The Princess and the Frog Party Ideas for All Ages #disneymovies #partyplanning #gbe2

The writer's choice prompt for week #16 of the Group Blogging Experience was "Children" or "Parent." Rather than choosing one of these two choices, I decided to combine them for a list of party ideas that are suitable no matter how old or young the party host or guest of honor is at the time of the event. Here are a few "The Princess and the Frog Party Ideas" that you can use for a Castle, Swamp or Mardi Gras themed event.

"The Princess and the Frog" Party Food:
Serve Gumbo as the main course, Beignets for dessert and sparkling cider to guests. Cider is a more appropriate choice for adult parties than beverages containing alcohol if you want to keep your social gathering in line with this "G" rated movie.....it is categorized as a family film, after all! If your party is for kids, substitute the sparkling cider for a lime and lemonade beverage or green apple juice.

Need some Princes and the Frog party beverages that are suitable for both children and adults? No problem. Find a swamp water recipe that you like and make it for the kids and then use a different recipe to make a swamp water cocktail for adults. These party drinks should not be served on the same table, but, I don't (hopefully) have to tell you that, right?!

"The Princess and the Frog" Party Games:

Despite being annoying in this movie, Ray (the animated firefly) can serve as inspiration for a game that requires little supplies and setup time. However, it does have seasonal and geographical limitations that may affect how well you can pull it off....if you can at all. Host a race at a party for kids, where guests have to collect fireflies using glass jars within a specific time frame that you choose. The player who has collected the most fireflies when the time runs out wins this game.

"The Princess and the Frog" Party Decorations:

If you're going with a Castle theme, setup the party venue to remind guests of Tiana's Palace. You could also use this layout as a lead into the party entertainment by hiring a live jazz band to play New Orleans inspired music or at the very minimum.....play top jazz tunes on a stereo or iPod dock.

Decorations for a swamp theme based on "The Princess and the Frog" could be easily made if the party is hosted outdoors in your backyard. Add different colors to empty glass bottles and hang the bottles from trees using rope or yarn. You can place candles in them or small lights to help illuminate the party area as the sun settles if your party goes well into the evening.

If you have a pool, add green food coloring and some dirt or chocolate cookie crumbs to the water to give it that swamp water look, or better yet....throw some leaves in there too. Wrap green, black, purple and gold beads around a tall votive glass cangle holder or slim lamp and then place a half-face costume mask in front of it to make a quick and easy tabletop centerpiece decoration for a Mardi Gras style event.

P.S.

The L.A. Water Recipe on the Tipsy Bartender show could be used as an option if your Princess and the Frog Party is going to have a swamp theme. Swamps are dirty, L.A. Water is said to be dirty, you're good to go with some dirty ol' drinks!

This post continues my quest to getting up to speed with the GBE2 after getting behind for a few weeks that led to a month.

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Taking Ryan Gosling’s Lead After the Wild Animal Nightmare in Ohio #PETA #WWF #savetigersnow

Imagine waking up and finding a wild Tiger roaming around outside on your front lawn. Such occurrences are something that many of us might only see in the movies. Unfortunately, similar scenes played out at the doorstep of Ohio residents who faced concerns about encounters with any of the 56 exotic animals released this week by a suicidal farm owner in Zanesville who reportedly could no longer care for them.

Local authorities shot and killed 49 of these animals, including lions, tigers and bears while prompting legislature around the country and even actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio to urge more citizens to support wildlife conservation efforts and the enforcement of more laws restricting private ownership of exotic animals.

According to CNN, the Ohio farm owner provided a wild cub for model Heidi Klum. The ease of buying exotic animals from private owners is a prime example of how the cute little Tiger cub grows into a 300-pound Big Cat who has, as Kari Bagnall of Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary says, “chewed up the neighbor or escaped a few times.”

Thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio, I became more familiar with the actions of the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness of strict laws on the exotic animal trade and wild animal ownership as pets via their Save Tigers Now campaign but it wasn’t until learning more about the charitable efforts of “Drive” actor Ryan Gosling that I learned how much PETA provides information on the conservation of wildlife and the dangers of keeping wild animals as pets.

I always considered PETA to be nothing more than an anti-leather and pro-vegetarianism group that works to stop animal cruelty. I didn’t know that this organization does highlight exotic animals among their many initiatives to protect both the animals and the public at large from harm.

In early September, Ryan Gosling made headlines after sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, condemning their approval of slaughterhouse practices for euthanizing chickens and turkeys. While Ryan Gosling saves these birds, I’ll be adding PETA to my list of non-profit organizations to support, on behalf of those lions, tigers and bears that died this week as well as the rest who live God-knows-where across the nation on private properties as if they were domesticated animals like small cats and dogs.

AOL reported a neighbor who has children saying that she has heard a lion roar all night over the years of living near the animal farm. Now I don't know about any of you all reading this post right, but her experience surely beats anybody else's complaint about barking dogs, crying babies or other nuisances that are so minor when compared to that of exotic animals that a neighbor are keeping as pets.

Do YOU know what the laws of private exotic animal ownership are in YOUR area?

more importantly....

Do YOU really know how many exotic animals are living in your town or city?

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Ethan Hawke puts Matters of Food Waste in Perspective #BAD11 #WorldFoodDay

By the end of this month I will have thrown away an unopened package of bacon, one-quarter pound of cheese, one-quarter pound of turkey breast, a half-full box of granola cereal, one and a half containers of cream cheese and one half bag of Cheerios in the trash. Don’t even get me started on the banana pudding that my Grandmother made weeks ago that I still didn’t finish eating.

These items are either old, past their expiration date or stale and questionable to consume after being stored for too long. Yet, I woke up this morning hungry and disappointed that all I had to eat for breakfast was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because toast did not seem very filling. It is an absolutely wasteful habit that does not help the environment and seems quite ungrateful considering the shortage of nutritious food that people are facing here and abroad.



You know that movie scene in “Alive” where a group of rugby team players who survived a plane crash eat the flesh of dead passengers while stranded on cold mountains? If not, don’t worry. I didn’t watch it yet either but will, along with the Martin Sheen narrated documentary “Alive: 20 Years Later” as soon as Netflix or Blockbuster ships them my way.

It is not easy to imagine eating human flesh in any capacity. It is also probably not easy for the average person to imagine eating old, smelly, expired or stale food either because we don’t have to do so. We can just get new food but an even better alternative is to buy only the amount of food that is needed and no more.

No matter how bad the food I listed earlier in this post seems to me, chances are that the people munching on their friends in “Alive” (which is based on a trued story) would prefer my stale Cheerios or old cheese over human flesh any day of the week if they had a choice. Today, more than 50 million household have insufficient food supply according to a NY Times article. The piece also mentions a study by the Department of Agriculture reporting that just one fifth of the food waste could feed 10 million people each year.

A singer named Michael Jackson once said that he’s going to chance the world by starting with the man in the mirror. I’m taking note from Jackson and starting with the woman in the mirror on a quest to reduce food waste. Who dares to join me?

by the way....

How much food have YOU wasted this year?

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