Decorate with a Mardi Gras theme with purple, green and gold. 

Or use a swamp theme to decorate. I prefer the swamp. Hang up twinkle lights for the fireflies. Float water lilies in bowls filled with water. Bring in large potted plants from neighbors. Then set out lots and lots of frogs—preferably, one for each guest. Then they can find their favorite frog and give it a kiss.

Hang bottles in a tree like Mama Odie has at her place. Use all kinds of bottles…from soda, from pancake syrup, from cleaning supplies. You can even spray paint some plastic bottles in bright colors for a fun effect.

Be sure to serve beignets sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Dreams do Come True – Where do you dream? When your head is on your pillow. Give you guests white pillow cases and fabric paint and let them paint their dreams and wishes. You may want to use foam brushes and regular paint brushes and stencils and some permanent markers as well. Be sure you pre-wash the pillow cases before your Princess and the Frog party.

Party Dress Challenge - Little Charlotte has lots of dresses. Give your guests tape and tissue paper and challenge them to make the best party dress. Split them into teams for this game.

Balancing Plates - Tiana is hardworking and very talented. See how many of your guests can carry plates like a waitress.  Use plastic dishes, stacked with play food and see how many dinner plates each guest can carry across the room without anything falling off.

Hometown Jazz Festival - Music is everywhere in New Orleans. Have your guests make their own instruments with boxes, rubber bands, empty bottles, a comb with wax paper, or a tin can drum. Then play music and dance. It's okay if it doesn't come out pretty at first, your guests are just jazz musicians in training. 

Masks for the Masquerade - Pretend you’re attending Charlotte’s Masquerade ball and make masks. You’ll need foam sheets to cut into masks, or pre-cut masks from the store. Tape on plastic straws to use as handles. Provide sequins, feathers, glitter paint and other fun things to decorate the masks. You can use this as a beginning activity for your Princess and the Frog party. 

Facilier's Voodoo - Make a voodoo mask necklace like Dr. Facilier uses. You can use foam sheets or construction paper. Just cut out a basic shape from two colors. Leave one shape whole to use as the back of the mask. Cut a simple design from the other sheet, then glue it to the whole shape. Use a hole puncher to put a hole near the top and string it up.

Frogs Love Flies – Have your guests catch flies and bugs. Give each guest a  stretchy-sticky hand to catch flies—cut outs you’ve print up. Or, give them a pink party blowers and have them aim at plastic toy flies and bugs and try to knock them off the table.

Tongue Tied Race – I love the scene in the movie where Tiana and Naveen try to get the same bug and get tangled up in each other.  Race with tongues tied. No, not literally. Loosely wrap some pink ribbon around your guests, in groups of two, and have them race across the yard, or room.

Love Knot – Another game along the same theme for the tongue-tied frogs. Have your guests stand in a circle, facing inward. Then have them grab someone else’s hand…with both hands. They should not have both hands of the same person. They should have hands from two different guests. Then have your guests try to untangle the knot without letting go of their hands. Lots of twisting at your Princess and the Frog party.

Group Gumbo – Use this with older guests. Have everyone participate with mincing and preparing a pot of gumbo.