Memory Garden June Look Back
June has been an interesting and fun month for our Memory Garden residents. The weather didn’t always cooperate with our plans but we had a great time anyway. The sun wouldn’t come out for our “Sundaes in the Sun” day, so we brought the fun inside and had delicious ice cream sundaes while playing word games. On National Cheese Day we held a Cheese Feast. Our residents sampled a wide variety of cheeses with some delectable faux wine punch as they named as many different foods with cheese in them they could imagine.
We had a beautiful day to plant our garden. All the seedlings that we put in peat pots last month were finally ready for the outdoors. The residents planted squash, tomatoes, melons, beans and peppers, along with some impatiens for the flower bed. Let’s hope for great growing weather! What better way to celebrate National Strawberry Shortcake Day than with some delicious strawberry shortcake. Loved by all!
Celebrating Father’s Day, we gathered for donuts and coffee and shared some laughs with some cheesy dad jokes. Once again we had a full house for our monthly tea party. Enjoying a variety of cookies, the residents were great sports as guys and gals alike donned their fabulous tea hats.
Lucille Miller played piano for our residents during the monthly birthday party as everyone devoured cake and ice cream. The rain did not stop us from kicking off the Summer Concert Series. We took the party inside with the Barbara Jean Duo and the residents had a great time despite the lousy weather. Also part of the Summer Concert Series we tapped our toes to the Happy Days Band, the Steve Strickland Duo and the Band Anastazja. Many other wonderful entertainers lifted our resident’s spirits with their talents, including Russ Keyser, Saved by Grace, Rick Bruening, Jeaneen Jaynes and Dave Johnson as well as our weekly visits from Don Sandy and Spencer Drake.
The residents enjoyed Arby’s roast beef sandwiches for take-out Tuesday this month. We went to Bob Evans for a lunch outing as well, leaving everyone with stuffed bellies. What a beautiful day we had for our ice cream outing where we slurped down drippy but wonderful ice cream cones at the picnic tables.
For Flag Day our residents got crafty and made some red, white and blue windsocks to hang on our welcome tree in the lobby. Our residents were very busy baking this month making a yummy poppy seed lemon cake on one day and some fabulous peanut butter cookies on another.
Activities this month included many great games such as basketball, bingo, bowling, target shooting (shoot suction cup Nerf arrows at targets on the white board), kickball (kicking the ball around the circle to each other), balloon volleyball, bean bag toss and noodle ball (hit the balloons to each other with pool noodles). We also had fun with Pictionary (try to guess what’s being drawn), What’s Next? (guess what comes next after being given part of a common phrase, song or nursery rhyme), Name 10 (name ten items in a given category) and Which One Doesn’t Belong? (figure out which item doesn’t belong in a group of four). Fact or Fiction is a great game to get to know each other. One person picks a random statement about themselves and everyone has to guess if it’s fact or fiction. We also had a competitive game of Summer Jeopardy. Sing alongs are a favorite activity for our residents. This month we sang along to country tunes of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
What goes better with a milkshake than fresh air and sunshine! While sipping on thick, rich milkshakes we played a game of Name That Couple (try to name the famous couple in the picture) out in the courtyard. A high point of a great weather day is taking a golf cart ride around Louis Ferreri Memorial Park. Our residents absolutely love the peacefulness of the park as well as the occasional wild life.
Summer has only just begun folks! Let’s hope to see some better weather for all the upcoming outdoor events. We’ll be grooving to more concerts, relaxing around campfires and sharing picnics in the park. There are many more golf cart rides to venture out on and let’s not forget all the weeding and watering (well, maybe not watering) needed to keep our vegetable garden healthy and producing. So much to look forward to, rain or shine! If you have any questions or comments for upcoming activities please contact Margaret Wright at (716)488-9434, ext. 2226, or email at MWright@tanglewoodmanor.com.
