Memory Garden October Look Back
Ready or not, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of Autumn, with all the fun it brings. Our residents here at Memory Garden have had some beautiful days to get out for golf cart rides around Louis Ferreri Memorial Park. We’ve had a great time watching the progression of the fall foliage changing color. During the peak of leaf peeping season we packed up one of the vans and took a scenic drive enjoying mother natures fabulous fall display.
We’ve had some very talented entertainers this month, including Russ Keyser, Saved by Grace and Angelo Alaimo. Lucille Miller joined us in celebrating our monthly birthday party playing fun familiar piano tunes. Dave Johnson gave his monthly performance playing his accordion and singing for the group. Jeaneen Jaynes graced us with her talented piano playing. Don Sandy performed his weekly polka music during our Wednesday morning coffee house and Spencer Drake made his weekly Wednesday afternoon visit playing his guitar and singing our resident’s favorite tunes. Mary Schmit is back every Friday morning for ‘Music with Mary’ with her rhythm circles, music games and sing alongs.
Our residents enjoyed a delicious ‘Take-out-Thursday’ with some Arby’s roast beef sandwiches. The monthly lunch outing took place at Missy Jo’s Restaurant leaving everyone full and satisfied with the food as well as the service. We can’t wait to go back!
The residents had a great time celebrating Oktoberfest with delicious German food and toe tapping oompah music. During the monthly tea party our residents enjoyed a fabulous pumpkin roll with their favorite flavored tea.
The magazine scavenger hunt was a busy activity with the residents cutting out pictures from the designated list on the white board. The residents created jack-o-lantern and spider Halloween decorations that look great hanging in the activity room. Keeping in the spirit of the holiday we played Halloween Jeopardy.
Halloween, of course, gives us another reason to party. The residents enjoyed handing out Halloween treats to the Zion preschoolers who paraded around in their Halloween costumes. In the evening the residents had a great time greeting all the trick or treaters and giving out lot’s of candy.
On National Chocolate Cupcake Day our residents played kickball by sitting in a large circle and kicking the ball to each other and of course afterwards devoured some chocolate cupcakes. We had some hearty laughs telling jokes on National Knock-Knock Joke Day. Bringing out our “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books, the residents enjoyed some inspirational and very touching stories.
Our bakers out did themselves this month making a fabulous mandarin orange cake. Mmm-mmm!
The 7-Up card game is always a big hit with our residents, giving them a chance to win goodies. Each resident is dealt seven cards face up. When one of their cards matches a card drawn from a different deck, they turn that card over. The first to turn over all their cards wins! Bingo is another favorite game we had fun playing this month. We also enjoyed playing “What’s Next?”, where the residents are given part of a common phrase, song or nursery rhyme and they have to finish it by guessing what comes next.
The residents participated in a wide variety of games on the white board, including Pictionary (try to guess what’s being drawn), hangover (try to guess what a given word is, one letter at a time), word-in-word game (how many different words can you make out of one big word?) and Nerf target practice (draw a big target on the white board and try to get a bulls eye using Nerf guns with suction cup projectiles).
Some of our more active games are balloon volleyball (try to keep the balloons up in the air by hitting them to each other), Frisbee golf (toss the Frisbee into the basket), noodle ball (hit the balloons to each other using pool noodles), ladder ball (toss a small rope with balls on each end onto a three rung ladder trying to wrap it around a rung), beanbag toss, ring toss, shuffleboard, penny toss (toss pennies into cups for different point values), bowling and corn hole (toss a beanbag into the hole on the board).
October has been such a fun month with all the kookiness of Halloween and the ever festive Oktoberfest. As much as we hate to see it end, the upcoming holidays will prove to be something to look forward to. It’s gonna be a great holiday season! If you have any questions or comments for upcoming activities, please contact Margaret Wright, Memory Garden Activities Coordinator at (716)488-9434 ext 2226, or email at MWright@tanglewoodmanor.com.
