Spring Fever and Snow!

 

It seemed as if spring had sprung when we began this week, and it gave us spring fever! We enjoyed being outside at York River State Park on Tuesday where the temperature topped 76 degrees by the time we left, and no humidity!  It remained warm for our travels to Grove on Wednesday, and the temps climbed into the 80s, but the chilly rain on Thursday tried to spoil our visit to Swem Library!  (And it snowed on the way home!)  By Friday's work day at Eaton it was sunny, but still chilly.  Overall, we enjoyed a nice week and saw many signs of spring and winter while on the road each day.  The forecast looks a little cooler for next week...but spring officially begins next Friday.  We'll have to see how that goes!!  Meanwhile, back to this week...

Tuesday

We had everyone in attendance today, and we thought we'd grab a picture as they lined up in the hallway to load the vans.  Carol's group gets on one side and Lisa's on the other, and this is one time when everyone follows directions the first time given!  They like getting "on the road again." 😎 (Today we had a regular van and an Arc bus, so Carol's group was larger.)

Upon arrival at York River State Park, we couldn't help but notice an empty playground, so we modified our plans and played first!  Some of us chilled or walked around the playground area, but most of us climbed, swung on swings, and went down slides!

It was such a great day to be outside!  

We took up 4 picnic tables as we celebrated National Pack a Lunch Day!

And there were no ants or bugs!

After lunch we walked to the Visitor Center.

We met Ranger Paige who was happy to answer our questions.  Here, she was showing us some of the fossils that had been found by the York River at Fossil Beach.  She mentioned that she had seen quite a few clam shells called Chesapecten jeffersonius this morning when she was on the beach, and that got us excited to try and find some.

Ranger Paige also explained things in the Discovery Room, and answered all of our questions.  An interesting story she told us about one of the fish in the fresh water tank was that he had been acting "wonky" so they knew he was sick.  To help him, they adjusted his diet and kept an eye on him, and now he's much better.  She also told us that Boots, the corn snake, was probably hiding under a small log tunnel and that's why we couldn't see him.  That was a bummer! 🐍

It was also a bummer that after the time we spent with Paige, we realized we didn't have time to go down to Fossil Beach.  Still, we had a fabulous time at York River State Park, and we'll just have to come back again for a fossil hunt!

Wednesday

This morning we sent a group to work in the library, but we didn't take a photo.  Instead, we got this one when Liz and Gail took some books we wanted to donate to the Little Free Library next to the community garden.  We added several of the read-aloud books Lisa has read to us over the years, and we hope someone else will enjoy them as much as we did!

We've almost got our flower arranging routine down to a science!  Today, Devin, Kevin, and Patrick set up the tables using risers so they would be taller for working at, while Alexis added water to the 12 jars in which we arrange the flowers.  Tessa learned a new task -  cutting open the wrap around the flowers.  Drew assisted her by taking the wrap to the trash can.  Gail made sure each pick had a card inserted that says it's Arc of Abilities that arranges the bouquets.

Alexis, Sara, Allison, and Gail (almost hiding behind Sara) finished the arrangements and then it was time to start lunch preps!

Lunch was simple today with just hot dogs, fruit salad, and chips.  Thomas and Drew helped cook the hot dogs while Abraham whipped up a sour cream and cream cheese mixture to add to the fruit.  We used canned pineapple chunks and red seedless grapes that Patrick and Tessa removed from the stems.  Gail broke pecan halves into smaller pieces, too.  The entire lunch was good, but the fruit salad was particularly tasty!

Our GCOC crew was surprised to find out there were no canned goods to pack today.  They worked with fresh veggies instead.  Joel helped Xavier, Kevin, Liz, and Erik bag kale.

Don't fall asleep on us now, Xavier!  LOL!

Liz and Kevin were wondering if we have ever cooked kale?  We did, but it was a long time ago!

Bryan, Laura, Annmarie, and Devin worked with Carol to bag 200 pounds of potatoes!  They had to put 10 in each bag.  This is a 50 pound bag in the photo, and that's a lot of potatoes!

Sweet Peggy made her delicious peanut butter cookies for us, and we took them back to the center to share with everyone.  She hand places peanuts on top of each cookie before baking them!  Thanks, Peggy.  They were so, so, so good!!  Joel and Thom are shown in this picture with us and Peggy, but our friend Ursula is missing because she fell and broke her ankle during her and Thom's recent move to a new home.  We missed you very much, Ursula, and wish you a speedy recovery.  (Check your mail in a few days...💖💖💖)

We recently acquired a ton of new Bingo prizes from our friend Kelly at APEX-PT (Lexi's cousin 😍).  There were lots of Disney items along with craft kits and other art supplies, and lots of fidgets, too!  Before our game, some of the guys organized everything.  Thanks, Kelly!  We love Bingo prizes!!!

We played Dr. Seuss Bingo for the first time today.  Our spaces had pictures of covers from his books.  We knew he had written over 60 books, but we found out there are a lot of Dr. Seuss books we have never heard of!

We wrapped up a busy Wednesday with a math color by number activity that made cute leprechauns to add to our March decorations.  Different groups had different math problem challenges, but everyone ended up with a cute leprechaun!

Thursday

We thought it would be raining before we got to Swem Library this morning, but it held off until we got back to AFCC.  We got a little bit wet walking in, but most of the complaints were because it had gotten so cold!  Then, we heard it might snow later, and we couldn't believe that...until we saw it snowing on the way home!  What a crazy weather day, after hitting the mid 80s yesterday!   

At any rate, we had a great time touring Swem Library on the campus of William and Mary.  We thank our friend Marisol, and the corgis, Tucker, Nellie, and Louie, for arranging this tour for us.  They visit the library each week to hang out with Tribe students, and are very well-loved on campus!

Marisol introduced us to Jay Gaidmore, who is the Marian and Alan McLeod Director of Special Collections at the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at Swem.  He explained that the SCRC houses rare and unique materials including original manuscripts, photographs, rare books, maps, and more.  It connects students, faculty, and researchers with these materials. 

Today, we spent time in the reading room of the SCRC where Jay and his staff had assembled an amazing collection of books and prints related to dogs!  The SCRC has the second largest collection of books about dogs in the United States!

We enjoyed spending over 30 minutes looking at the items on display.  Jay explained that many of the books, especially older ones, were placed in foam blocks that would prop them up for reading so they wouldn't have to be handled too much.  We had to wash our hands before entering, by the way!

Great reading, Laura!!

Jay also pointed out the Warren E. Burger Office Exhibit.  He was a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and this exhibit houses many artifacts from his career, including his papers and many photographs and other memorabilia.  Chief Justice Burger was the university's chancellor from 1986-1993.

After our visit to the SCRC, Jay continued our tour by walking us through areas of the library where students gather to study, and even relax.  They are allowed to bring food and drink in these days, and there are even a few massage chairs!  Students were on Spring Break this week, so we didn't get to see any today.

Jay told us that if we have a library card from Williamsburg Regional Library, we are welcome to visit Swem and check out books.

We were excited to see some of Steve Prince's work on display.  Steve, who is Xavier's stepfather and our friend, is the Distinguished Artist in Residence, as well as Director of Engagement, at the Muscarelle Museum, and we usually recognize his work if we see it out and about in the community.

This was something cool that Jay pointed out to us.  It's a boundary stone that was placed in 1694 to mark the College lands.  It's the earliest original relic of the College of William and Mary in Virginia.  We also learned that the college could have been built in Yorktown!

The last area we visited was the ground floor of the library where the original statue of Lord Botetourt is on display.  Botetourt was a popular governor of the Virginia colony who only served two years before dying unexpectedly in 1770 while still in office.  This statue was commissioned to honor him, and originally stood at the Capitol building.  

Thank you, Marisol and Jay, for this interesting and fun tour of Swem Library.  We enjoyed it very much!

We returned to AFCC for lunch and then we welcomed Liz's dad, Greg, who brought visitors from Ferguson Enterprises to meet us.  Greg retired from Ferguson a couple of years ago, but he remains connected, and today he was excited to introduce us to Nicole, Erin, Jasmine, and Peter, who announced that Ferguson will be providing equipment and appliances for our kitchen at the new building!  Wow!  Thank you so much, Ferguson Enterprises.  We cannot thank you enough for the wonderful opportunity we will have to work in a dream kitchen!

We finished the day with a celebration for National Popcorn Lovers Day, but these big smiles were really for the exciting news from Ferguson!

We had just enough time to watch an episode called "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" from I Love Lucy.  There was so much laughter as our guys watched this old show...we don't know which was more hilarious, our guys or the show?!

Friday

It wasn't snowing or raining, but it was cold this morning as we went to Eaton for a work day.  When Lisa and Carol arrived at the Rec Center to pick up vans, Liz, who picks up the keys from the desk and rides with them, was scraping ice off one of the van's windshields.  Her dad, Greg, was working on the other one.  Thanks, Liz and Greg, for helping to get us on the road safely!

Everyone was in attendance today, so we had fingers crossed that Ethan would have plenty of work for us at Eaton.  We're so efficient that it takes a lot to keep us busy.  Luckily, today there was plenty to do!

Kate, Liz, Carol, Nan, Alexis, and Erik unpacked several hundred lightbulbs and carefully repacked them in smaller boxes with bubble wrap in between the layers.  Bryan and Sara used clippers to snip small pieces off of white plates, and they worked through a couple of hundred pieces.  Devin and Patrick had hundreds of large yellow parts to repack into smaller tubs.  

There were also hundreds of things called amps that Abraham, Kevin, Tessa, Xavier, Michelle, Annmarie, and Laura unpacked.  Each amp had to be removed from a small white box, and the unneeded screws inside were to be tossed in the trash.  Next, the amps had to be repacked into the medium-sized brown boxes.  Gail is also shown in this collage.  She was responsible for folding all of the paper between the parts Dev and Pat worked with so that the paper could be recycled.

Drew was responsible for making sure our amp workers had a steady supply of boxes to unpack.  This video captures his (and our) outstanding work ethic!

Before leaving, Michelle, Gail, and Erik made a run to the recycle bin, while Bryan and Patrick emptied a bin of trash.  What a productive work morning it was!  We're so proud of our team! 👏👏

After lunch we acted out another chapter of George Washington's Socks, the book we've been reading recently.  It's about some kids who time travel back to 1776 to experience the Revolutionary War.  In today's chapter, they find the time-travel boat that will take them back home.  Bryan, Erik, Patrick, and Thomas portray the main character boys and Sara is a little sister.

Devin portrays General Washington, who in this scene had slipped and fallen in some water.  Gail portrays one of his soldiers who comes to help him.

In this scene Alexis plays Captain McCowly who really saw the time travel boat vanish with the kids in it.  General Washington believes Captain McCowly has had too much to drink while celebrating the previous night's victory at Trenton, and he orders two of his aides, portrayed by Liz and Kate, to take McCowly away.  This is a fun twist on our read-alouds, and we're looking forward to acting out the conclusion of the book next week.

After all the drama from our acting, we decided to end the day with some comedy.  We watched an episode of Gilligan's Island where Gilligan found a stone that would grant him 3 wishes.  Believe it or not, when the episode ended, the castaways were still stranded! 😂😂😂

Monday, March 16, will mark the 10th anniversary of Arc of Abilities.  We had hoped to celebrate in our new forever home, but things aren't going as quickly as we'd like with the renovations.  We are learning the value of patience, and we know the wait will be worth it!  In the meantime, we decorated our entry wall with a series of group photos from over the years that show how much we have both changed and stayed the same.  We'll have a simple celebration on Tuesday when we enjoy lunch out at a place we have been smelling the aroma of on our travels for 10 years:  Old City Barbecue!  Many, many thanks to our friends Moose Patti and WOTM for sponsoring this delicious celebration!  

We're very excited to celebrate our 10th anniversary next week, and that will be a highlight, for sure!  We'll also be busy with other activities...here's the lineup for the entire week:

Tuesday:  We are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Arc of Abilities today!  First, we will enjoy a morning visit Christina at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.  After that, we'll celebrate our anniversary with lunch at Old City Barbecue, sponsored by our dear friends Patti and the Women of the Moose!  From there, we will return to AFCC for cake, courtesy of Liz's family, and more party fun.   Thank you so much, WOTM, and Kline Family, for your generous contributions to our celebration!  We are grateful for you!  It's also St. Patrick's Day, but we're going to ask you to wear green tomorrow, as we will celebrate that with our therapy dog friends.

Wednesday:  It's Therapy Dog Day and we're going to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, so please wear your green today (we have hats and other accessories if you need them).  We'll also do our JRES and CSL service projects, and make thank you cards for our friends who sponsored yesterday's celebration.  Lunch on your own, but we are making our traditional Blarney Stone Cookies (using the Pizza Pizzazz machine from 2016), so don't bring dessert!  JRES Cafeteria is offering Spaghetti with Meat Sauce or Philly Cheese Steak.

Thursday:  It's time for our monthly visit with the women's group at Williamsburg United Methodist Church!  Today's theme is "Exercise," so dress to stretch and we'll remember to take our water bottles.  After lunch we'll celebrate National Let's Laugh Day with jokes and a funny movie.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Domino's Pizza or Deli Sub.

Friday:  It's PSP Work Day, so please wear PSP shirts.  The AFCC crew will tackle some spring cleaning, and then we will meet the PSP group at the park for a picnic and walk.  It's also the first day of spring, so on the way back to the center, we'll stop at Rita's for a free sample of Italian ice!  We had so much fun doing that last year that we hope the weather will cooperate so we can do it again this year!  Please bring a bagged lunch.

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang