Jenga!

John and Sandy were putting on the moves today - putting on the moves to carefully remove Jenga blocks! For those of you who may not know what Jenga is, it is a game in which the players remove blocks from the tower and place them on the peak of the tower. As you can guess, once many of the blocks are removed, the game gets rather difficult as the objective is to keep the tower standing. The two definitely had a blast trying to outwit each other!

Take a peak at these photos to see the moves John and Sandy made to win the game. Pictured above is John who is very carefully removing a block, and to the right is Sandy who is ready for the win!

Ladder Golf!

“It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” ~Mark Twain

Mr. Twain said it right – and spring fever definitely has a hold of us here at Serenity. Today we decided to play a game indoors that was traditionally designed to be played outside!

This afternoon a few of us took some time to play Ladder Golf. It is an interesting game that involves two golf balls tied together on opposite ends of a rope. Players then throw the tied balls at a “ladder” and if the roped balls wrap themselves around a ring on the ladder, that person earns points for his or her team.

It was a blast for all of us to watch each other earn points for our teams – and there was definitely some competition! The first game the Blue Smurfs won, and the second game the Green Beans were able to come back to win! It was quite an exciting Friday afternoon!

Take a look at these pictures to see the fun we had. Above is Sandy who is throwing for the Blue Smurfs. To the left is Henrietta who is about to win it for the Green Beans, and to the right is Bonnie throwing for the win for the Blue Smurfs!

Mardi Gras Fun!

As always, we’ve been keeping busy here at Serenity! This week we got in the spring spirit and made Mardi Gras masks just for fun. It was a blast for us to sit down and make the silly disguises with all our friends; but it was even more fun to look at everyone when they tried on their masks!

On Fat Tuesday we celebrated Mardi Gras by holding a fun party! We donned our masks and had a blast laughing with each other as we got our pictures taken. Do you think you can recognize us? Check out the bulletin board by the parking lot entrance to see all of us wearing our Mardi Gras masks!

Take a look above at Sandy as she decorates her own mask before the Mardi Gras party on Tuesday. To the left is Charles and on the right is Muriel; both had a great time at the celebration!

Bird Crazy!

Next time you decide to stop by Serenity make sure to bring your binoculars! This summer we’ve made a lot of fun crafts for the birds such as birdbaths and our most recent project – Pinecone Birdfeeders. This afternoon a few of the ladies of Serenity decided it was the perfect day to get started on yet another of their exciting projects. We started by simply mixing a little vegetable shortening with corn meal and oatmeal to make the birdfeed and then we got our hands dirty by rubbing this mixture into the pinecones. Now all the birds around Serenity have food to eat, birdhouses to sleep in and birdbaths to clean up with. You could say that we just completed Serenity’s Bird Hotel!

Take a peek at these fun snapshots of our fun craft! Above is Claryce, Sandy and Henrietta who are all preparing their Pinecone Birdfeeders and to the right is a picture of Lois who is laughing at one of our jokes!

A Busy Afternoon

Here at Serenity it is important for us to keep busy; and did we ever have a busier day!? After lunch today we kicked off the afternoon with some old-fashioned tunes and sit-down dancing. It’s always fun for us to just relax with our friends and have a bit of fun getting a workout! And once we were finished with our dancing we decided to head to the kitchen to take a break; but Nathan was waiting for us with one of his projects.

We quickly started making Chubby Crayon Crafts which was a blast for all of us! First we found some old crayons, broke them into small pieces and then put all the different colored crayons into muffin pans. Then we melted the crayons in the oven and mixed the colors together once the crayons had turned into liquid. Once the crayons had hardened again we took them out of the pans and voila! Our Chubby Crayons were super colorful and fun! When we had finally finished the project we all took a well-deserved coffee break.

Take a peek at these pictures to see the good time we had. Above is a photo of Sandy, Bonnie and Gen getting the crafts prepared and below is a snapshot of Muriel, Henrietta and Lois who were waiting for the Chubby Crayons to melt.

Candy Bird Nests

Here at Serenity we enjoy bird watching. It’s a fun pastime to see those feathery creatures hopping around in the birdbaths or to watch them eat from our feeders. And today we decided it would be fun to make some “bird treats” for all of us to eat! This afternoon a few of the ladies at Serenity gathered in the kitchen to make Candy Bird Nests out of chocolate, crispy rice and yogurt covered raisins.

First we melted chocolate chips, added crispy rice and mixed these two ingredients to make a mess of chocolate! Then we carefully scooped some of the mixture into muffin trays to create our nests. And to top off the fun snack we added yogurt covered raisins that looked like bird eggs! It was a blast for all of us to step outside the box and make “bird treats” for ourselves!

Just take a look at these pictures to see all the fun we had! To the left is a picture of Claryce getting ready to make the bird nests and to the right is Sandy hard at work.

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 Trip to the Zoo!

Learning about new creatures is always fun; but it’s even better when you can see them for yourself. So when we decided to take a trip to the zoo today we knew it would be a blast! Henrietta, Bonnie and Sandy all climbed into the car this afternoon and whisked away to the Red River Zoo in Fargo. Once we arrived we were greeted by all sorts of fun animals just in the welcome building alone! We marveled at insects, lizards, toads, tarantulas, monkeys and so many more creatures we had never seen before. Henrietta was extremely impressed by the huge bright green snake she saw as she exclaimed, “Well, look at that!”

Once we finally headed into the zoo we noticed the energetic meerkats. Bonnie loved watching them play hide and seek with each other! We continued on and investigated everything from camels to wolves. Sandy really enjoyed the peacocks; and we were even visited by a little chick!

By the end of the afternoon we had learned everything we could about all the new animals we had visited. It was a great day to enjoy the beautiful weather and have an adventure!

Pictured above is one of the camels from the Red River Zoo!

Patriotic Fun

The Fourth of July is coming up and we’ve been busy making patriotic crafts to celebrate the holiday. Today we made creative sand crafts using vases and red, white and blue dyed sand. We layered the colors to make beautiful centerpieces for our dining room tables. They were a lot of fun to make and now we will enjoy them the rest of the summer.

And what would our Independence Day be without a lot of stars? We made colorful stars that are now hanging from the ceiling as decorations.

Last but not least, we painted patriotic placemats for our Independence Day meal. It was fun to stamp American flags, hearts and fireworks on all the placemats that will create a patriotic mood on the Fourth of July.

Take a look at these photos to see how busy we’ve been! Pictured above is Mary who is working diligently on her colorful stars and to the right is Sandy who is carefully making her festive centerpiece.