Memory Garden August Look Back
Here we are at the end of August already! Summer is winding down, but we’re still taking full advantage of the warm, sunny days we have left. The great weather has allowed us to participate in a number of outdoor events. The residents have been enjoying weekly performances by Don Sandy in the Black Eyed Susan courtyard during coffee house. Elizabeth Lutgen captured the hearts of our residents with her very talented violin performance in the courtyard. Rick Bruening entertained us with a concert in the Louis Ferreri Memorial Park on a perfect sunny day. The weather also held out for Dan Vogan’s concert in the park two days later. The residents just loved being outside to enjoy the live entertainment.
The annual fishing tournament and picnic was a blast, taking place at the ponds in the Louis Ferreri Memorial Park. Congratulations go out to Memory Garden residents; Alice P. and Ken W. for catching the biggest fish. They each caught a 10.5 inch fish and split the $100.00 prize. When they weren’t fishing, the residents devoured a delicious picnic lunch of grilled jumbo hot dogs, macaroni & tuna salad, chips and peach cobbler.
Our residents enjoyed a fun afternoon around a campfire. We roasted marshmallows and made S’mores while singing a few campfire songs. This month we celebrated our many birthdays with cupcakes, ice cream, games and tunes from the 50’s era. We had a take out lunch from Kentucky Fried Chicken, dining on “Finger Lickin’ Good” chicken fingers. On another day we enjoyed the delicious food from Honest John’s Restaurant.
Tuesday afternoons we take the library cart around to all the residents, offering them a variety of books to borrow. Sundays we offer church services on the television as well as inspirational reading and our “Songs for the Soul” sing along. Mary Schmidt visits on Thursday afternoons for a music related activity such as sing alongs, rhythm circles and music themed games.
On National Creamsicle Day the residents enjoyed the orange-y goodness of creamsicles while relaxing outside in the courtyard. The resident bakers got together and made scrumptious butterscotch chip cookies, savoring them with a hot cup of coffee. We enjoyed root beer floats on National Root beer Float Day while Elizabeth Lutgen graced us with her wonderful violin playing.
“Kazoo Name That Tune” has become a real hit with the residents. After hearing a few notes of a song played on a kazoo, players have to name that tune or sing the next line. Usually we end up all singing the whole song together. We had a great time playing “Creatures Jeopardy”. All the questions were about creatures great and small.
The residents took a chance on winning some chocolate as they played the chocolate game. Everybody walks away a winner because everybody ends up with chocolate! On National Bowling Day we, of course, did some bowling as well as table bowling. For a little relaxation we did some coloring pages as well as painted with water colors while enjoying some easy listening tunes.
We brought out all our favorite games including; kickball (great exercise kicking the ball to each other while sitting in a big circle), balloon volleyball (try to keep all the balloons in the air by batting them back and forth to each other), ladderball (toss a short rope with balls on each end at the ladder trying to wrap it around a rung for different point values) and noodle ball (while sitting in a big circle, hit the balloons to each other using pool noodles). The residents also had fun with cornhole (toss beanbags into the hole on the game board), Putt-Putt, penny toss, ring toss, frisbee golf (try tossing the frisbees into the basket) and lawn darts. All the sharp shooters showed up for Nerf target shooting. Shuffleboard was a lot of fun, as was “Giant Kerplunk” (pull out one of the sticks holding up the marbles without letting any marbles fall). “What’s Next?” is another favorite of everybody’s (after being given part of a common phrase, song or nursery rhyme, try to guess what comes next), as well as Tenzi (be the first to roll the same number on all ten of your dice), Pictionary (be the first to guess the picture being drawn on the white board), Name 10 (name as many items in a given category as possible), the 7-Up card game (players receive 7 cards face up; when one of those cards match a card drawn from the separate deck, they turn it over; the first player to turn over all their cards wins) and Pong (try to bounce the ping pong ball into one of six cups for different point values). “Fact or Fiction” is a great game for getting to know each other (draw a statement card and read it out loud; everybody has to guess if that statement is fact or fiction for that player).
We have a few pumpkins growing in our pumpkin patch so far. The resident gardeners have been watering and weeding them with great care, having fun watching them grow. Of course we’ve been out for walks and golf cart rides around the Louis Ferreri Memorial Park, mingling with nature and basking in the sunshine.
As long as the weather holds out we’ll continue to get outside for as many activities as possible. There’s still some summer left and we plan on enjoying it while we can!
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.
