The Picnic Party

Picnic Party: a picnic birthday in red and pink planned for the beach with individual picnic lunches, activities, decor, and party invitations.

This weekend my little Paige turned 7! She wanted to have a picnic party at the beach. We were picturing lots of red and white gingham, and cause every thing’s better when it’s pink, we went with red and pink as our colour scheme.

DIY Bunting Invitations

We made these sweet bunting flag invitations. We started with these brown kraft paper cards and envelops, and cut out triangles from craft paper to be the bunting flags. We used our glue stick to attach them, and then sewed along the top with our sewing machine. We used our home printer to print all the party information directly on the cards before we added the bunting.

 

Unfortunately, the weather was cold and windy, so we had to move the party from the beach to indoors. No one seemed to mind though, and we all had a great time!

Picnic Party Decorations

I had planned all the food, decor and activities for the beach, but when we felt the cold wind, we quickly shifted things around to work at home.

DIY Party Bunting

Just like our invitations we wanted to add bunting to the space.  I made some simple bunting flag before with with pinking sheers and ribbon, but this time I made them double sided, ironed them and used seam binding along the top. They look much more professional, and I’m really pleased with how they turned out. They were a lot more work, but turned out great.

We also had some fun red and pink balloon bouquets.

The Table

We set the picnic food up in the dinning room. I found this great vintage table cloth at an antique store this summer, and fell in love with it. I used these sweet miniature picnic baskets for decoration on the food table too.

For the centre piece of the table I used these sweet mason jars filled with flowers from my mom’s garden. I always like to have a picture of the birthday girl as part of the centrepiece for a birthday party.

Each guest had an individual picnic bag, the adults were on the left, and the kids were on right.

Picnic Drinks

Around the back of the table I set up the drinks.

I had fun finding old fashioned pop bottles of cream soda, black cherry, root beer and coke.

For the kids there were Kool-Aid Jammers, and lots of water for everyone. I used a mason jar to hold some striped straws.

I had also planned a coffee and tea station for the grown-ups, since the party started at 11. We planned on using thermos flasks for the beach, but since it was at home I just set this basket I’d prepared next to the coffee maker.

Picnic Blankets

We also had a picnic basket filled with red picnic blankets, that I picked up at IKEA.

The Beach Picnic Activities and Games

 

Loot Bags

Our loot bags were sand pails. We couldn’t find any pink metal sand pails, but we did find these pink plant pots at IKEA. We drilled holes in the side, and sanded them with a metal file. Then we added thick sisal rope and tied it to create the handle.

I found some pink shovels, and filled the pail with other beach treats.

We were planning on a sand castle building contest, so we included these fun flags, made with bamboo skewers, fabric and my trusty glue gun! The birthday girl’s favourite candy is Carmel squares, so we added some in these sweet organza bags. I tried to co-ordinate all the labels, including this one for bubbles.

Bubble Blowing

Sea Shell Tic-Tac-Toe

My favourite part of the loot bags, were these sea shell tic-tac-toe games that we made. I spray painted sea shells in pink and red, and then packaged them in cello bags, with a label instructing the guests to create their grid in the sand and have fun!

I set up the loot bags on the kitchen table with a cute picnic table cloth. My mom brought the beautiful roses from her garden, and we added some of the cute flags, to the mason jar vase.

My mother-in-law found some fun pink beach balls that fit with our theme, and mermaid dolls for the little girls to play with in their sand castles. Thanks Grandma!

Sand Castle Building Contest

We were planning on having a sand castle building contest at the beach. I found some fun trophies at the dollar store, and added some pink and red ribbon, and some labels for the winning sand castles. We divided the guests up into family teams and awarded each family a trophy for the Sandiest Sand Castle, the Cutest Sand Castle, the Biggest Sand Caste, and the Most Beautiful Sand Castle.

We had to change our plans a little since we were inside due to the cold, windy weather at the beach, so we drew pictures of the the sand castles instead, which everyone was a really good sport about.

The Food

Well, the highlight of a picnic is certainly the food! I love how all the details turned out. The individual picnic lunches were packed in red paper bags, with some sweet red gingham tissue paper, and tied with a little twine. I customized the bags with these labels I created.

Individual Picnic Party Lunches

It was so fun watching everyone excitedly unpack their picnic bags to see what was in them -including the grown-ups!

So here’s the menu:

• Fried Chicken
• Potato Chips
• Veggies and Dip or Bean Salad
• An Apple
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Cupcake-in-a-Jar

Let’s start with the chicken, I purchased chicken the night before, and wrapped in up with waxed tissue paper, tied with twine, and marked with labels I made to fit our theme.

The kettle cooked potato chips were re-packaged in cello bags, with a custom label.

I made veggies and dip for the kids, packaged in cello bags, with a small container of dip, and tied with twine. The grown-ups had three bean salad, served in mini-mason jars.

Picnic Party Desserts

For something sweet, we made chocolate chip cookies, and packaged them in little brown paper bags, closed with the custom labels.

Our best treat was the cupcake-in-a-jar, and a great portable way to celebrate a birthday!

We made vanilla cupcakes, and cut them in half, then we spread the bottom half with a little raspberry jam, and layered it in the bottom of the mason jar.

Then we piped in some pink frosting, and added the top of the cupcake. It was also iced, and we added some pink sanding sugar on top.

They were delicious, and the kids loved digging into all that icing!

Our friends and family weren’t bothered by having to move our beach picnic indoors due to cold windy weather, and laid out the picnic blankets in our dinning room and living room!

Before the birthday girl dug into her cupcake we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her.

With a picnic -inside or out -life really is a party!

You might also like our French Inspired Picnic here.

Also check out our Breakfast Picnic here.

 

You might also enjoy our Picnic Lunch here.