Posts Tagged ‘picnic plan’

Picnic at the Beach

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Who doesn’t love a trip to the beach? My family loves to pack up the beach toys, boogie boards, bathing suits, and sunscreen and go spend a day by the ocean. We also love to pack up good stuff to eat in picnic baskets, and cool things to drink in picnic coolers, so we don’t have to pay extra for food from a vendor. We just roll out the picnic blankets on the sand and dive right in.

We tried eating on our beach towels once, but it became clear that picnic blankets are an absolute necessity. For one thing, it’s nice to have the picnic basket and picnic cooler in a central location. And if you have kids, you know how messy they can be when they eat – we wanted to keep our beach towels clean! We have an extra large picnic blanket, so there’s room for the whole family to spread out under the Picnic Time Umbrella and relax. After lunch, I love to lay on my Beachcomber beach mat and read a good page-turner while the girls build sandcastles or swim.

I like to bring a wide variety of food in our picnic basket. We have a few picnic baskets for 2 (for those romantic picnics), but I’ve found that picnic baskets for 4 work best for large family outings. For the beach, I like to use a traditional picnic basket or a Beach Bag Deluxe Insulated Backpack instead of a wicker picnic basket. It’s amazing how sand manages to find it’s way into a wicker picnic basket, and no one wants sand in their sandwich!

Especially on a hot day, it’s essential to pack your picnic coolers with refreshing beverages and plenty of ice. I have picnic coolers on wheels, but I’ve found that they’re pretty useless in the sand. Rolling coolers are better suited for the park, so I bring a regular picnic cooler for 4 packed with water, juice, and maybe some margaritas for me and Dad!

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Posted in Ellen's Posts, Picnic Furniture, Picnic Ideas, Picnic Related News, Picnic Supplies, outdoor picnic | No Comments »

Picnic at the Park

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Well everyone, the weather is starting to warm up. Spring is on its way in, and you know what that means… picnic weather! So this weekend, my family is going to have a picnic at the park.

We love to go all out for weekend picnics. Multiple picnic baskets, picnic blankets, and lots of fun games and picnic accessories. Sometimes it’s just the four of us, but my favorite picnics are the big ones – we get a bunch of friends or extended family together, and we all meet up at the park with our picnic blankets and picnic baskets in tow. We always get a great variety of food and drinks, the kids have a blast together, and everyone brings their picnic accessories – games, umbrellas, picnic furniture, and BBQ tools.

We’re having a big picnic this weekend, with both sets of grandparents and my sisters family. I’m leaving my picnic baskets for 2 at home, and opting for picnic baskets for 4 (or more!). The food is family style – we’ll have potato salad, coleslaw, sandwiches, barbeque, watermelon, and ice cold drinks. Everybody pitches in to create a beautiful, delicious spread!

We usually let the kids sit on the picnic blankets. While we ladies sit sipping wine and chatting, the guys always end up gathered around the grill. Last year, I got my husband a great picnic accessory for his birthday: the BBQ Apron Tote with Chef’s Hat – he loves to wear the apron because it’s got handy pockets for his utensils, but I’ve only gotten him to wear the hat once. :)

Two other picnic accessories I’ll be bringing with me this weekend are the Melody MP3 Case with Speaker and a Brunello Insulated Neoprene Two-Bottle Wine Tote. The MP3 player fits easily inside picnic baskets, so it’s super easy to bring along.

What picnic accessories would you bring to a picnic at the park?

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Posted in Ellen's Posts, Picnic Furniture, Picnic Supplies, outdoor picnic | 15 Comments »

Taking a Day Trip: Picnic in the Mountains

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Even though it can be a little slower to hike with kids, we love to go for day trips to the mountains and bring a picnic along to enjoy. As a kid I always looked forward to these outings, and today picnics in the mountains are one of our kids favorite activities. We hike in a mile or two, settle down on some picnic blankets, and enjoy the view.

Picnic backpacks are a much easier choice for these kinds of trips than picnic baskets. With picnic backpacks, you just pack them, sling them over your shoulders, and off you go! And now that both my girls are old enough to hike on their own, we can carry more food instead of carrying the kiddos.

We load up our picnic backpacks with trail mix, crackers, sandwiches, cookies, and water, and hit the trail. The Cambria Deluxe Insulated Picnic Backpack for 4 is the perfect size for a family picnic, and keeps our food nice and cool while we hike. And it’s wonderfully simple to bring along a picnic blanket, because they’re compactable and light.

When we go camping, we always bring BBQ tools to grill up our dinner on the camp grill. We have several BBQ sets that are just the right size to bring on a camping trip, and fresh grilled burgers are one of our favorite camping meals. We also love to bring coffee, tea, and water totes to brew up some hot drinks in the morning.

When my husband and I head up for a romantic picnic for two in the mountains, we often bring our Caddy Insulated Wine Tote. This picnic backpack for two has plenty of room for some chilled wine and cheese, along with a picnic blanket for two. Nothing is more romantic that a romantic picnic in the mountains with white wine, grapes, and some crackers and brie!

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Posted in Ellen's Posts, Picnic Related News, Picnic Supplies | 1 Comment »

Back to School Picnic

Friday, August 7th, 2009

If you’re looking for a great way to get involved in your child’s schooling and want to meet some other parents, throwing a back-to-school picnic might just be your answer.

This is a fairly easy one to organize, too.

Decide on a day early in the school year. There are a couple reasons for this:

  1. If you live in a colder climate, it will still be warm in August and most of September;
  2. There should still be a sort of “new school year eagerness” going on for children and parents.

The best way that I’ve found to get this going is by getting to know your child’s homeroom teacher. After talking to him/her a few times, you may feel comfortable enough to her about putting a sign-up sheet on the door – or wherever the homeroom bulletin board is. There’s usually something like that for parents to look at for each classroom.

The only real tricky part of this is finding out the names of all the parents. And if you can’t, just get a class list and use that. In fact, that might even be better, depending on your taste. Simply create a sheet with all the names on it and leave a blank space after their names where parents can write in what they’d like to bring, like accessories, picnic baskets, etc. Simple.

You’ll need a basic cover sheet that lets parents know where and when the picnic will be and whom to contact should they have any questions. Just put your name and phone number on it, and you’re all set.

You’ll be a hit!

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Posted in Ellen's Posts, Picnic Ideas, School Picnic | 6 Comments »

Picnic for the Needy

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

This may sound like a huge deal and hard to organize, but it’s really a lot easier than you may think.

If you take some of the picnic ideas from some other posts of mine and combine them, you’ll find that we already know how to do this with just a little effort. And think about what you could do for someone’s day!

Arrange a time and date at your local park – let the park manager know what you’re doing – and begin. Just call a few of your neighbors, friends, and family and see what they can make for the picnic. Make a dish or two in your own home, and there you go: the food is done. Grab a bunch of 2-liters of soda at the store ($1.00 each sometimes), and off you go.

The hardest part of this type of picnic is letting the public know. A few really good places to post fliers would be the library, the grocery store, and the courthouse (If anyone has any other great places to add, please do!).

Food aside, I think there may be one or two more things we could add to this picnic for the needy in your area that I think could really add that special touch:

Call a couple friends of yours who may have managerial jobs in the area and invite them to the picnic… and ask them to bring job applications if they’re hiring. (I understand that “needy people” DO work and that many work even full-time. But there is a very large number of our fellow citizens in our communities that still can’t make ends meet. And some still can’t find jobs.) Ask a few businesses in your area whom you may not even know to come and join the fun – tell them there’s free food!

Anyway, these are just a couple suggestions. Many of you already do this and may have much better ways of tackling this. These are just mine for now.

Thanks!

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Picnic Music

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

I think the thing that people forget to take along on picnics the most is music. And if you ask me, I think it can be an integral part of picnicking.

Or taking the WRONG music.

In this first example, imagine a gentleman taking his new girlfriend out for a nice picnic at the park, with backpacks for 2. The food is out, the wine is flowing, and he pops in a Metallica CD. No. Metallica is fine and they have their place certainly, but if you’re still in “dating mode”, forget it. For these situations, I’d highly recommend some light or smooth jazz. Some examples are the saxophone sounds of Dave Koz (check out “The Dance”), anything by Michael Buble, or even the bass sounds of Wayman Tisdale.

You see, at a picnic, sometimes it’s better for the music to be in the background rather than at the forefront. Picnics are a time for people to talk and relax, and jazz can be a perfect addition to add to the ambience.

In this next example, imagine that you’re having a picnic on the beach while intermittently playing some beach volleyball. If you bring smooth jazz, you may get some strange looks from your teammates. Conversely, the right music can get you motivated to play your heart out! For this, I recommend either some current dance music or anything from the charts from the 1980s. It can get your friends motivated and excited to hear what the next song is going to be.

So as you’re planning your picnic or day at the beach, remember that music can make or break your outing.

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Posted in Ellen's Posts, Picnic Ideas, Picnic Supplies, Potpourri - Misc. Topics | No Comments »