Noel had residents up and at ‘em Monday morning at our weekly Monday Movers exercise group! It was a great workout and everyone put in a great effort at shaking off the cobwebs from the weekend. Once folks cooled down, the tunes were pumping at Karaoke Sing Along and everyone came out in full force to belt out all the hits! Lunch replenished everyone’s energy and then Stacey led a pleasantly tranquil Crafty Corner, where our resident artists created golden sunflowers to adorn our gallery wall. Willow was here in the afternoon for a game of Tic Tac Toss and it was an exciting four rounds; once the dust settled Goldie Helwig placed fourth, Ivan Mason was awarded third and Carol Campbell scored second. Milda Bautch was this week’s first-place champion! A little bit of supper and then Marie and Joyce Berger arrived in the evening to assist with our Monday night Bingo game. We couldn’t do it without their help – thank you ladies!

Tuesday morning is always reserved for Mass. Father Jojo, along with Terry Pelzel, came after breakfast to lead the service for our Catholic residents. We appreciate Lori Zierl for assisting with the readings! Once mass was over, lunch was soon served and then Noel was in the dining room with our trusty popcorn machine, popping oodles of delicious, buttery popcorn! Tables filled up fast as folks flocked to the dining room to secure their bowls of the savory snack; it was such a pleasant afternoon of snacking and conversing that the time seemed to just fly by. Pastor Andrew from Pepin Immanuel Lutheran arrived a little later for afternoon church and many folks lingered in the dining room for the prayer and hymn service. Supper was served afterward and then it was on to an evening of games with Willow!

In a blink of an eye, it was Wednesday morning and time for everyone’s favorite game: Bowling! Noel had the lane set up to go and the bowlers were ready to compete; the game was close but by the end Warren Seifert was fourth place, Herb Tschumperlin came in third and Kevin Bauer claimed second. It was a first place tie this week between Janet Robelia and Yvonne Sinz; congratulations ladies! Lunch was a welcome break by all and then everyone was back in the dining room for another week of Fruit Bingo, this week with Shirley Klein and Lana Ingli here to assist with the game. Thank you for all your help ladies! Kudos to Judy Thorn for winning this week’s Blackout Bingo! Not many folks knew that Wednesday was National Beer and Pizza Day, but once Noel announced that pizza rolls and beer were on the menu for this week’s Mid-Week Social, almost everyone stayed out to partake in the party!   

Sunny and smiley Kathy Shingledecker was here Thursday morning to lead our Local News and Coffee group. She read residents all the current news in the local papers and then stayed a while longer to regale the group with other fun stories and reminiscing! After lunch, Stacey worked hard to give all the ladies who were waiting a manicure and there sure were a lot of them; she was so busy that a few CNAs were recruited to help her polish everyone’s nails. Once all the gals were sitting and admiring their colorful cuticles, Stacey brought her guitar and lovely singing voice around for a few one-on-one visits. Between the manicures and music, the afternoon was full of smiling faces! Willow arrived a little later for more visiting with folks via Conversation Cards and everybody had a few stories to share about memories past.  Before you knew it, supper was served and then it was on to our evening game of Pokeno with Willow!     

The fun didn’t stop as we headed into the end of the week! Friday morning, Noel had the whole gang out for a game of Shuffleboard and although the group was small, the fun and laughs were BIG as they played through four rounds. Nancy Bishop came in fourth place, Milda Bautch was third and Judy Thorn scored second. Jeff Halverson shuffled his way to a first place win this week! Lunch was a welcome break and then it was on to our afternoon Snack Makers group, where Noel and Chef Jeff got into the spirit of National Spread Joy Day by making a double batch of chocolatey, coconut-ty Almond Joy Bars. There was plenty of joy (and cookie bars!) to go around at Happy Hour, with everyone singing along as Stacey played all our favorite tunes on the guitar! Supper kicked off the evening and then it was lights, camera, action for movie night; this week’s showing was the Shirley Temple classic “A Little Princess.”