This morning, the residents listened to a book report that a child wrote about the entire Bible.  Here are a few parts of it: “…Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden.  Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn’t have cars…Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston.  Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh’s people.  These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable…Humor thy father and thy mother…After the Old Testament came the New Testament.  Jesus is the star of The New.  He was born in Bethlehem in a barn.  (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, ‘Close the door!  Were you born in a barn?’  It would be nice to say, ‘As a matter of fact, I was.’)”  It was so funny!  We all had a good laugh that’s for sure!  Everyone met a new volunteer and her three year old son this morning.  They did a ball toss together.  All of their faces lit up and everyone was so happy!  It was fun having a little one all full of energy here in the morning!
We played a few word games this afternoon, including a category and list game and a what’s next game where I read a phrase and they finished it.  It was a good time!  After that, we looked at and talked about Normon Rockwell paintings.  He was an amazing artist!  It was a great day!
~Jessic

Happy Monday!  This morning the residents watched episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Everybody was rolling with laughter in their seats!  That was a great show!  They enjoy watching that!  After lunch and some rest time, we played the game Pennies In.  This game is a great way to get to know each other better and learn all kinds of different things about one another!  It was a great time!  Diane and Tolstoy visited today!  We were all happy to see him show us his tricks!  Tolstoy got a lot of treats from everyone…he was one happy dog!  It’s funny how motivated he becomes to get treats!  Diane tried a brand new game with him with different colored tennis balls.  He did a pretty good job!  He’s the best dog!
~Jessica

Happy Saturday!  Our morning started with a good laugh!  The residents listened to humorous children’s prayers.  Here’s one of them…One night Mike’s parents overheard this prayer.  “Now I lay me down to rest, and hope to pass tomorrow’s test, if I should die before I wake, that’s one less test I have to take.”  There were so many funny ones! Everyone loved listening to those!  Next, we exercised by doing stretches and a beach ball toss.  It was a good time had by all!
After lunch, a few residents had their nails painted.  Then we went down for bingo!  One resident was so excited that she won three times!  Toshimi and Simon visited today also! They just love seeing and enjoying time with dogs.  Simon is so calm and relaxed with them!  It was a great Saturday!
Jessic

Happy Friday!  The morning began with The Daily Chronicle.  We learned about all kinds of things that happened this week.  Did you know…the Eskimo Pie was patented in 1922 by   Christian K. Nelson?  He got the idea for the chocolate-covered ice cream bar when a boy in his store couldn’t decide whether to spend his money on ice cream or a chocolate bar. We always like the humor of the day.  Here’s a quote from Ernie Kovacs, “Television: A medium.  So called because it’s neither rare nor well done.”  After that, we stretched and played the balloon volleyball game.  That was so much fun!
It was the February birthday party today.  There was great music, tasty cake, and good comapany.  It was a fun celebration!  The residents sang along to all the songs and really enjoyed the music!  It was a good time!
~Jessic

We got straight to work this morning with our Turtle Mosaic Project. The turtles are looking spectacular and the residents and truly enjoying making them! The project is perfect for many different abilities and provide everyone the opportunity to work together and at their own pace. They should be ready in about a month, then when the ground thaws, we will be permanently placing them in our Willows garden for all to be enjoyed!
The second half of our day included a visit from Jim Roth, one of our favorite musicians that plays exclusively in The Willows- just for us. He is wonderful to take all of our requests and one resident had a unique Polka request, the “She’s Too Fat For Me” Polka! As funny as the name sounds- almost everyone knew the words and we laughed while we sang! After our musical entertainment, we didn’t want the fun to end- so I started up the musical, “Hello Dolly”! We greatly enjoyed singing along with Barbara Streisand, even if she was only on the TV.
Happy day! Melissa

The day began with devotions with Chaplain Mari.  She had a nice message and they sang four hymns together including, “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”  We raised the roof again with our Amen at the end!  After that we listened to Glenn Miller while we stretched and then we had a game of balloon volleyball.  There was a big group today so it was extra fun!  Everyone was smiling and laughing this morning!  The YouTube baby videos also brightened our morning!
This afternoon, we baked chocolate fudge cupcakes.  It was a good time baking together. While the cupcakes were baking, they listened to some funny stories that gave us all a good laugh!  Everyone liked the cupcakes when they were done!
~Jessic