I love picnics. I love to eat outside. I sometimes drool over those beautiful picnics in magazines with the many courses of delicious foods spread out on a homemade quilt, real china plates, and lemonade sparkling in a glass pitcher.
Our picnics aren’t fancy, though. In fact, now that I think about it, they are almost an excuse to be lazy. We often take our own food on outings to the zoo, amusement parks, hikes, and festivals. This saves us a lot of money, but also makes sure that the kids have something to eat besides french fries and soda. A standard lunch for the zoo is cheese sandwiches, oranges or grapes, carrots, and a cookie or two. For hiking we like peanut butter spread on bagels, apples or oranges, trail mix, and a cookie or two. If we have access to our car during the day I like to keep a cooler with water bottles and juice boxes. Yogurt is a great easy picnic food too, if you have a way to keep it cool.
For a couple of years now, I’ve kept an old beat up picnic basket in the back of our car. Inside are those things I always find that we need like Band Aids, antibiotic ointment, and sunscreen. I also keep basic picnic supplies like paper plates, a few plastic spoons and forks, a real knife (which I keep wrapped in a dish towel) for cutting fruit, a can opener in case we do get fancy, plastic cups, and a roll of paper towels.
Our picnics are causal, and easy. When the kids were much younger we used to meet my husband at a playground for a picnic lunch during the week. Picnics can be fun, and easy. To me they are an essential part of summer. The fancy picnics are beautiful, but the lazy picnics are just as fun.
More on Picnics:
Picnics- A Summertime Tradition
Great Ideas for the Great Outdoors
Picnics 201-Keeping the Great Outdoors Great