Memory Garden April Look Back
The residents of Memory Garden have enjoyed a wide variety of fun activities for the month of April. The warmer weather has been a breath of fresh air lifting everyone’s spirits.
April Fools Day launched us into the month with some hearty laughs as we told some light-hearted funny jokes. National Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Day was on April 2nd, so of course we had to have peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and chocolate milk as we played a dice game called ” Make a PB&J Sandwich.” Each number on the dice represents a part of the sandwich. With two teams rolling the dice in turns, the first to complete their sandwich wins. It was such a fun game we did a similar game at the end of the month called “Make Dinner Dice Game”. On Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day we cooked up some yummy grilled cheese sandwiches with a variety of different cheeses.
Our monthly tea party has become quite popular with the ladies as well as the men. We sipped our tea with mini cucumber sandwiches and cupcakes on the side, all while proudly wearing our fancy tea hats. We celebrated two birthdays this month, and once again we were lucky to have Lucille Miller come play the piano for us.
Many other entertainers joined us this month as well. Don Sandy made his weekly visits bringing his accordion, as did Spencer Drake with his guitar. Our other talented visitors included Russ Keyser, Saved By Grace, Michael Dennehy, Jeaneen Jaynes, and Dave Johnson.
We brushed off our crafting skills and decorated some colorful Easter eggs to hang on the Easter tree in the front lobby. Easter Day was a busy one around here. It was great to see so many family members come in to share Easter dinner with their loved ones here at Memory Garden. The residents also enjoyed some baking this month, making peach cobbler, cherry cheesecake and oatmeal cookies.
This month our residents devoured lunch from Panera Bread on Take-Out-Tuesday. We also ventured out for a delicious lunch outing at the Bemus Point Inn.
For all of our gardeners we tried our luck at germinating various vegetable seeds. Hopefully next month they’ll have grown big enough to plant outside.
Another new well received activity this month was ribbon dancing. Each resident was given a dowel rod with colorful ribbons hanging from them. They moved their arms in big circles or figure eights to the beat of the music. It makes an interesting visual effect and is great exercise as well.
We revisited some of our favorite active games, such as cornhole (bean bag toss); balloon volley ball (try to keep the balloons in the air); basket ball (shooting hoops); kickball (kicking the ball to each other while sitting in a big circle);noodle ball (try to keep the balloons in the air by hitting them with foam pool noodles); ring toss; putt-putt golf and bowling. We also had to put on our thinking caps for games like Scattegories (name as many objects as possible within a certain category); What’s next? (after being given the first part of a commonly known phrase, proverb, nursery rhyme or song, try to remember what comes next); Pictionary (guess what’s being drawn) and Spring Jeopardy (spring trivia questions). Can’t forget to mention our weekly Bingo games, the all time favorite! A game called Fact or Fiction is a great way to get to know each other. One person gives a statement about themselves and everyone has to guess if it’s fact or fiction.
April has been full of good times with good friends. We are all looking forward to the upcoming months when we’ll be able to do more outdoor activities. Here’s hoping for many days of fun in the sun this spring and summer!
If you have any question or comments about upcoming activities please contact Margaret Wright, Memory Garden Activities Coordinator, (716) 488-9434,extension 2226. Or email at mwright@tanglewoodmanor.com
