Heading Into Year 11!

 

After last week's whirlwind schedule that included our 10th anniversary luncheon, we slowed things down a little as we began our 11th year of Arc of Abilities.  However, we were still active and engaged each day.  We kicked off the week on Tuesday with a creative and educational visit with Steve Prince at the Muscarelle Museum.  Wednesday was our service work day in the school library, at Grove, and arranging flowers for CSL.  Thursday was spent at the center where we cooked up a tasty new recipe for lunch!  By Friday we were ready to finish the week with work at Eaton.  It was a wonderful week!

Tuesday

Our community outing for this week was a visit to the Muscarelle Museum to work with our friend, Steve Prince.  But when we climbed out of the vans, we ran into a different museum friend, Christina!  She was also visiting the Muscarelle to go on a tour of the same exhibit we were going to see!

Once inside the Muscarelle, Steve was waiting to whisk us off to an area that was part of the museum before the expansion that he called the "catacombs," but said it included his studio space which we would see later.  It kind of felt like we were underground, but Steve had a table set up and supplies at the ready.  We needed to be near Steve's studio so we could have access to his "giant press."  Hmm.

Before getting creative, we had a short lesson about "seeing" and "feeling."  Steve explained (with our input) that both could be done in multiple ways.  He wanted us to tap into using our imaginations and letting our emotions help guide our process!

Our tour today was to see the exhibit Abstract Expressionists: The Women.  To prepare us for that, Steve led us through the creation of watercolor monotype prints.  He provided lots of samples of yupo paper that had been painted abstractly with various colors.  We were to work with a partner to cut abstract shapes and arrange them on a piece of plexiglass.  Next, we would take our designs into Steve's studio and use his large press to transfer the design onto a piece of paper.

We worked really well together, and had fun coming up with ideas we were "seeing" in our imaginations and "feeling" in our hearts!  Lisa told Steve that we enjoy being "Arc-tists!"

Inside Steve's studio the magic happened!  He laid each design (that was on the plexiglass) onto the press table and then put a large piece of damp paper over it.  The next step was to cover it with a large piece of felt, and then crank the wheel to roll the press over the layered objects, transferring our designs onto the clean paper.  It was exciting to watch the process and realize that the watercolors from the yupo paper were being lifted onto the blank paper!  We also enjoyed seeing Steve interact with Xavier, who happens to be his stepson.  💗💗💗

We did a beautiful job creating our abstract masterpieces.  Time ran short so Steve will finish running them through the press and then deliver them to us.  We think they will make beautiful pieces of art to decorate with at the new building!

At 11:00 our tour began.  We went upstairs to see the exhibit Abstract Expressionists: The Women.  This exhibit opened in January and will run through April 26.  From the Muscarelle's website:

Drawn from the renowned Christian Levett Collection and the FAMM (Female Artists of the Mougins Museum), France, Abstract Expressionists: The Women will spotlight nearly fifty paintings created by thirty-two important women artists between 1936 and 1977. It underscores the critical contributions these artists made to the growth of Abstract Expressionism worldwide by studying the stylistic crosscurrents between women working not only in New York but also in California and Paris during the movement’s inception, peak years, and beyond.

Our tour was led by a personable and knowledgeable docent named Bonita.  She was great at giving us background and a few "hints" about what to look for in each painting, and then acknowledging our interpretations as well!  She helped us understand how the artists used techniques such as texturing, broad strokes, scratches, blending, and using muted colors to create their work.  Thank you, Bonita, for your guidance and insights.  We learned new things and enjoyed your presentation very much!

Thank you, Steve, for being as colorful as some of these beautiful abstract paintings!  You kept us on our toes with your quick wit, and we loved the way you explained the use of colors and the printing process by comparing them to other things like people, feelings, and nature.  It helps us remember what you are teaching.  It's clear how much you love your job (calling)!  We had a great time today, and can't wait to see our finished prints when you deliver them to us!

We returned to AFCC for lunch and Choice Time, and then we ended the day celebrating National Goof Off Day, which was Sunday.  A game of Disney movie charades had everyone guessing!  Can you "see" Annmarie, Kate, and Gail as characters from Frozen?

How about Michelle as Jesse, Patrick as Woody, Liz as Buzz, and Drew as Andy from Toy Story?!

Sara, Alexis, Erik, Devin, Thomas, and Bryan competed in a goofy game of "How Many Socks Can You Put On Your Feet In 1 Minute?!"  It was close, but Alexis managed to get 9 on!  What a silly ending to a great day!

Wednesday

Today we were joined by Kasey from The Arc, who is going to spend a day or two here and there with us as we prepare for Lisa's transition to retirement just in case we need her to step in until the "right fit" is found.  Since it was Service Work Wednesday, we took her along to work with our GCOC group.  We found out she's got some muscles as she helped us set up all the canned foods!

 

There were a lot of canned food items today.  That's always good to see as it means we can pack more bags for food distribution in the community.

We worked with Peggy and Joel today.  Peggy told us that Ursula is healing from her broken foot, but isn't quite ready to be back here.  We hope to see her again soon!

🎉🥳 Happy Birthday to Joel!!  It's not until Saturday, but we will be thinking about him and hoping all of his wishes come true.  Peggy said he celebrates all week and we say, "Sounds good to us, Joel!" 🎉🥳

Thanks, Peggy, for letting us be your "guinea pigs" when you try new recipes!  We loved your butter cookies ( plain and chocolate) today!  Our friends back at the center enjoyed them, too.  With or without a glass of milk, we say "Yummy!"  We appreciate you for baking for us!

Other service work today included our JRES library volunteers who are very efficient at shelving books each week!  Yay for the students who check out and return so many amazing books each week.

We also made pretty flower arrangements for the folks at Commonwealth Senior Living, and started working on several thank you cards and notes we need to send out soon!  It was a busy morning!

It was too pretty of a day not to spend part of it outside!  

Our friends at Grove Christian Outreach Center have been working in the Grove Community Garden behind the school and it is starting to come back to life.  They plan to grow fresh veggies to share with the community.  We have watched them coming and going for several weeks, and their hard work is showing.

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take our picture with the Boys and Girls Club bus as a backdrop.  We agree with its message!

There was time for more movement inside, too.  We stumbled across a 7 minute "sit and get fit" video that was quite a workout!

Happy National Manatee Appreciation Day!  We learned that these "gentle giants" are vulnerable even though they have no natural predators.  They are at risk due to the actions of humans, which include accidentally colliding with them while in boats, and polluting the waters where they live.  We also learned that they can live up to 60 years, weigh between 500-1200 pounds, and are herbivores who graze on sea grasses about 8 hours a day!  

Sara wore her manatee bracelet and showed it to everyone while we worked on a manatee craft.

Carol described our plant-eating manatees as "so cute" and "just lovely."  Why, thanks, Carol!

We also got mail today!  Our therapy dog handler friend, Vicky, recently had surgery and we sent her some bright and cheery cards.  She sent us a thank you note and included some cute photos of Aubree and Lucy!  We missed Vicky, Aubree, and Lucy last week when the therapy dogs visited, but Vicky said they plan to be back for April's visit!

Thursday

We had an enjoyable day at the center as we showed Kasey a variety of activities we enjoy.  After dance warm up, we got into groups to do brain work and an Easter craft.  Everyone got to do each activity.

  The brain work activity was "Making Words," which we are great at!  We used the letters in MANATEE APPRECIATION DAY to make other words.

Kasey used to be a teacher, so she was quite impressed as we used our letters to come up with rhyming words like part, cart, and tart...but also other words like trained, dance, create, and even Annmarie and pecan pie!

For our Easter craft, we used dried pasta that had been painted pretty pastel colors to decorate large eggs cut from cardstock.

Using the liquid glue to draw a design before gluing on the pasta was kind of challenging, but we "stuck" with it and our eggs turned out very pretty!

We also used our new markers to add finishing touches!

Hard to tell what looks better...our eggs or our guys?!

We also gave Kasey a taste of how much fun we have when we prepare our own lunch!  Today, we were celebrating National Spinach Day and our menu included a new pasta recipe called Lemon Spinach Pasta with Parmesan.  We also had fresh veggie bowls and Shake and Bake chicken tenders!  Teamwork makes the dream work!

Tasty!!

After lunch, Kasey took everyone outside for a 10 minute walk (we didn't get a picture) while Lisa, Carol, and Nan did the dishes!  At some point, in the middle of Choice Time, we realized a little taste of chocolate would have been nice after lunch, so Liz, Kasey, and Patrick whipped up a package of chocolate cookie mix we had on hand.  We decided to make them bigger than usual, and everyone would get one cookie during the movie instead of popcorn.  

For our last activity of the day, we settled in to watch a funny movie.  Most of us had seen The Pacifier over the years (it came out in 2005), but we laughed all the way through it again this afternoon!  And our chocolate cookies...they were delicious!

Friday

Lisa was out today, so we want to say thank you to Katrina from Parks & Rec for stepping in to help!  We enjoyed spending time with you and hearing about your amazing trip to Europe!

Here are a few snapshots from our day.  We basically "winged" it and had a pleasant Friday working at Eaton, eating lunch and enjoying Choice Time, and playing corn hole to end the week.  

This group was using clippers to snip a small part off of these 10x10 blocks, and then they repacked the blocks into a large bin.

This group had a lot of unpacking to do, making sure parts were consolidated into the smaller gray bins.  Can you spot Katrina?!

These large bins have several layers of product, which keeps us busy unpacking.  Great job to all of our Eaton workers today, and again, thank you, Katrina for filling in for Lisa.  You were very helpful and seemed to know just what to do!

Later, the boys played against the girls for corn hole.  The boys won, but looks like they forgot to take a victory photo!  They were probably ready to head home and start their weekend!! 

We'll see everyone next week.  Here are our plans for the week that includes the start of April.  No foolin'! 😄

Tuesday:  This morning we will travel to The Mariners' Museum for a lesson with Wisteria that may include a brand new scavenger hunt!  The weather looks promising for hanging out at the park area for lunch and the Noland Trail for a walk (if they aren't heavily pollinated), so please bring a bagged lunch.  

Wednesday:  It's Service Work Wednesday and also April Fool's Day, so we will work first and then have fun!  Marisol and the corgis will visit, too!  Please wear Arc shirts.  We will also update our calendar and room decorations for April.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Assorted Wraps.

Thursday:  Today we will have activities for Find a Rainbow Day that will include brain work, crafting, and a fun experiment.  We will also work on cards and banners for our upcoming visit on April 14 to the James City Board of Supervisors meeting where we will thank them for 10 years of support!  Please mark the date, April 14 at 5 pm, on your calendars.  We would like to be represented by a large thank you delegation!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Domino's Pizza or Assorted Wraps.

Friday:  It's a Pet Supplies Plus work day, so please wear your PSP shirts.  The cooking crew that remains at AFCC will prepare a bagged lunch featuring PB&J Sandwiches, chips, fruit, and an Easter-themed dessert.  If the weather cooperates, we'll meet the PSP crew at Quarterpath Rec Center for a picnic, followed by a walk to CW to see horses and hopefully lambs!  We'll end the day with Choice Time and read-aloud.

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang