We left feeling very excited about coming back on Tuesday! We've got some celebrating to do next week. Here are our plans:
Tuesday: It's time to kick of Spring Birthday Season! Today we will celebrate Drew at bowling and with pizza and cupcakes for lunch, courtesy of his family! Thank you, Andy and Donna, for celebrating Drew with us!
Wednesday: It's Service Work Wednesday so please wear Arc shirts for volunteering at GCOC and arranging flowers for CSL. We will also work on our March calendar, make thank you cards for the Williamsburg Eagles who gave The Arc a generous donation last week, and celebrate National Marching Music Day. Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is offering Asian Chicken w/ Veggies and Rice or Flatbread Sandwich.
Thursday: Today we'll spend time selecting our favorite dance songs so we can create a playlist for Jeanne, one of our friends at Williamsburg United Methodist Church who requested it so she can be ready for our next visit! We'll also celebrate National Cheese Doodle Day with a small snack sampling, and a quirky craft to "share" with our bird friends! We'll also celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday (March 2) so feel free to bring your favorite Dr. Seuss books or other items. Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is serving Domino's Pizza or Assorted Wraps.
Friday: It's PSP Friday so please wear your Pet Supplies Plus shirts. We're also celebrating our next spring birthday for Annmarie! Her family will join us and provide a tasty fried chicken and fixins lunch! Thank you, Andy and Teresa, for celebrating Annmarie with us! We'll end the day with a game of birthday corn hole! Note: Feel free to bring a shirt to change into for the party if you'd like.
Have a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.