4 Pictures 1 Word Game for the Big Screen

Many of you who have played 4 Pictures 1 Word, know that this brain game is available as an app for your computer, tablet or phone for free. That is great, but it does not allow a team to play and is not audience friendly if you wanted to present it at your retirement community (or other social gathering). 

After some time and effort, I made a 4 Pictures and 1 Word game slide show that you can use in your community. I did use the app for suggestions and the Internet for the pictures. I am glad to share this with you so that you will not have to spend the hours that I did in creating this game. If you get the urge to make one also, please come back to this blog page and share it.  I played this last week with a group of about 25 independent living residents. We did not get through all of the slides due to time constraints..... but I was glad I did not run out of slides in my hour that I had their attention. I will be playing this with them again... and would love to have other slides to add to it for the future.

Enjoy.

Brain Games

Recently we hosted our senior Olympics program. This year we added a new event called Brain Games. I found a really good link for education on the difference between brain games and brain training games.  After looking at that link and reading through some other online material, I realized that there is a difference between training your brain and brain games. Be mindful (pun intended) that you are not qualified to train resident's brains unless you have gone to training for it. We, as activities professionals however, are very capable of playing brain games with those who are interested in our communities. Here is a good starting point for brain games.

Recently, I introduced Scattergories, (refill sheets) Apples to Apples, Wii Jeopardy and Wii Wheel of Fortune.  They are fun games that required your brain.

I created a Name that Tune game on my own since I could not find anything that would have been appropriate for this generation to identify with. I downloaded music from the 30's and 40's to my laptop and played the beginning of the songs only. I asked the residents to identify the song title. I gave them an option to play as a group as a single. There are plenty of studies that tell us the importance of music therapy, and maybe you have a music therapist in your community. I am not suggesting that I (or you) can do their job, but I will say that this game had the residents thinking about the songs, sharing what was happening in their life at the time, and some even sang along when I played the answer to the song at the end of the program.

4 Pictures, One Word is the next game that I am creating. You will be able to find it on your phone or tablet in the app store, but it is usually a game for one person to play. I am using the examples that I find on the apps to make a PowerPoint presentation that I can show to the group. They will work as an individual or as a team.... residents' choice.... and have a set time (15 sec.) to answer the question on a piece of paper. The team or individual with the correct answers will be the winner(s).

While researching brain games, I found a great site from AARP for brain games that you can play on-line. I think that some of these games on this website would be easy to implement as a program for your CCRC residents. They could also be modified based upon the resident's ability level. 

You could put 20-25 words onto the screen or black board and show it to the group for a minute. Let's call this your master list. Then give each participant a piece of paper with a group of words on it and ask them to find the 5 words that were on the master list. Give them a set time to do this and time them if you want to. Repeat this with 2 or 3 pieces of paper with other words from the master list on it, until they finish the round. Show them the master list so they can grade how they've done. Or, keep it real simple for you - though harder or the player, and show them the master list and give them a set time to write down as many words as they can recall.  

The same could be done with the split words game. A little preparation ahead of time and you are all set.  Stay within a category (insects, flowers, etc.), put the parts of the words out on a table, think index cards, and ask the individuals to put together as many words as they can in a set time. Time the groups/individuals if you want.

I could go on, but I think that you get the point. Take the ideas you find on the internet and find a way to make them work for your group. Soon there will be a day when we will be asking residents to bring their tablets to the activity room and go to a designated website, where they will compete with those in the room or by themselves, but be scored against others playing in the same room.

"The root of all health is in the brain. The trunk of it is in emotion. The branches and leaves are the body. The flower of health blooms when all parts work together."

- Unknown Author

Marching into Fun

Can you believe it is March already? 2016 is well under way. The question for you today is, "how have you improved the offerings that you present to your community?" I believe that if you are not changing it up, or adding more to the calendar of events, that you are not as successful in your job as you can be - or should be for that matter. 

Being in the field of providing recreational programs is an opportunity to enhance residents' lives. If you are not doing that, it is not fair to those who you serve. There are plenty of resources available to you so that you can be awesome at your job. Today, I will share a few new ideas that I brought to my community this year. 

• Wii Jeopardy and Wii Wheel of Fortune-  I have people who are active Wii bowlers in the community, and I have residents who leave evening programs in order to get home to see Wheel of Fortune and/or Jeopardy on television. So, I found the Wii games on Amazon, and ordered them. I planned the activities at the same time, but different day of the week, as the existing Wii bowling game. I encouraged an audience, since most of us are sure we would never want to show off our lack of knowledge to those around us. 
• The games only permit 3 people to play at a time - just like on the shows, which is another reason to really push the idea of coming to be in the audience. I found both the Jeopardy and the Wheel of Fortune games to be easy to figure out. I stayed with the groups for the first few meetings to get them started, to introduce it to new comers, and to lend support when they needed it. While in the learning phase of this game, I did rotate players, so that more people could learn it. I switched people between regular Jeopardy and double Jeopardy.  The only thing that I would suggest is that for final Jeopardy, that when contestants are making their final wager, that the others turn their back or cover their eyes.... if they want to be truly competitive.  (Mine did not.) I do think that these two new calendar events are going to continue to be well attended and that some of the audience members will be contestants as well. (This has happened already.) 

• Name that Tune - I saw this game being played on a cruise ship that I was on while escorting a group recently. It seemed so simple to put together, and it was fun for me as a participant in the audience. But, I will tell you up front, that this did require more time than I thought it would o put together. There are games on-line that do what I wanted to do, but not with music from the decades that I needed. (The 20's, 30's and 40's!!) 

• I used music that I had and uploaded them to my laptop. You can also use Amazon Prime music or another online music provider, if you have that as an option. I listened to the first 10 - 15 seconds of each song. If the song said the title in it right away, it was not a good song to use. This is what took most of my time.
• I created an answer sheet and provided it to the audience members who wanted to participate. I had groups and individuals play, so the room was set up with tables as well as rows of chairs. I had mostly groups and it worked out well.
• I played the music through my auditorium sound system and "hammed it up" in between songs. I found that I need an adapter to take sound from the laptop to the microphone jack on the stage. It is not expensive and I've used it many times already. 

• 4 Pictures 1 Word - This is another game that I saw on board the ship. Just like above, it is run from your computer. There are on line games where you can get ideas from, but I have not found one that I could simply show on the screen in the Auditorium in the manner that I want to have. So, this will be (haven't finished it yet) done on PowerPoint and played using the same answer sheet from the Name that Tune game. If you are not comfortable with creating Power Point presentations, here is a link to the PowerPoint for Dummies book.  

• Coloring for Adults is all the rage right now. (Here is a good article about the benefits of adult coloring from CNN.) Some of our residents are already aware of this and are coloring on their own. I decided to add it to my calendar and see what the response was. I invited residents who were currently coloring to attend with their supplies and those who are not coloring, to attend and use my supplies. I will have this in one of our lounge areas, where it is quiet, calm and more home-like then in our activity rooms that are in our club house. I will also provide outdoor seating if the day allows for it, since this lounge faces one of our lakes. There will also be soft background music available if the participants want to hear it. 

I hope you will come back to my blog again soon to read about the results of the last two programs that I mentioned above. I also encourage you to comment below with a program or two that you have added or enhanced recently, so that we can all learn from each other. You may also leave comments on my Facebook page, Recharging Retirees, or on my Twitter page, Ideas4Seniors.

Do's For Your Dance

During December my community hosts its annual holiday gala dance. It is a semi-formal event with high-end appetizers and a first-class dinner. Every year we try to raise the bar on this special night. After working with my company for the past 18 years, it is a challenge to keep it fresh and exciting, but the evening always seems to be very well received.

With those years of experience come a few lessons that I have learned. You may not host a gala dance, but I think you will still find these points helpful in your job as activities director.

• Promote the date of your event well in advance so that residents have time to plan their evening (outfit, guests, table seating arrangements)
• Book a special musical talent for this night. This should not be someone your community uses on a regular basis. 
• At the same time, you should develop a good working relationship with the performers so that in case they must cancel on you at the last minute, they will work hard to find a replacement for themselves that is as good, as or better than they are for you.
• Make sure the musicians understand the group's ability to stay on the dance floor is not as long as those of people half their age.
• Remind the musician that most of the audience will not be dancing because they do not have a partner. Ask them to include line dances or a song or two that audience members can do from their chairs.
• Hire dance hosts for the single ladies who want to dance. 
• Decorations do not have to be elaborate, unless you want them to be. Sometimes simple and understated can be viewed as classy. 
• If your dance is after dinner, you will not need much more food - but you must have something. A little salty and a little sweet. 
• You will never please all the people at a dance with the temperature of the room. Dancers will want it colder and those listening to the music will want it warmer.
• Create a special feeling with the lighting in the room. Dim the lights like at a dance club
• Just like at the parties that you go to, there needs to be a fun person that gets things started. Be that person or find someone else who will be!
• Make a personal connection by going from table to table and sit down. "How are you enjoying the party?" is a good opener or "I haven't had a minute to talk with you lately, how are you?" Residents love to have the personal contact that only you can offer.
  

Mother's Day Tea

Happy Mother's Day! When planning your events for the month, you might want to consider hosting a Mother's Day Tea, but add a special twist to it with a program about High Tea. Sometimes you don't have to think too far outside the (tea) box to have a special lunch for Moms. The guests are coming to a Tea Party and enjoy drinking tea. So share the story of tea!

I will tell you that when I hosted this party, it was not my idea to start with exactly. Having the party and focusing on the tea aspect came about because I had a resident who came into my office with a problem. She wanted to host a party for a few of her friends but was concerned that she might offend someone that she would forgot to invite, and if the party got to big, she would not be able to afford to do it properly. She shared with me that she had talked about teas in the past and was going to present a "little talk" as a part of her party. After a few discussions with her, we came to the conclusion that I would run it through my department as an activity and bring her in as my "guest speaker." She agreed and left happy. (Read more about successful Resident Run Programs.) 

As the Mother's Day Tea came closer, I learned that my tea-expect resident had taken the ball and ran with it! She had gotten the community very excited. She encouraged the ladies to sign up and to wear a hat when they came to the tea. She helped me select the proper teas and food that she wanted for the day so that they would tie into her talk, and she and her husband created special tea-pot shaped name tags.

The event went well overall. The room was set up with round tables, with 7 chairs per table. We had a table for name tags at the door. My resident "guest" speaker had asked a few ladies to help her at the table because the tea-pot shaped name tags were the pin-on style. They were in baskets in alphabetical order. The distribution of the name tags was the biggest hurdle because the residents came in to fast and the line became too long at the table. Next time, I would encourage the volunteers to use a longer table and lay out the name tags. They didn't want to do that when I suggested it to them.  I would also make it so that they could be helped from both sides of the table. I would also relocate the ladies helping to pin on the tags away from the table. In other words, hand them the tag at the table and ask them to go to the volunteer located in another area to get assistance if they needed it. In this case, in order to expedite the long line, I invited guests to be seated and then brought the name tags to each person that didn't get one. 

The meal was wonderful. The culinary department made a beautiful looking plate featuring ham salad, egg salad, chicken salad and cucumber tea sandwiches. Cucumber was a must-have as a part of the tea presentation talk. The plate was nicely garnished with strawberries, blackberries, kiwi and edible orchids. In order to reduce the need for culinary staff help, the plates were pre-set, along with clotted cream, strawberry preserves, scones and petit fours.

Besides the preset lunch plate, the tables also had a lovely center piece that I made using fresh flowers and tea pots. Our community owns a wide variety of unique tea pots. They have been given to us by residents in the past. If that is not the case in your community, determine how many you will need and ask your residents for them. You may want to gather a few extras in case so you options as to the ones you put out, and because some pots might work better for the flowers that you buy than others. 

As for the program, I turned the microphone over to my resident guest speaker. She talked about the history of tea, about the cucumber sandwiches and more. If you don't have a resident who has this special interest, you may find a staff member, a person from the outside community, or even an owner of a local tea house in your area who may want to share their passion with your guests.

p.s If you'd rather host a fashion show instead, I have a good timeline for organizing one at my article about fashion shows.

Click here to find Tea Party Supplies

Love Thy Neighbor Theme Party

In the retirement community where I am the activities director, we started a new program this year where residents are encouraged to nominate an employee for an employee of the month program. The concept of an employee showing the resident loving-kindness and going above and beyond their job duty is a concept that residents and employees are having a hard time understanding. It was a concept that I wanted to build on for the sake of the employee of the month program, so I created a "Love Thy Neighbor" theme party.

The idea would be that residents would have an opportunity to share what they love or appreciate about their neighbor.  Here are the bullet points about how I put this party together:

• Assigned each of our 5 buildings a color to wear
• Decorated the Lobby (party room) with balloons for each building's color
• Used Sweetheart candies to create a center piece for each buffet table and on the tables for extra color
• Printed paper hearts - to coordinate with each building's colors- and that matched Sweetheart colors that had a space for the resident's name, the resident's name being honored and the reason why they are being honored.
• Got painter's tape to stick the hearts onto the wall without damaging the paint
• Put a table up with the paper hearts and extra pens

Overall, this theme night was easy to create. I had a resident tell me that she normally doesn't attend the theme parties becuase they are to difficult for her to participate in properly (dress up). She said that because this them  was simple enough for her to participate in that she would be attending. That was good to hear.

I will say that some residents did not want to complete a heart because they feared hurting another resident's feelings. And then they were other residents who filled out multiple hearts. 

I did leave the hearts on the Lobby wall for a few days after the event so that those who came to the party early would be able to read all of the comments. It is important to have a few ideas in your back pocket to share with residents who want to participate, but can't think of something on their own. Examples of this are:

• Picks up grocery items for me
• Watches my pet while I'm away
• Collects my mail while I'm away
• Visited me in the hospital
• Respects m privacy
• Good listener
• Bakes for me
• Drove me to the hospital
• Etc. etc etc.

"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble."        Charles Spurgeon

Cane Fu Self Defense

As an activities professional, I am always looking for a new program to add to my calendar. If it is free, that is great. If it is done by a professional, that is better. If it is something the residents can benefit from socially, emotionally, physically, professionally, or spiritually, that is what I want! And, if it can be added to the calendar as a repeating event, then it is a must. My gift to you this month is such a program. It was brought to my attention recently and has just been added to my activities calendar. 

The program is called Cane-Fu. It is a program that teaches seniors how to use their cane for self-defense purposes. It includes elements of balance, stretching and defensive moves. Our local police department has a few police officers who are trained instructors in the program, and they contacted us about starting the program in our community. I know that when the residents see a uniformed officer leading the class, that it gives the class some serious clout. 

The students have benefited with more self-confidence to go out into the community after taking this class. As an activities professional, the idea of reducing the resident's fear to go out of the community is a win-win situation for the resident, and for the success of the outings I plan for them.

I encourage you to look in to this program. Here are a few links to look at for more information: the first is from The Today Show and the other is from ABC's 2020 show. If it is something you think your residents would benefit from, contact your police department and see if they can assist you. If they cannot, there are items on Amazon that might be helpful to starting it yourself! Check out my Activities Director's Store to see the Cane-Fu items I found on Amazon for you.

Romantic Movies for Seniors

Valentines Day Movies, that are especially right for my group of senior adults, takes some time to figure out because the residents in my community are pretty conservative and are not interested in casual sex, seeing any kind of "hanky-panky" implied, or listening to too much foul language. With this criteria in mind, I present to you a list of movies that I have shown, or would be willing to show, in my community during the month of February. They are listed in chronological order.

1. Casablanca (1942)
2. An Affair to Remember (1957)
3. Love Story (1970)
4. Somewhere in Time (1980) 
5. An Officer and A Gentleman (1982)
6. A Room with  a View (1985)  
7. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
8. Emma (1996)
9. Titanic (1997) 
10. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
11. Love Actually (2003)
12. The Notebook (2004)
13. Pride and Prejudice  (2005)
14. Winter's Tale (2014)

CLICK ON THE DVD TO STOP THE SLIDESHOW TO ORDER

 YOUR MOVIE DIRECTLY FROM AMAZON!

Library Programs for Senior Adults

Let's go to the library! Boring you think? Maybe not these days! 

The retirement community where I work has a wonderful relationship with our city library. They provide us with a few programs to assist the residents get the books or other material they want from the library. Let me share with you what the library does for us first, and then I will share what the library does for the community that we are able to take part in.

Once a month, we have a speaker from the library come to the community and talk about books that he thinks that the residents will enjoy. He also brings books for the residents to check out if they want to. There is a system with the library and our community where residents can check-out the books from this once a month program, in addition to ordering them over the phone, or order them on-line. The books, no matter which way a resident requests them, are returned to our front desk when the resident is finished, and are picked up once a week by the library's representative. Books being ordered are also brought to the front desk on a weekly basis.

The library also has been a great resource for me as Activities Director. I've had a request for a certain movie or educational video series, and was not able to find it through other avenues. I simply email our community's representative and request it. He then brings it to me when he comes to the community to pick up or drop off books at our front desk. It's a great help and best of all, it is free!

The most exciting part of the library in my city is what they are doing for the city at large. On Sunday afternoons they are offering free concerts, speakers, and meet the author programs. The only things they ask of us is that we go online and reserve a spot for each person attending. They have made it very simple by putting the monthly calendar online. You just go to the event, click on it, and then add your information into the reservation request. I then print out each reservation and give it to the resident attending. 

I also have residents who want to go to the library and spend time there on their own. They want to be among the books, be in the quiet setting, do some research on their own, without having to use the Internet, which might be foreign to them, or for many other reasons. I've tried to schedule trips to the library for this kind of "activity," but seldom get the minimum number of participants necessary to get the bus to go from our community.  With the special programs mentioned above, I am now able to offer the resident who wants to go to the library a better opportunity of having enough people to go. Instead of going to the "show" they simple go to the library and do their own thing. It has been successful.  

While doing research for this article, I was surprised to see that other libraries are not offering programs like the one that is offered in my city. I did find one library who was written up and shares a video of their programs goals. It was in the Gwinnett Daily Post .  

I encourage you to check out the library's website in your community, if for no other reason than being able to borrow DVDs, CDs, etc. to help you do your job better. I also encourage you to go to the library and ask them if there is a way to get your residents more involved with the library. Maybe you invite them to come to your community and do a library card registration program, or a program on how to use the Internet to reserve a book, DVD or CD and then build from there.

Yes, my friend, it is time to go back to the library! Did I mention, it's all for FREE! Don't miss the bus on this one.

Tailgate Party!

Are you ready for some football?!?   Take "time-out" to read the how-to's and suggestions for this fun Tailgate Party that I hosted last week in my retirement community. In our community we host a pre-dinner party with appetizers, then the residents go into dinner and have a special meal based upon the theme of the theme of the evening, followed by a show in the auditorium after dinner, again based upon the theme. 

How-to's:

• Tailgate food is a must. 5-layer taco dip, chips, mozzzerlla sticks, pigs in a blanket, deviled eggs, watermelon wedges, etc.
• Serve food from football theme trays, bowls
• Put drinks in coolers and serve them from there. (no bowl of punch here)
• Decorate with pennants that are general in nature or NFL specific
• Decorate with hanging football theme decorations
• Decorate with Megaphones
• Use a real truck if it will fit into your space to serve off of 
• Decorations with footballs, referees, football players, etc
• Buy themed paper goods 
• Ask residents to wear their favorite team's apparel or colors 
• For entertainment, host a team trivia game
• Invite non-participants of the team trivia game to be the cheerleaders. Give them pom-poms and a team to cheer for.
• Be the cheerleader's leader and stir the audience up after each right answer

Suggestions:

• Plan earlier than the usual time frame for this kind of party if you are going to take it the next level of excitement. This might mean contacting a high school or college at the end of the school year and getting it lined up for the following school year, because this theme night works best in September.... the beginning of football season, and that is the start of school. 
• Contact your local football teams. Start with the pros, then colleges, and then your area's high school.
• Contact your local cheerleaders from the teams as listed above
• Bring the football team's mascot
• Once you know that a certain team is coming, encourage residents who don't have a team to support to wear that team's colors for the night
• Offer the guests a meal if it is possible. You could invite them to eat with the residents so they can interact with each other. This would require pre-planning for success.
• Offer the guests PUBLICITY for them being in your community.
• If the guests are students, offer them community service hours if the students require them for graduation - and you are an eligible business (non-profit, etc.)
• Show a good football movie if you'd rather instead of team trivia
• Host this event before a football game that you take the community to or that you are going to watch on the big screen in your community (ie. the Super Bowl)

The Tailgating theme night was easy to do in its basic concept and the residents enjoyed it. They enjoyed dressing in their team's apparel. I watched as conversations were started over the jersey they had on with women who don't usually have much contact. It was a time of pride for some as they wore their college team's shirts. 

I did learn two lessons from this program. The first is what would be clear to understand as I shared the suggestions above: plan this in advance or you might end up with just the basics! And the other is if you are promoting a team trivia contest, it is better if you tell the community that it is not a sports trivia game. I never said that it was a general trivia game...but I never told them that it was not what they assumed it would be based upon the nature of the theme night..... football.

And for more inspiration, check out my board at Pinterest!

So there is the game plan. You are ready to "set-HIKE"!! Go get 'em team!!

Wild West Night

As the weather cools off, it is a great time of the year to get WILD! Yes, this could mean a lot of different things to a creative person such as yourself.... a wild safari party, a wild night in Havana party, or maybe a WILD WEST party!

The residents at my independent living retirement community love this theme. It is one of those that I can repeat every few years and they look forward to it being the same - GREAT! This is what we do at my community:

• Host the event outside. Usually by the pool where there is a large flat grass area right off of the sidewalks
• Rent a large tent for the residents to sit under to dine
• I found great balloon weights that I used on the tables for decorations. They were cowboy boots.
• Erect 3 sided booths that our maintenance department made for these occasions (they come apart for easy storage)
• Decorate the boots with western concepts....... the saloon, jail, post office, canteen, tack shop, etc. Make them personalized with your communities name in the titles if you can
• These booths will house the food for your event. 
• The balloon weights can also be used in front of the chaffing dish to hold the name of the food item inside
• Create Wanted Posters  of staff members of your management team, or anyone else that your residents will recognize easily. For this you will need a few props - cowboy hats, toy guns, bandannas, toy handcuffs, etc. You will also need to be cleaver and come up with creative crimes to list for your wanted posters. (This is fun to do!)  I hung these signs inside the building to help encourage residents to walk outside...... some residents had not been to that side of our campus before.....
• I brought in horses to have simply hang out. One year, we even found a woman who had a miniature that she uses in pet therapy! Residents were encouraged to come to the grazing area and have their pictures taken with the horse.
• Of course, encourage the residents and the staff to wear their best western wear.
• And if you or anyone you know has access to a western saddle or other tack, use it for decorations.
• Get hay bales and put them around the tent. I used them to make sure no one tripped on the stakes of the tent
• The organization I work for does not allow alcohol to be a party of any programs that we put on - but if yours does allow it... don't miss out on the Saloon. It could be a lot of fun.
• Also, you might include a hay ride at this event.  
• If you need more decoration ideas, please feel free to look at the Activities Director's Store I created on Amazon.

Well, there you have it Partner! "Happy Trails" to you and those you meet along the trails.

Flamingo Fun Fosters Future Festivities!

The flamingo is a fun and interesting bird and one more reason to party!  Party you ask? Why not! It was about time that I hosted a dance in my retirement community and I usually create a theme for the dances in order to decorate and get the residents involved. Instead of doing the same old themes based around the holidays or seasons of the year, I created a Pink Flamingo Dance.

I asked the residents to dress in pink and almost everyone did! Of course, there was a man or two who declared that he did not own anything pink, but that was fine. I even suggested that they could dress like a flamingo if they wanted, which no one did, but a few people did wear their shirts with flamingos on them. 

I bought some great decorations through Amazon such as an inflatable 4ft flamingo to take photos with and pink flamingo floating coasters that I used as floats in our lobby's fountain. I put balloon weights and pink balloons in them for the reception that was held before dinner. I also use the floating beverage holders for the centerpieces of the tables at the dance.

In the picture above you will see me wearing a hat similar to one that I saw at Amazon. I happened to have been able to borrow mine from a resident who had some other pink flamingo items. This was actually one of the first programs where I had three different residents offer decor for the event. I really think that it helped having their items not only for the obvious reason of having more stuff to use, but because they were telling their friends that I was going to be using their stuff and it helped promote the event even more!

Sometimes my events are very elegant, sometimes they are really nice and sometimes they are more fun than they are stylish. This is one of those events where it is all about having fun. I could have gone crazy with all the pink things I saw at the store (cake serving stand, cups, etc.) but I made the focus really be on the flamingos. I also found flamingos in the garden section of Walmart. In order to make them stand up inside the Lobby, I went to the craft store and bought sheets of thick Styrofoam. I covered the Styrofoam with plastic that I found in the crafts store, which had a water print on it. 

I'm sure as activities directors, you can see that this activity can be modified for any kind of animal or trendy item. I have a resident who wants me to have a Rubber Ducky Party, and ask everyone to wear yellow and share their duckies. She happens to be a collector of rubbber duckies, but since I'm not sure that others have any, I've put it off - for now. What about doing something with Smilie Faces? Or a camouflage party during hunting season  (that one is for those of you who have that.... I'm in South Florida, and that is not a season we really recognize here.) Maybe frogs would be fun?  I think you understand where I'm going with this. It doesn't have to be about Flamingos. Pick what you see around you and take it to the next level by celebrating it in your own way. If it has never been done before, it makes it even better! I find that residents give a lot of credit for thinking outside the box and let you get away more if it is not perfect. Take a risk and try something new today. It will make you feel good and your residents will be thanking you.

Royal Garden Party

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"

~ Robin Williams

Every summer, The Queen hosts at least three Royal Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace, and one at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Over 30,000 people attend. Garden parties have been held at Buckingham Palace since the 1860's, when Queen Victoria instituted what were known as 'breakfasts.'  Today, the Garden Parties have evolved into a way of rewarding and recognizing public service. They are attended by people from all walks of life. Here is a link to see a Royal Garden Party.

With this traditional special event in mind, and because I love flowers, I thought it was time to host a Royal Garden Party in my retirement community. Over the 16 years that I have worked for my company, I have accumulated many different types of silk flowers. I also have two wonderful "sister-communities" within a 10 minute drive from my community who use silk flowers for their decorations, and was able to borrow flowers and vases from them.

For this Royal Garden theme party, I suggested to the residents that they should wear floral attire. Many of them did. I had a few couples come as royalty also. They were very clever. I also ordered paper crowns and made them available for all the residents to wear. I wasn't sure if the men would put them on or not, but they did when I said they were unisex, and that we needed a King and/or Prince for the evening among all the Queens and/or Princess there. (There are other crown options and accessories in my Activities Director's Store.)

I happen to have a King's crown that came from my husband's work (don't ask) and used it as part of my decorations. I am not sure where they got it, but it looked a lot like this King's crown. I wanted to make it a centerpiece, so I shopped for an over sided pillow that looked royal and/ or would go with the floral theme. I knew what I wanted, but when I was shopping I did not find something that was as "special" as a king would use. I did find something that went with the theme and with the color of some of my flowers.  I set the King's crown on the pillow and then surrounded it with flowers.

Flowers were placed in the Lobby for the reception. Residents ate appetizers and found the crown of their choice at the party. They had a special dinner in the dining room - where the servers had on the crowns also. After dinner, I had a guest speaker in the Auditorium from our local botanical garden. He brought a visual presentation to showcase the beauty that is local to our area. I called this an arm-chair tour of the garden. I had a good audience and those who attended really enjoyed it. I never know how an evening show will be accepted when it is not pure entertainment (music, drama, etc.)

This was a very easy theme night to put together. I personally enjoyed creating the 25+ floral arrangements. I do know that if I had asked, there would have been resident volunteers who would have loved to make the arrangements also. If you need to, make sure to ask the residents to help you and as Robin Williams says, "Let's Party!"