How to Plan a Simple Spring Picnic

Do you know what we don’t do enough of? Picnics!  We live less than 20 minutes from the beach, and the number of parks and open spaces in our community is endless. During our brief Spring Warm-Up, we packed up our picnic basket filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy snacks and headed to our local park for an afternoon outdoors.

My children love the outdoors, and given our gorgeous temperate climate, we try to give them plenty of opportunites to do so.  When I pulled out our picnic basket, they squealed with delight.

Planning a picnic can be elegant or modest, and given our children’s young ages, we opted to make the theme of our picnic finger foods. Here are my favorite tips for planning a simple, healthy picnic for families with small children.

1.  Pick a theme.

2.  Don’t underestimate the importance of preparing

3. Plan a few simple activities

4. Gauge the amount of time spent by the age of your kids

5. Make clean-up easy by bringing extra bags for dirty dishes and trash.

For just around $40, I was able to purchase a variety of fresh fruit, vegetables, and snack foods at our local Walmart for the picnic.  Here is my kid-friendly menu:

Fresh cut-up fruit

Homemade yogurt fruit dip (recipe to come!)

Fresh veggie platter (available in the grocery section)

Whole Wheat Pita Chips

Freshly-made Hummus

Pecans

Mini-cheese

Whole Wheat Crackers

Juice boxes

Sparkling Cider

Because I opted for finger foods, clean-up was quick and practically effortless. We utilized some of our time at the park to talk about all of the plants, flowers, trees, and insects we saw (sitting on the ground offers a new perspective).  Picnics offer a wonderful way to spend time together as a family over a simple, healthy meal.

Have you ever planned a picnic?  I’d love to hear about your experiences!

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Caryn Bailey

Caryn is a NICU nurse by day, blogger by night and mom 24/7. She savors the warm Southern California sun and loves to travel, shopping, baking, reading and frequenting her local tea room. Caryn created the column Lavishly Green for Peekaboo Picks Magazine to share her best tips for going green in style, she is the Former editor for Family Review Network, former OC Family Magazine online contributor, former Orange County Moms Blog contributor, former Evenflo Savvy Parent contributor, former member of the Totsy Advisory Board and former freelance writer for CBS Los Angeles.

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