Fly Me to the Moon 7.24.14

We love the idea of going to the moon, seeing the stars sparkle in the sky, and celebrating all the marvelous and magical things that happen in the evenings (lightening bugs…although they have them in Colorado they don’t glow here…or so the internet has led me to believe). Either way, there is something magical about the evening when the starts are glistening, and the moon is bright, and we wanted to celebrate that with our residents…and the fact that this is the month that we celebrate first landing on the moon so many years ago.

One might question how an event like this should be celebrated, and we’re happy to tell you that we’ve figured it out.  First, and most importantly, MOON PIES must be consumed, because they’re delightful, they have the word “moon” in their name, and lastly they bring us to a calmer time, when the world was less busy with electronics, and gadgets that never put our minds to rest, and we wanted to channel that time in history. Next, we made a rocket ship cut out, and took cheesy pictures (because frankly, why wouldn’t we!) And some people associate cheese to look like the moon, so taking cheesy pictures isn’t too far a stretch (is it?) We played some moon games (like mounds of foil, which we referred to as moon rocks and trying to get it in the rocket ship windows)…then we also had a musician who played moon music (or at least that’s how we’re going to refer to it this time, because it fits our theme). Either way, we had fun because we believe that we can make things fun and with that mindset, we can! Come see the Juniper Difference!

Superhero Slurpee Salute Take 2 7.11.14

Last year we tried out hosting a Superhero Slurpee Salute…and it was a huge success; so, we thought, let’s do it again! Frankly,  any excuse to celebrate our local superheroes and dress up like one is a great idea for an event.

We invited our local EMT’s, Police Department, and Fire Department to say thank you for all of the work they do. For those of you who have not worked with any of these departments, they are truly amazing, and we’re really thankful to have such wonderful and caring professionals in this area. So, a couple of times a year, we try to host events as a thank you to them for all the work they do and the help they provide to us here at the community. We broke out the grills and made all our favorite BBQ fixings, along with watermelon and popsicles on the side; we had an excellent afternoon party…oh, and did I forget to mention that we had slurpees? We did, and they were amazing to drink on such a hot day!

Please join us in October when we host our local heroes for a Chili Cook-off in which they decide the winners!

Father’s Day with our Dads and Donuts 6/7/14

I have a pre-conceived idea of what Father’s Day is all about. As a kid I never celebrated this holiday, and honestly thought it was something that churches developed. I remember that for Mother’s Day, the ladies got flowers (which as a kid I thought was terribly boring…and let’s be honest, I probably still wouldn’t be that excited to get a geranium…there’s nothing special about that). But Father’s Day, on the other hand, is when they broke out the chocolate candy bars and gave them to all of the guys…and that hands down was the best, no competition. So in the spirit of that idea, we really wanted to celebrate the fathers in our community (and, of course, any who would be willing to come celebrate that status were welcome too!). So how best do we do that…well with candy bars setting the tone, and the concept of what my weekends looked like as a child (I’ll be honest, my mom went shopping with my sister and I would stay home with my brother and dad). Oddly enough, I can say that my dad was never a morning person, so that’s why our Dads and Donuts event started at 10AM…although frankly getting up and getting somewhere by 10AM on the weekend might have been a stretch…it still was later as opposed to being too early. So we broke out all of the breakfast foods, that frankly Dad’s love…Donuts, Eggs, Bacon, Sausages…a relaxed morning hanging out in the Courtyard…this is the substance of which all Saturday mornings should consist of for our dads, our heroes…the people who are so incredibly laid back in their approach to life, enjoy a relaxing day. Happy Father’s Day Dads!

Excellence in Care Celebration 6.5.14

We know…we already posted on this…but again we want to take a few minutes to talk about this momentous occasion and how we celebrated it with our staff, vendors, and family because we think it’s a pretty big deal!

So how do you emphasize how incredibly proud of your staff that you are…well, you have a big party with presents and a food truck (because food trucks are AWESOME!). So we got our local ice cream store to come over and park in our circle drive to celebrate our accomplishments (and have some ice cream…because that’s what hot days are for). Needless to say this was a huge success with vendors, staff, and families alike…let us know what you think…and we of course are always open to new suggestions on how to celebrate accomplishments such as these, so let us know what we should do next!