By having themed weeks, it allows us to fully immerse ourselves into the activities theme, this week was no exception as we hosted sweet shop week after a reminiscing conversation on sweets and chocolate previously. Our activities girls hosted a variety of fabulous activities; a musical sweet shop trolley, hosted a sweet themed afternoon tea party and celebrated the Hindu festival of Dashain with kind messages to the family and chocolate treats for our Hindu staff.
Monday morning, we start our week with arts & crafts as we craft a giant lollipop Piñata for games later in the week, cutting stripes of tissues paper to fray the edges before sticking them onto our cardboard piñata shape, it was amazing to see the final colourful piñata.
We played card games with friends in the garden view lounges with picture pairs and solitaire being enjoyed with friends.
Sweets themed our morning singalong with Lynn as we tried to name as many songs about sweets as we could before joining to sing them together; my boy lollipop, sweets for my sweets, sugar sugar and a spoon full of sugar.
That afternoon our giant crossword game drew in a crowd as we battled our way through his weeks challenging crossword puzzle.
We love to make and create our own decorations for up coming parties and events, there is something special about seeing hand made decorations over shop bought. Monday afternoon we crafted giant sweets, lollipops and other confections out of tissue paper card and a lot of glue.
Birthday celebrations were held in our visiting gazebo surrounded by love ones.
Tuesday morning, we made our very own candy themed game, we decided on a concept and got to work cutting out a giant playing board and making a spinner before playing our new game.
We tried our hand at sugar craft as we get ready for afternoon tea party this week, rolling out fondant icing and cutting in to candy shapes before decorating our cupcakes.
There’s nothing us Brits like better than sitting down with a cuppa and a cake…except sitting down with a cuppa and a cake you’ve made yourself!
Alliteratively others spent the morning engaged in meaningful stimulating activities independently.
A truly scrumptious afternoon on Tuesday our fabulous musical sweet cart visited everyone offering a wide selection of sweets from Bonbons to humbugs there was somethings for everyone.
Our wonderful activities girls wore their 1950’s style dresses while singing and dancing their way around the home!
The sweets we used to buy for a penny brought back so many fabulous memories for us.
Singing and dancing their way around the home we were delighted for their company.
Along with all the excitement of the sweet cart we continued with our activities therapeutic colouring and painting of giant sweets to hang as bunting or display in our art gallery.
Others joined group game of dominoes.
Wednesday morning, we worked on piping cupcakes for the afternoon’s tea party, a quick demonstration on making a piping bag out of grease proof paper we were ready to fill and pipe 24 cupcakes.
We loved the piping techniques we were shown and loved trying them out. While the buttercream set, we turned our hand to making sugar craft sweets to decorate.
We chatted about cakes we have made in the past and the smell of the icing brought back memories of the Christmas cakes and the layering of marzipan and icing.
We love to dance and sing in our garden view lounge and we love that it is infectious and once we start, we can’t seem to stop.
After we tried ourselves out singing and dancing, we started a game of skittles working in teams to score the highest.
What better way to reminisce about chocolates Nestle and Cadbury, than to indulge in chocolates while looking through old posters and advertisements and hearing about the history of their most famous chocolate bars.
We shared stories of saving up our ration tokens or being gifted them by neighbours and the excitement of going into the corner shop and picking out he cheapest of sweets so we would have more to enjoy.
Wednesday afternoon our 1950’s sweet shop tea room as open for use to spend the afternoon with friends and family. The room was decorated all our stunning giant sweets hung from windows and celling, a sweet wrapper inspired table running adorned the tables and the best China was out.
Our stunning baked confections dressed vintage cake stands on every table.
The giant piñata lollipop game was played and everyone had such a laugh hitting the piñata to try and release the sweets inside.
Thursday mornings gentleman club met in the lounge for the British pub classic game of skittles. We opted for a coffee over beer at this time of the day although the offer was tempting.
Our chocolate theme reminiscing was in full swing on garden view for the morning watching a short documentary on the Cadbury chocolate factory and looking through old easter egg boxes chatting about how chocolate is more expensive now and the bars are smaller.
Thursday afternoon we welcomed back Louis for a musical singalong.
Friday morning our weekly flower arranging group met in the lounge to display stunning floral arrangements for the home. Research has proven that there are many benefits of flower arranging for older people. As well as enabling residents to be creative and use their imagination, it also encourages use of the fingers and hands and is a great stress reliever, promoting a calm atmosphere.
Our new live quizzes are still loved with visual and verbal aids throughout it promotes inclusivity and enables more of use to join in the fun.
This week’s quiz was all things sweet, with pictures questions, verbal questions and mini movies included it was both fun and informative. We loved the rock questions and it was followed by a short video of how you make the letters in rock, it reminded us off running to local shop to watch them pull the toffees.
A group game of floor bowls was loved in our garden view lounge on Friday afternoon.
Playing bowls is easy to learn and is a great social activity to meet new friends and have a laugh.
Elsewhere on Friday afternoon we gathered to make and create sweet treats, looking through recipes we selected Coconut macaroons, a sugary treat we love, we divided egg whites from yolks, weighed out sugar, dedicated coconut and beating the eggs there was a task for everyone.
Cooking and baking a stimulates the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch to evoke a positive mood.
Trying our treats is one of the best parts of cooking club.
Saturday morning our ladies choose therapeutic colouring from the activities on offer sat chatting over a cup of tea.
Some experts have likened the effect of colouring to be the same as meditation. Like meditation, colouring lets you switch off your brain from other thoughts – which for someone with dementia can be very satisfying and focus on the moment. What’s more, it seems colouring isn’t just a great de-stressing tool.
Saturday afternoon we settled down for our weekend movie with a bowl of pick n mix.
Before the movie started, we celebrated the Nepalese festival of Dashain, and honoured our Nepalese staff by gifting the chocolate and a greeting card.
Dashain, also known as Bijaya Dashami, is the grandest, longest and most auspicious festival in Nepal. Similar to Chinese Spring Festival, Dashain is celebrated by the whole country for the goddess Durgar’s victory over the demon Mahishasura.
Sunday mornings church service was hosted across the home with different religious services held.
That afternoon we engaged in meaningful activities one to one, playing memory card games and completing shape puzzles we had a lovely afternoon as many families came to visit also.
