“Do You Believe In Magic?”

If we were skeptic before, we certainly all believe in magic after today’s events! This afternoon Magician Jeffrey Salveson paid us a visit and showed us a thing or two about magic.

There were many highlights of the performance, but one of the favorites was the fact that Magician Jeffrey Salveson actually had a rabbit, Sherman, which we all had a chance to pet! But once the show began we were all mesmerized by a number of different things – even the fact that Sherman could read minds!

The show was complete with rope and card tricks, and Magician Jeffrey Salveson even made water disappear! It’s a good thing or else he would have poured it all over Hubert’s head!

Bonnie was especially puzzled by the magic ring tricks. Take a look at the picture above at Bonnie as she tries to figure out how that ring could intersect with another.

After the show, Magician Jeffrey Salveson decided to make us a few fun things out of balloons. Take a look to the right at a very happy Flo and her balloon humming bird!

Home Away From Home

It’s high time we finally acknowledged it, but join us in welcoming our volunteer, Orvin Tingum! Orvin visits Serenity nearly every day and enjoys visiting at coffee time. If he’s not enjoying a conversation with Sonny, you could almost certainly find him in Flo’s apartment – he is Flo's son! As we like to joke, and Orvin would agree, Serenity is his home away from home!

Bird Biscuits

Birdwatching has always been one of our favorite things to do around Serenity, just take a look at all the birdhouses we have around here! But today we thought our birds needed a little more than shelter - that’s why we sat down to make some beautiful bird biscuits.

Bird biscuits are pretty easy to make, and they’re a lot of fun, too! First we took normal bird seed and then mixed a little flour and water in with it. After we were done mixing our concoction, we poured the “dough” into heart-shaped cookie cutters and threw them in the oven to bake so the biscuits would become hard. After this we were able to hang our fancy bird biscuits on the trees around Serenity!

Take a peek at our pictures to see the good time we had. Look at Lois and Claryce as they mix together our concoction. To the left is Flo who is working hard and below is one of the finished products!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Serenity

Serenity Assisted Living welcomed two very special guests this past Saturday; and what an exciting visit it was! Since this is a busy time of year for both of them, their surprise stopover was unexpected; but Santa and Mrs. Claus decided to take a break from their seasonal festivities to catch up with all of us here at Serenity. Indeed, Santa had been watching us and saw that we had been pretty good over this past year; and it was nice that we even had some milk and cookies to share with the unexpected visitors. Santa spent the afternoon giving all of us a few early gifts and asking us what we wanted for the holidays. It was a blast to hear his jokes and laugh with Mrs. Claus as he sat us one by one on his knee. Now we know we’ll have to keep on being good so we get more treats!

After spending the afternoon, it was finally time for Santa and Mrs. Claus to head back to the North Pole; but we were able to take a few pictures to share with you! Take a peek above at Santa and Mrs. Claus as they surprise Esther Olson, Muriel Kaercher and Henrietta Van Dyke last Saturday. To the right is Florence Tingum who is laughing as Santa surprises her with an early present. And take a look to the left as Santa makes John Grubb sit on his lap before he gives John a gift. Pictured below is John who is helping Mary open her present after all the excitement of the day!

Unlucky Seven

This afternoon Sandy decided that it was high time for all her new friends here at Serenity to learn how to play her favorite card game called Unlucky Seven. It was a great way to introduce our newest staff member, Tyler; and we all had a great time laughing and chatting about the warm weather.

If you would like to play Unlucky Seven it’s actually pretty easy! Here are a few of the rules of the game:

You can play with two or more players. If you would like to play with more than four, simply add another deck to the mix!

Take a deck and match the cards according to their suits. Once the cards are in four piles (one of each diamonds, spades, hearts and clubs) remove the kings, aces and sevens.

Each player then receives one suit and places the ten remaining cards face up in front of him or her.

Once it is decided who will roll first, two dice are rolled three times by each person. When the player rolls a number on the die, he or she flips the corresponding card with that number over to show the back of the card. The first person to flip all his or her cards wins!

But it’s not that simple. The unlucky seven part of this game comes when the player rolls a seven on the die. After rolling an unlucky seven the player must flip a card that has previously been flipped. This may sound confusing but it’s really not too difficult. For example, if a player rolled a six earlier in the game and flipped the six card to reveal the back and thereafter rolled a seven, the player must flip that card over again. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the card flipped directly before rolling a seven, however; you are allowed to choose which card you must play again!

Also, if you roll a number that you have already have flipped, you must skip your turn and if your neighbor doesn’t have that number flipped, he or she then takes that number and flips the corresponding card. For example, if a player rolls a six and flips that card and on her second try she rolls another six, she must look at the other players’ hands to see if any of her friends have a six. The one that does (in clockwise order) then flips his or her corresponding six card and starts playing from there. If no one else has a six she continues with her next roll.

It may sound a little difficult upon reading these directions, but it’s really simple once you try playing it! And we had a ton of fun this afternoon when we all sat down to play. Just take a look at our faces! Pictured above is our newest staff member, Tyler, who just won his first game. To the right is a group shot of everyone who played Unlucky Seven this afternoon (in clockwise order) Tyler, Florence, Henrietta, Sandy, Leona and Hubert.

A Visit With The National Guard!

It’s always nice to get out and enjoy the warm days of summer. And to enjoy a gorgeous afternoon, today a few of us decided it would be fun to visit the Red River Valley Fair. Lois, Simone and Flo all climbed into the car today and headed over the river into Fargo where they visited a number of booths and had a blast simply being outdoors. One of the highlights of the day was when they visited the National Guard booth as they were greeted with a very warm welcome. Lois, Simone and Flo had fun talking with the booth representatives and were even given National Guard visors to keep the bright sun out of their eyes!

Pictured here is Flo, Simone and Lois at the National Guard booth at the Red River Valley Fair. That’s a huge truck!

Casino Day!

Almost all of our parents have told us at one point or another that gambling is just a waste of money. However, here at Serenity we decided that casinos are fine in moderation. So we decided that we would have a casino party right here at Serenity! The whole dining room was decorated like a fancy casino with playing cards on all the walls, festive decorations hanging from the ceiling, and helium balloons floating from our tables.

The fun began at lunchtime when we all ate like high rollers. The meal was great and served in casino style complete with cocktail shrimp as an appetizer and raspberry drizzle cake for dessert. After lunch the festivities began and we played some games. When we would win we were given poker chips that we would use in the final auction game. Bingo was the most popular game; but sometimes the caller just didn’t call the right numbers!

Once we had finished playing our games we took all the chips we had won and used them to win fun auction prizes. But this wasn’t as easy as it sounds! All the prizes were wrapped in gift bags so we couldn’t know what was in them. We simply felt the bags and bet on them just hoping that we would win something good. It was a lot of to see what everyone had won!

Pictured above is Cleo who is working hard to win a game of bingo! And take a look at this picture of Florence holding her chips. She used most of them to win gum and a few other things!

"Guten Appetit!"

The Black Forest is one of the most beautiful parts of Germany, with its rolling mountains, beautiful wildlife and breathtaking views. And just to get a taste of what the Black Forest has to offer, we planned a Passport Meal in southern Germany.

We kicked off the celebration by designing German Edelweiss Hats. We had a blast making all the hats with our favorite colors and even furnished them with feathers like the traditional Tyrolean Hats some Germans wear. It was fun for us to remember the old German sayings we had learned so long ago and to talk about Germany’s unique culture as well!

On Thursday, June 18th we enjoyed a German specialty called Zwiebelfleisch, which literally translates to onion meat. As you could probably guess, this dish is steak roasted with onions, therefore receiving its name. This main course was served over traditional German noodles as a side dish, and the famous Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte, or Black Forest Cherry Cake, was served for dessert. All these foods are deep-rooted in the Black Forest region in southern Germany and made for an especially delicious meal for all of us here at Serenity!

Pictured here is Florence who just finished her Zwiebelfleisch!

Birdbaths

Many of us here at Serenity enjoy watching the birds come and go throughout the summer months. And just to make our flying friends stay a bit longer we decided it was time to build a few birdbaths! We rounded up a few birdwatchers and got to work.

First we carefully painted terra cotta pots and saucers with our favorite colors. After we were done painting we glued the pots to the saucers and then finished with a few touchups. We finally sealed them and now they are ready for the birds! You can come for a visit to see these creations or just take a look at the pictures here.

Above is a photo of Florence and Claryce working diligently to create a couple of the birdbaths. Henrietta, Lois and Muriel also fashioned some of the beautiful creations!

A Lip Smackin' Lunch!

Barbequing is one of the most anticipated aspects of summer for many Americans. It presents a time to enjoy friends, family, summer weather and (of course) delicious food!



Because Fargo knows that many of us here in the Red River Valley love barbequed ribs, it is hosting its annual Rib Fest this week. And after we heard about the “Lip Smackin’ Lunch Special” we just couldn’t resist. We loaded up two vehicles with anyone who didn’t mind getting their fingers dirty with a little barbeque sauce and headed to the Fargo Dome where Rib Fest was being hosted.

Upon our arrival we discovered that we were not the only ones looking for some good food (the place was busy!), but we soon collected our fair share of ribs. The delicious food was well complemented with two scrumptious side dishes and cold drinks. It was a tasty treat for everyone! Just take a look above at the picture of Hubert enjoying a juicy rib! To the right is a picture of Simone enjoying the warm day; and below is a group shot of the whole gang (with full bellies)!

Flower Power!

Flowers often have a healing power and creating pieces of art has a way of making us appreciate the small things in life. Today we were able to combine both of these when making our tissue paper flower arrangement. Florence and Henrietta took some time this afternoon to make a lovely bunch of flowers complete with petals, leaves and stems. These creations were then bunched together into a bouquet of beautiful pieces of art. It was fun to chat about perfect color schemes and to design the ideal flower arrangement. Just take a look at this picture of Florence and Henrietta with their lovely bouquet!