Luau!

Recently, Brittany and the kids of the Activity Room had a Hawaiian-themed "Luau Party," featuring tropical fruits and drinks, tropical music, leis, and, of course, "the Limbo!"

The kids had a great time; thanks to Brittany for putting it all together!

Above: The kids in line for the Limbo at the Luau Party, held in the 812 Community Room.

Enjoying the Nice Weather!

As the weather has improved, the kids have been anxious to get out and enjoy it. The Activity Room has gone outside to play a variety of games in recent weeks, and here are just a few pictures of the kids' favorite outdoor activity: basketball.

Above: Sirak and Desi watch as Sirak's shot heads towards the hoop.
Below: Abdullah hoists up a three-pointer.

The kids are getting good at basketball, and love getting outside and playing. It's great to see them so excited about getting up and getting some exercise as well.

April Vacation Tournament!

In celebration of April Vacation, we decided to do something in the Activity Room that the kids had wanted to do for a while: have an XBox 360 tournament!

An Activity Room instructor brought his XBox 360 from home, and also brought the game "NBA 2K11" since basketball was the kids' game of choice.

We set up the projector and made a bracket-style tournament with eight teams. Each team was made up of two or three kids, and each player played a half for his team. That way, as many people as possible got a chance to play.

We had a lot of great teams chosen: the Celtics, Lakers, Heat, Thunder, Knicks, and Bulls were all well-represented.

After two rounds of exciting games, we made it to the finals: the Knicks (Antonio and Jahad) vs. the Thunder (Jhkyos and Davonte). This final game went right down to the wire, and when Carmelo Anthony missed a three-pointer at the buzzer, the Thunder took the title.

Congratulations to Davonte and Jhkyos! All of the kids loved playing, so it may be something we do again in the future.

Above: The finals, between Antonio & Jahad and Jhykos & Davonte.
Below: The Activity Room looks on during the action.

Anti-Virus Update

As part of an ongoing effort to keep users protected, we recently updated the anti-virus software on all of the computers here in the Computer Learning Center.


AVG, the main anti-virus program that constantly runs in the background, was upgraded from version 9.0 to the newer "AVG 2011." This program runs whenever the computer is on, and works in "real time," meaning it identifies threats as the computer is being used.

We also recently updated Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to the latest version, and updated the virus database as well. Malwarebytes is usually run bi-weekly to scan for malware that may have slipped past AVG. Keeping the program updated is essential, as there are dozens of new viruses that crop up every day.

If you want to keep your computer safe for free, download both of these cool programs!

Download link: AVG Free 2011

Download link: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

A Slideshow of Memories!

Here's a video/slideshow full of pictures of the youth residents of 808-812 Memorial Drive. The pictures range from many years ago to just a few weeks ago. It's cool to see how some of the kids are all grown up now!

"The Creature in You!" Craft

A few days ago in the Activity Room, we decided to try a new craft project that we tentatively called "the Creature in You!" This craft was designed to encourage the kids' creativity, and it worked great!

To do this craft, all we needed were markers, scissors and blank sheets of paper.

• First, fold the blank, non-lined paper in half.
• Next, write your name in big, cursive letters on the half-sheet.
• Then, take a pair of scissors and cut around your name. Be sure to get into all of the little spaces!
• Unfold your new "name/shape." Voila! The shape inside is the "Creature in You," color it or design it as you wish!

The kids had creatures of all different shapes and sizes, and they were encouraged to fill in all of the blank space on the paper while making it into some kind of monster, alien or other wild creation. The kids all had a great time doing this craft project; in fact, some of them did two or three different creatures, and two kids did both their first and last names.

It's a fun craft, is easy to do and created really cool works of art that all of the kids who participated should be proud of.

Above: Each child's name, written in cursive...

Below: ...the "creatures" within each name!

Winter Party Photos!

On Wednesday, December 22nd, we had a Winter Vacation Celebration for the kids of 808-812 in the Activity Room! For most of the kids, the next day (Thursday) was just a half-day, then they had an entire week off. To celebrate, we had a mini-party complete with snacks, drinks, candy, a movie and a Guitar Hero tournament!

Above: Our pre-movie spread: microwave popcorn, Cheetos, Kool-Aid, Reese's Cups and Hershey's Kisses.

After all of the kids got their snacks and drinks (we went through 8 bags of microwave popcorn...these are some hungry children!), the movie started. We watched the newly-released Despicable Me, a computer-animated tale about an evil villain who ends up having his heart melted by three orphaned children. The kids loved the movie, and spent most of the time laughing their heads off at the antics of the "minions" on the screen.

After the movie ended, we moved on to the second part of the party: the Guitar Hero tournament. When we usually do "Playstation Wednesdays," Guitar Hero is often the most popular game. This time, we had a tournament: the kids were allowed to choose their own song, and whichever player got the highest percentage of notes correct won the whole tournament.

Above: Kids focused on the action during the Guitar Hero tournament.

At the end of the tournament, we had a real shocker: a three-way tie for first place, as three different kids got scores of well over 90%! The kids decided that they'd be fair and split the prize, a giant Hershey's chocolate bar, three ways.

A great time was had by all, and the kids all got candy canes on the way out the door. It was a great way to start off Winter Vacation.