A Lovely Springtime Week

What a delightful springtime week we had!  The weather was perfectly "coolish-warmish" with lots of sunshine so we took advantage and enjoyed time outside at the Musical Swings, on site at AFCC, in Yorktown, and at New Quarter Park.  We enjoyed our inside time, too, completing our service work activities, visiting Mike at the Watermen's Museum, and working at Eaton.  It was just a splendid week!

Tuesday

We always look forward to the first Tuesday of the week when we go bowling and have pizza for lunch.  That was the case today, but before arriving at the lanes, we stopped at the Musical Swings exhibit in Colonial Williamsburg.  

It's a temporary attraction (through May 17), and what a joyful noise we made!

When we stopped by last Friday after lunch, there were a lot of visitors here, so we decided to postpone our visit to this morning around 9:15.  It was a good decision, as we had the swings to ourselves for about 20 minutes!

There are 10 swings and each one plays notes from a different classical instrument.  It's both fun and soothing!

The swings are big and comfortable, too!

Enjoy the beautiful music we made! 🎜🎝

Here's a little more! 🎶

Next, it was off to Bowlero for a fun couple of hours bowling strikes, spares, and everything in between!  Shout out to Alexis today for the high score of 150!

We missed Tessa and Kate today.  Hope they feel better soon!

A quick stop by Domino's and we were that much closer to pizza for lunch!  Many, many thanks to an anonymous donor who contributed to our pizza funds for a couple of years.  We appreciate your support, and wish you all the best!

We had lunch and Choice Time, then listened to our read-aloud and checked last week's blog.  We also finished a thank you card for our WOTM friends who sponsored our anniversary lunch at Old City Barbecue.  💜💚💛

Speaking of our WOTM friends...guess what?!  It's time to think about this year's 11th annual golf tournament!  Moose Patti is already hitting up all of last year's sponsors and aiming for some new ones, too.  If you have any contacts, please pass them along to Lisa and she will let Patti know!  Please mark your calendars for Saturday, August 1 at Williamsburg National Golf Course and join us to play or volunteer!  Thank you for your support!  Patti plans to surpass last years fundraising record of over $14,000, but she will need our help!

Wednesday

Service Work Wednesday only consisted of flower arranging and volunteering at Grove today since the JRES Library was closed for Spring Break.  As usual, Allison was here to work with the gang on the flower arrangements for Commonwealth Senior Living, and as usual, they turned out lovely.  Lots of roses in the mix today!

Sara enjoys making arrangements, and she's good at putting pretty colors together!

Alexis used scissors to snip some small leaves off the stem of a rose, being careful not to prick herself with a thorn!

Gail also enjoys arranging the flowers, and she likes all the colors, especially purple!

The group that worked at Grove this morning was busy assisting Peggy and Joel with several tasks.  First, they filled food distribution bags with nonperishable food items.  After that, they placed mangoes in trays and kale bunches in bags before placing all of that in the refrigerated section of the Gathering Place Free Market.  We missed Ursula and Tom who were traveling.

 

We know Peggy is a great baker, and today we found out she is a great candy-maker, too!  She made chocolate-covered peanut clusters for us and they were sooo good...even better than the candy store in CW!!  Thank you, Peggy, for a treat so sweet!  The only thing sweeter is you!

Even though it was cool outside, the sun was shining and we enjoyed a lengthy recess on the playground at JRES since the school kids are on Spring Break.  Yes, we are a little tall for the equipment, but that didn't stop us from getting good movement through climbing, swinging, and sliding!

  

Did we mention we love to slide?!

We even had our own version of Musical Swings!

Our last activity today was a lesson for National Zoo Lovers Day.  We learned that "zoo" is a short form of "zoological park" and that many zoos provide breeding programs for endangered animals.  There are approximately 350 zoos in America and over 175 million people visit them each year!

Sara shared that when she lived in Oregon she was a volunteer at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  She helped to educate visitors about marine wildlife!  

Part of our lesson included checking out the live webcams at the San Diego Zoo.  We saw tigers, pandas, elephants, and other animals enjoying a beautiful afternoon in sunny California!  This reminded Liz of the time she visited the San Diego Zoo when she was 9 years old, and she found a picture to show us of her and her brother Stephen on their trip!  We love when our friends have connections to what we learn!  Thanks, Sara and Liz!

Thursday

We were excited for 2 things today:  going to see Mike at the Watermen's Museum (it has been a while) and having lunch at Burger King!  (We're easy to please!) 

Our time with Mike today was all about spring.  He asked us what came to mind when we thought about spring, and we took those ideas and wrote/illustrated them on paper vines Mike had made ahead of time.

Mike also showed us a simple way to make paper flowers, which we needed to attach to our vine.  We were making a pretty decoration and we knew just the spot in our room where it would go!

There is always music when we hang with Mike!  Today he introduced us to a new member of his Shanty Grass Band, Steve.  Steve plays an instrument called a harmonium, which has a keyboard on top and bellows, which are pumped by hand, on the back.  Steve played beautiful music on the harmonium.

Michelle gave it a try!  

It wasn't long before we were singing along with Mike and Steve.

"Sweet Caroline!"

Steve also plays the piccolo.  We enjoyed his talents!

One more springtime activity we did with Mike was for Lisa.  Aww!  He had us write why we love her on paper rose petals and then he put them together to make a big rose.  Lisa will cherish these touching thoughts during her retirement years!  Thanks for this thoughtful gesture, Mike!

As always, we had a great time with you today, Mike!  It was fun learning, crafting and singing with you and Steve, and we can't wait to hang our flower vine on the teal wall at the center.  Thanks for all you do for us! 

Before heading for lunch, we took a nice walk around Yorktown.  Kasey was hanging with us today and she was interested in seeing what kinds of restaurants and shops are here.  She's new to our area and has been to Yorktown once before, but now plans to visit again...we highly recommend it!

After our walk it was time for lunch at Burger King!  This BK is located on the way to Yorktown, and much like Old City Barbecue, each time we would pass it on our travels the gang would ask if we could go sometime.  Well, that day finally arrived!  We didn't get many pictures, as it was hectic...but the staff at Burger King was AWESOME and we enjoyed our lunch very much!

Sorry Abraham is a blur!  He was just so excited at the drink machine!

Annmarie is our Burger Queen!

Back at the center we had Choice Time, listened to our read-aloud, hung our beautiful flower vine on the teal wall, and ended the day with time in the gym.  It was a fun day!

Friday

We had a very productive morning at Eaton where we unpacked and consolidated a lot of items, including light bulbs.

Devin and Patrick filled tubs with large yellow lenses that were stacked high on a pallet.  Gail folded the paper that was between the lenses and boxed it up to be reused.  Abraham, Xavier, Thomas, and Laura repacked and consolidated many small parts so we could fit more in each tub.  Drew and Kevin sorted many small parts.

Eaton's Mark and David chatted with the lightbulb crew.  Liz, Sara, Nan, and Alexis were removing lightbulbs from the packaging.  Bryan made sure they had a steady stream of bulbs to unpack, and Erik helped put the fragile bulbs in between bubble wrap in smaller boxes.  Xavier, Bryan, Erik, and Kevin (hard to spot behind Erik) took tubs to the trash and recycle bins outside before we wrapped up for the day.

After Eaton we enjoyed lunch outside on a gorgeous day at New Quarter Park.  We were happily surprised to see the tables were not covered in pollen!

We took a walk and also made a short video to send to Kate, who has been under the weather for a couple of weeks.  We miss her, and hope she feels better soon.  (Tessa was out this week, too.  She was hanging with her mom, Michelle, who is a teacher on Spring Break!)

We had time to spend at the playground, too.  We were surprised that young children weren't out on such a perfect day, but that meant we could enjoy it instead!

We returned to the center for an abbreviated period of Choice Time and then ended the week with a game of corn hole.  It was too beautiful of a day to stay indoors!  Team Spring won, 36-25, but we all helped and cheered for one another as we always do!  Great ending to our week!

The gang set up the game, picked the teams, and played all on their own today.  Gail seemed happy to be the sole girl on Team Spring!

We hear it's going to warm up quite a bit next week.  This week was perfect and really felt like spring.  We'll probably feel summer vibes next week.  Here's a look at our schedule:

Tuesday:  It's National Gardening Day which is perfect because we kick off our spring sessions with the master gardeners today!  We'll plant the spring harvest with them, and then (hopefully if pollen permits) have lunch at the park followed by a walk.  Please bring a bagged lunch.

Wednesday:  Happy Birthday to Bryan today!  His family is treating us to a taco bar and key lime pie for lunch.  Yum!  We will also do our flower arranging service work and have a visit from our therapy dog friends this morning. After lunch, Bryan has requested a game of birthday corn hole!  Thanks to Bryan's family for today's lunch!

Thursday:  This morning we will travel to Williamsburg United Methodist Church for a science-themed experience with the Women's Circle group.  We'll have lunch at the center and then a lesson for Titanic Remembrance Day (yesterday).  Our guys are always fascinated by the Titanic story.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Domino's Pizza or Deli Sub.

Friday:  We will send a crew to work at Pet Supplies Plus, so please wear PSP shirts.  It's National Cheeseball Day, and earlier in the week it was National Grilled Cheese Day...so the gang asked for a cheeseball AND blueberry grilled cheese sandwiches (one of our faves) for lunch! PB&J will be offered, too.  That's what the cooking crew will work on while the others work at PSP.  We'll also celebrate that today is National High Five Day!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang