Ahh, fresh air sounds delightful, but frog eyes?! What did they have to do with our week? Well, we ate them! Haha! Keep reading to find out about that, and everything else we did this week!
Tuesday
It was a chilly start to the week when we came in on Tuesday morning. We were hoping things would warm up before we left for a visit to the Botanical Garden around 11:00. Our MG friend, Linda, had sent us a beautiful PowerPoint presentation with the latest updates from the garden. After our dance warm up, we checked it out. We learned that carrots, cabbage, spinach, and lots of bulbs have been planted.
The MGs also sent us a lovely 2021 calendar! The pictures inside are just beautiful, and it's a wonderful reminder of what's to come once the pandemic moves on... Thank you, Linda, for the updates, and all of our Master Gardener friends, for this gift! We love it! Unfortunately, our MG friends weren't able to visit with us at the garden, as they are not interacting in person with the public during the pandemic. We are going to see about doing some virtual visits with them in early 2021!
We met our at home friends on Zoom before our trip to the garden. Our topic was bugs, and Mystery Doug had a great episode about why some folks are afraid of bugs. He had a special guest, Dr. Sam Ramsey, tell us all about it. Dr. Ramsey is a bug specialist, also known as an entomologist. He was very interesting!
Once we arrived at the garden, we ate lunch, and then looked for things Linda had mentioned in the PowerPoint. Alexis and Liz found the carrots that we learned would be sweeter after a frost!! These are in the trellis bed.
The MGs have also planted cabbage, but it looks like some insects may have been feasting on it! 🐛 We hope it will survive. In the background we spotted some "ornamental" (our word of the day!) cabbage. It seems to be doing better than the edible variety.
There is still plenty of pineapple sage to be found in the garden. The guys spotted it here, and in a few other places throughout the garden.
Lilly and Nancy thought the Fairy Garden looked pretty! Linda sent us a few unpainted birdhouses that we will make "pretty" and then add to the garden the next time we visit!
There is a large tub in the garden that is filled with water and plants. Today we noticed there are little goldfish in there. Can you spot them? They don't like to have their pictures taken!
We ate lunch in the garden, and luckily, the wind hadn't picked up too much yet. The temperature was around 58 degrees, and the sun tried to stay out from behind the clouds! It was chilly, but not too cold to celebrate National Take a Hike Day (Nov. 17th)!
We actually went a ways into the forest on an unpaved trail, instead of our usual asphalt trail. We thought it would be more "hike-like" this way! Except for having to navigate a couple of muddy spots, it was a very nice walk, and the fresh air was awesome!
Wednesday
Hello, James! He stopped by to pick up the work we completed last week. He didn't have anything new to leave, but hopes to have some things for us after Thanksgiving. Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving, James! 🦃
Utah was our state to study this week. It was #45 to join the Union (in 1896), and its nickname is "The Beehive State." However, it's not because Utah has lots of bees, beehives, or is known for honey. It's because the residents of Utah consider themselves to be very industrious, or busy as bees! It goes back many generations to the early settlers who came to Utah and worked hard to become established.
We also learned from our United Tastes of America cookbook that a very popular side dish at gatherings in Utah is "Frog Eye Salad." It's similar to an ambrosia salad we have made before, except it includes the addition of these little round pasta noodles called acini de pepe. When cooked, they are about the size of frog eyes! Keep reading to see how our version turned out!
It was a very chilly morning and rather windy, so we had morning fitness in the gym. Here we can be seen walking and playing with basketballs. It's so nice to have gym access!
Our pumpkin pie decorations looked lonely so we decided to make some turkeys to add to them. Cameron was painting clothes pins, which we would clip on to use as feathers.
Alexis helped Kevin with his painting. It was tricky getting paint on all sides of the clothes pins. Patrick and Sam, in the background, worked on their painting, too.
Also showing "industriousness" were Liz and Nancy. It took longer to paint the clothes pins than we thought it would, but everyone stuck with it! We'll post a picture of the finished turkeys after Friday's group makes theirs!
The gang worked hard all morning, even though they had 🍕🍕🍕on their minds! Cameron's family treated us to pizza delivery, and that brought a lot of smiles! Thank you, Cameron, Stacey, and Brian, for your generous treat. We enjoyed it very much!! 😋
We'd like to thank the state of Utah, as well, for introducing us to Frog-Eye Salad! It was very tasty and a sweet side for our pizza. Can you see the frog eyes throughout?! 🐸 We tried not to think about frogs while eating...
The Osmonds are arguably the most famous people from Utah, but Nancy, Lisa, Carol, and Nan were the only ones at the center who have ever heard of them! Nancy said Donnie was her "tv crush" in the '70s and she was excited to tell her AoA friends about him! We played Osmond Brothers music, which the gang enjoyed dancing to, and told them that Donnie was the "Justin Bieber" of the '70s...hmm.
We put an extra emphasis on our cleaning this week in light of the rise in virus activity. Besides, it never hurts to clean well!
Our guys have had perfect attendance (except for a couple of travelers) since we returned in September. The cleaning and hand washing, plus our face coverings, are helping us stay quite healthy!
Yay for Wednesday yoga!
Thursday
Good ole' Mickey Mouse turned 92 years young this week so we celebrated our favorite mouse during Thursday's Zoom. Kate shared a great book that Lisa pulled some interesting information from, and she also brought in Mickey and Minnie to be our special guests!
We took a trivia quiz about Mickey and only missed one question! That was great, but even greater was finding out that Annmarie's mom, Teresa, didn't have to have a second heart surgery after all! It seems that the artery doctors were concerned about had healed itself! We are soooo happy for her!!
After Zoom, we made our way to Freedom Park and enjoyed lunch at the pavilion in the Botanical Garden. It was still chilly, but not windy.
We moved a couple of tables around so we could sit in the sun. Thanks for helping, Devin, Michelle, and Alexis. Lunch was a pleasant time!
Next, we checked the garden for things that Linda had told us about in the PowerPoint we looked at before coming. Kate and Xavier were looking for a few fairies in the Fairy Garden. They found two, but it seems another two may have gone missing. 😟
It wasn't in the PowerPoint, but Carol pointed this out to Alexis, who then showed Michelle. It's a plant (maybe in the philodendron family?) with leaves that look like horse faces!
Devin and Michelle spotted the ornamental cabbage and leafy lettuce in the trellis bed. Then, they also spotted the carrots!
This was the first time Michelle had visited the garden, and when she spotted the butterfly bench, she thought it was so cool! She enjoyed checking out the entire garden, and we loved filling her in on everything it means to us!
Even though Take a Hike Day was on Tuesday, we made sure to celebrate it with this group today! We followed a path for a while, looking for a good spot for a photo op. We eventually decided on this one. Check out our tree huggers!
Friday
Devin and Alexis were earlybird arrivals on Friday. Lisa and Carol were cleaning out the pantry and found some leftover pretzels and m&m's. Devin and Alexis divided them up so everyone had a little "Welcome to Friday" treat when they came in!
When we learned about the state of Utah, we couldn't believe that a landlocked state would have a gull for a state bird! But gulls live near open water, and the Great Salt Lake is in Utah. However, we found out that it's the state bird because when the first pioneers settled in Utah around 1847, a huge cricket infestation threatened their crops. The gulls showed up to feast on the crickets, which helped ensure the survival of the pioneers!
A beautiful day outside found Xavier and Abraham making lots of baskets. Not a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the 60s!
Ever heard of a song called "Walking on Sunshine?" Most of these guys have not, but that's what they were doing on this gorgeous Friday!
Xavier helped refill the bird feeders this week. He held them while Lisa poured seed in, then he tightened the lids and hung them back on the stands.
Abraham wanted to paint the clothes pins for our turkey craft just right, so Lilly helped hold them for him.
Here are the finished turkeys! They turned out very well and look great up there with the pumpkin pie.
Lilly took over the read-aloud portion of our day, and did a great job! We're making our way through the story New Kid, which is a graphic novel about a kid's experiences at a new school.
We were treated to pizza for lunch by Cameron's family. Cam is in our Tuesday / Wednesday group, and his friends in today's group miss being with him. They were excited for a "real" pizza lunch, as they love pizza as much as he does! We can't thank Cameron's family enough for this special treat! One of the pizzas today arrived uncut, so Carol had to get out our pizza cutter and slice it up! 😋🍕
Here's some pre-yoga silliness before everyone got serious with Jaime! Fun times on Friday!
Finally this week, we want to introduce a couple of new AoA family members. Both Devin and Alexis recently welcomed baby girl cousins to their families! Dev and Lexi look like naturals, and they have expressed so much love for the new little ones. Congratulations to all on these sweet bundles of joy!
Devin and Sadie 👼💖
Next week will be abbreviated for us, but we'll pack it with as much fun as we can! Here's the lowdown:
Monday / Tuesday: Reminder - The Tuesday/Wednesday group will attend on Monday and the Thursday/Friday group will attend on Tuesday.
We will not study a state this week, as each group is only coming for one day. But we will have Zoom sessions each day with our at home friends: On Monday, Christina from the Art Museums of CW will give us an art lesson. On Tuesday, we will have a lesson about turkeys, and play Thanksgiving Riddle Bingo.
At the center, we will hand the reins over to Lilly for a Thanksgiving lesson, utilize the computer lab to create thank you and December birthday notes, have fun with "Turkey Fitness," and enjoy Yoga w/ Jaime at the end of the day (dress to stretch). For lunch, we're going light in order to leave room for Thursday's big meal! We'll prepare a yummy salad, adding grilled chicken for protein. We'll also bake tasty oatmeal cookies for a sweet treat!
Happy Weekend to All,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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