You Gotta Have Park!/Celebrating Earth Day

Good afternoon . . . sorry I've been MIA and for falling behind on blogging. We've been busy networking and creating new games for the shop, which I will talk about below. In addition, we've also been posting a lot of shop updates and fun facts over at our Facebook page.

National Parks Week begins tomorrow. During this week, you can celebrate the wildlife, culture, and history of our over 400 National Parks. Kids can become "junior rangers" and there will nature walks, talk-backs, and tours for all ages. There will also be artwork on display at several locations. For a list of events in your area, consult the event calendar.

Yellowstone National Park

The Yellowstone area in the territories of Montana and Wyoming was established as America's first National Park. The national parks movement was started in response to concerns regarding the destruction of Native American civilization, wildlife, and wilderness. Throughout the next several years, more national parks and monuments were established across the U.S. However, there was no single agency managing the federal park lands/ On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act to create a new federal bureau called the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS was formed as a bureau within the Department of the Interior, responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments. To keep with our theme of celebrating milestones, the National Parks Service will kick-off their centennial celebration this August.

In keeping up with the topic of conservation and nature, millions of Americans will be celebrating Earth Day this coming Wednesday (April 22). Earth Day was founded in 1969 by then-senator Gaylord Nelson to teach Americans about environmental protection. The following year, over 20 million Americans participated in peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform. I was in second grade when this celebration took place and I still remember it fondly. This was the first time I learned about pollution and the effect it had on the environment and living things. With talk in recent years about sustainability and "green living," Earth Day has become the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by billions. Adults and kids celebrate this day by planting trees and wildflowers, making nature crafts, supporting local growers so you don't have to travel far (thus wasting gas), recycling the things you use, and donating unwanted household items, Remember, every day is Earth Day.

Today's Freebie Friday is an Earth Day vocabulary corssword puzzle geared toward kids and tweens. As usual, just right-click to download and print. This puzzle is for personal use only and not for resale. Answers will be published next week.

This week, we have also posted our first BINGO game at the shop, which consists of 30 cocktail-themed cards, along with a blank card, calling mat, and instructions. Below is a sample card. Unlike our other games, this one is available for instant download, but we can personalize it for your event by either hitting the "Request a Custom Order" button or sending us a convo on Etsy.

We've also introduced two new games in our "Quote, Unquote" series. These are trivia games in which party guests match quotes from well-known movies with their titles. The latest topics are high-school movies and sports movies, which you can find in the "Graduation Games" and "Sports and Hobbies" sections of our shop, repsectively.

Speaking of graduations, the Class of 2015 has started celebrating, and we will return next week with some party ideas. Family reunions are big during the summer, and this will also be a future topic of discussion. If you have any ideas for either parties or games, please either comment on our Facebook page or this blog or email us at printasticgames@gmail.com.

Next week's milestone birthdays include:

Happy 25th!

Matthew Underwood (4/23)

Happy 30th!

Steve Johnson (4/19)

Happy 60th!

Judy Davis (4/23)

Michael O'Keefe (4/24)

Happy 65th!

Peter Frampton (4/22)

Rob Hyman (4/24)

Happy 70th!

Doug Clifford (4/24)

Talia Shire (4/25)

Happy 75th!

Michael Parks (4/24)

Al Pacino (4/25)

Stu Cook (4/25)

Bjorn Ulvaeus (4/25)

Happy 80th!

Charles Grodin (4/21)

Still Going Strong!

Shirley MacLaine (81 on 4/24)

Hugh O'Brian (90 on April 4/19)

This weekend, we will be heading to the Tribeca Film Festival to see a documentary called "Very Semi-Serious," which is about the cartoons that appear in The New Yorker.

That's all for today. Have a PRINTASTIC weekend!

Kathy