Happy Birthday, Laura - In Our Own Words

 

Our fabulous AoA Gang, along with Carol and some amazing substitutes, held down the fort while Lisa, Nan, and Alexis took time off to be with family after Gdad's passing.  They kept the camera rolling, and had wonderful and engaging experiences, as to be expected!  Here, in their own words, is the week of August 22-25:

Tuesday

Liz's brother, Stephen, had a birthday recently and his girlfriend Erika, who follows a gluten-free diet, made two cakes.  This one was leftover, and Liz and family sent it to us!  It was amazing and Xavier was all smiles as he got a nice, moist, tasty piece!

Our outing this morning was to New Quarter Park where we took a walk and decided to break out the corn hole game since was such a nice morning.  Greg Kline was filling in today, and he did a wonderful job.  He's funny and keeps us laughing!  We really appreciate the time you took to spend with us, Greg!  You're the best!

Wednesday

Another hard-working day at Grove!  This group worked with Peggy and Joel to bag up the canned goods.  Joel had a funny riddle for us:  How do you fix broken spaghetti?  Add a little tomato paste!!  😂

Another regular activity is bagging rolls of toilet paper, and this group worked together to get the job done!  This is what Carol calls teamwork! 👏

Excitement was in the air as Grove was preparing for a Back to School Carnival coming up later today.   We helped set up tables and chairs for outside activities like games, face-painting, snacks, and school supplies/clothing.  No training needed for this job!  The AoA is expert at this task!

The highlight of the day was celebrating Laura's birthday!  Her parents, Tom and Lisa, were substituting today, and also treated us to "yummy, delicioso, best subs ever" from Jersey Mike's!  They added chips and apples and we loved it!  Thank you, Tom and Lisa!

For dessert we had chocolate and vanilla ice cream and sang to the birthday girl!  It couldn't get any better than that!  Laura, we hope you had a wonderful celebration and all your wishes come true!

Lisa, Nan, and Alexis sent birthday greetings by video, and Laura enjoyed the message!

One of Laura's favorite games is Jeopardy so we played a lively game after lunch.  We are pros at this game!

Caroline, our friend from the therapy dog group, came to join us to do Laughter Yoga with Laura Beach!  We want to thank Caroline for introducing us to Laura!

 

Here are a few pictures from our Laughter Session.  We used our imaginations to act out fun movements that were silly and made us laugh!

Thanks, Laura, for bringing us a new experience and helping us open our minds to the benefits of laughter!  It was a lot of fun and we hope to see you again soon!

Thursday

Thank you, Lise Kline, for hanging out with us today!  We enjoyed working with you and showing you some of our skills, especially with cooking!   In this picture, Lise was helping Tessa, Patrick, and Adia make peach cobbler.

Liz and Carol got started on salads.

Laura, Erik, and Drew finished the masterpiece salads!

Dev B and Michelle were in charge of a Bingo game for other friends.  It was funny when Sam told Michelle that he "has a good brain!"

Our guests today were Severina and Heike.  We made lunch to show appreciation to them for their hard work over the summer.  We had pasta with red sauce, salad, and garlic bread.  In this picture Adia is serving them the warm and tasty peach cobbler with cream on top!

Thank you, Heike and Severina, so much for cleaning our room every day and for everything else you do to make things easier for us!  We appreciate you!  👏👏

We were having Choice Time when all of a sudden we saw Sandra at the door.  Then, we noticed her daughter, Maria, was with her!  What a surprise!  They got us going with a Colombian-style dance party which is very lively!  They taught us steps for all kinds of dances!

Sandra was getting everyone engaged in the dancing.  Sweet T was happy to be her partner!

WOW!  Thanks, Sandra for surprising us and for bringing your daughter, Maria.  We had a blast spending time with you and hope we can do it again soon!

Friday

Here are the dancing twins, Annmarie and Laura during our dance warm up!  

While one group went with Tracy to Pet Supplies Plus, the others stayed at the center to clean up the equipment and tables in the kitchen area.  Michelle, Erik, and Patrick wiped down the Nina and the microwaves.

Sweet T, Drew, and Annmarie happily wiped the tables!

Tessa and Xavier helped wrap up the cleaning by wiping the counter tops.  Everything was tidy and smelled fresh and clean!

There was also cleaning to be done at PSP!  Kevin dusted the dog food shelf.

Laura also dusted.   It's a big store!

More dusting from Adia!  We told you, it's a big store!

After the shelves were clean, Liz and Hailey stocked cans of dog food!

Devin did some heavy lifting when he moved a big bag of dog food to the shelf!  💪

Lo and behold!  Guess what?  Come and get your favorite pets a Halloween toy before August gets away!

Thanks for helping us today, Tracy!  We always have fun with you, and you really get us!

We had a great and busy week and ended it with a peaceful and relaxing yoga session.

We think Lisa, Nan, and Alexis would be very proud of us for how we handled things and kept on going, even though we missed them.

Written with TLC by the AoA!

UPDATE:  Yes, Lisa, Nan, and Alexis are very PROUD of all of you!  💙💚💛💜