It's about the kids....

I am talking about Halloween.....and it's about kids of all ages.

On Halloween afternoon, I dressed up my 3 Bichons in their costumes and visited Savannah Cove and Savannah Court in Maitland, Florida, an assisted living/nursing home facility. Andy, Niko and Charlie were the hit of the party and took turns on every bodies laps. They are cute especially dressed as a Pumpkin, Peter Pan, and the Devil..... Charlie of coarse. Two of my dogs were adopted from Small Paws Rescue, a rescue group for the Bichon Frise which I volunteer with. Check out the site, there are currently over 200 sweet Bichons up for adoption all over the country.

My boys know who to "kiss up to". Isn't it great that Halloween still brings out the kid in some of the senior residents? They had lots of fun dressing up.

Charlie the devil sitting on Pauline's lap. This is my mom who just turned 94 years old on Oct. 8th.

Everyone wanted me to get in a photo with my 3 boys........right, like that was going to be easy. I am the bumble bee in the center.

The residents just loved the dogs and asked so many questions about them.

Peter Pan and the Indian Bride.

Niko is a little ham.......

Sorry I have my day upside down! Afternoon 1st and now the morning.

In the morning it was off to the "Y" to work out....yes in costume......kids of all ages. This is some of the Zumba Girls.

The kids were allowed to dress up in costume too!

Giselle and Anna, 2 of the instructors for Zumba at the Central Florida YMCA.

Count Dracula in the rear, front row Luciane, Saturday morning instructor at the Longwood "Y", Joyce S. and me the Bee.

More of my Halloween photos are posted on my face book page....

Dancing in the street.....Zumba style

Look at this photo, what do you see? Take another look, it's not hard to find.

The answer to my question......happy, smiling faces, young and old and all ages in-between gathered for a Zumba Bash April 3, 2009 with some of our favorite instructors, Gisselle Gutierrez, Lindsay Drakulic, Nikki Lopez, Patricio Merlott and Vanessa Valentin.

The photo above is a random group of us which ended up to be over 100 Zumba students and Zumba enthusiasts that showed up, all at different levels of dancing Zumba........and we literally were Dancing in the street.......Zumba style. The instructors each led several dances featuring DJ James Santiago who is also known as "EL Boricua De New York" with his powerful DJ equipment to pump us up!

The event was sponsored by Beef O Bradys in Winter Springs and was a great time for all of us who participated.

An Awesome time was had by all who attended!

Zumbathon....

What is a Zumbathon you might ask, well let me explain. My local YMCA, The J. Douglas Williams Family Center located in Central Florida (Longwood/Lake Mary), in order to catch the spirit of the Olympics, held it's own Olympic Challege Events throughout the month of August.

This evening's event was Zumbathon......a special two hour Zumba Party/cardio dance class. Can you believe there were

7 instructors, which might set a record, to dance with us and keep the party going. I could describe it as dance our butts off! It is pretty darn hard to hide your two left feet from 7 instructors, but I sure tried!

If I had someone here with me right now they could take a photo of me soaking my footsies and eating ice cream. Following this event, I am tired, hot, hungry, and my feet hurt.....so I earned every delicious, creamy, cold mouthful of my Chocolate Mint Chip Ice Cream, which happens to be my favorite.

Zumba: a Latin based cardio dance class which attracts people of all ages and levels. A combination of Latin dance moves with some higher intensity aerobic movements, for more advanced participants, will help burn hundreds of calories.

Zumba makes exercise a party.....

What is Zumba?

I have been doing Zumba now since it was first introduced, a little over 1 1/2 years ago, at my local YMCA where I am a member and work out regularly. Whenever I mention the name Zumba or wear my Zumba t-shirt, people either look at me with the expression "what are you talking about", or immediatly get excited and get into the conversation. Zumba, if you are wondering, is not your typical aerobics class. Even people with two left feet, as myself, can get involved in this upbeat workout that incorporates Salsa and Merengue, because the steps are very repetitive and fairly easy to learn, not to mention incredibly fun. In this upbeat-high energy group exercise class........hips shake, hands clap, shoulders shimmy and feet pivot, step and slide to a Latin beat that really gets you moving, sweating and burning those calories.

I must add, Zumba also seems to involve something else........lots of smiles and laughter! It's fun and addictive.

Zumba is a fitness program inspired by Latin dance. It was founded by Miami-based dancer and choreographer Alberto 'Beto' Perez, a celebrity fitness trainer and choreographer for international pop superstars, who teamed up with two local entrepreneurs: Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion. It combines Latin rhythms with cardiovascular exercise to create an aerobic routine that is fun and easy to follow. Zumba utilizes the principles of fitness interval training and resistance training to maximize caloric output, fat burning, and total body toning. I t’s a way of mixing body sculpting movements with easy-to-follow dance steps.

The Master Class

Several months ago, I was fortunate to be able to attend a master class given by Beto himself. Aproximately 250 people were crammed into half a gymnasium to dance with the master. Yes this is a photo taken of me and Beto after the class. Attending this class was a "happening" and an experience that will stay with me for a very long time.

If you have not tried it, and if you have the opportunity to try Zumba........do it! The terrific latin rhythms in the program have taken the ‘work’ out of “working out.”