A Midsummer Night’s Dream Picnic

Midsummer Night’s Dream Picnic: An individual boxed picnic to enjoy Shakespeare in the park, whimsical flower masks, and perfect boho picnic decor.

Shakespeare in the park, and the a beautiful picnic to enjoy with it makes for the perfect Midsummer Night’s Dream!  We ventured downtown to the Toronto’s High Park this summer to see Shakespeare in the park.  It was our girls first experience with Shakespeare and we had such a wonderful time.

We boxed up our picnic early and left it in a cooler in the car while we enjoyed the park’s playground, labyrinth, and free zoo.  Then just around dinner time we headed over to the outdoor theatre  to enjoy our picnic before the play started.  The whole idea for the day actually came from my girls, and Maddie was all about putting together the perfect picnic.  We went with our friends and truly had the best day together.  Today I’m so excited to share with you the next picnic in our summer picnic series -this one just might be the most beautiful so far. 😉

The Picnic Boxes

For the picnic we put together the yummiest individual boxes.  We packed up some salad, bread, a little onion and goat’s cheese tart and some rotisserie chicken for everyone.

The little salad was a made with tomatoes from our garden and bocconcini.  In the bottom of a little mason jar I added a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and about a 1/4 tsp of homemade pesto.  The on top of it I added some cherry tomatoes and mini bocconcini and finished it of with some salt and pepper.  Just before opening everyone gave there’s a shake and they were perfect.

The chicken was the perfect easy addition for a picnic.  I picked it up at the grocery store, cut it up, and wrapped everyone’s pieces in a little parchment paper.

The tarts were made by Maddie the day before -she’s so good at pastry!  If you didn’t want to make your own pastry though, store bought frozen would be fine.  Cook your tart shells and then set aside.  Make caramelized onions on your stove top, and then before serving add to the baked tart shells, and tops with some goat’s cheese.  These little tarts are so easy, and so delicious.

I added a fresh buttered bun from the bakery too.

Everything got packaged up in these perfect little paper boxes, lined with some parchment paper.

We tied ours with twine and tucked in a little menu that Maddie made for the occasion.

We tucked our cutlery, napkins, and menu into some tiny little paper bags and tied them to the top.  It was perfectly portable, and so, so cute.

In the play, the love potion is pansy juice so we thought it would be fun to make some simple labels for our pink lemonade. Since Shakespere makes us think of books, we used book pages for the labels.

Floral Masks

My girls also made a mask for all the girls to wear.  In keeping with the play, they made them out of pretty flower petals and leaves.

They found a template on-line and printed it on card stock to use as the base, and then added all the pretty fresh leaves and flower petals from our garden, and just hot glued them on.  the perfect finishing touch was a twig handle.  They turned out so pretty and whimsical and perfect for the evening.

Dessert

For dessert, Maddie made some homemade chocolate mousse.

We served them in small mason jars.  And along with our mousse our friends picked up some delicious cookies at the bakery on the way.

We also brought along some fresh blueberries.

I tried to keep the menu manageable, so we didn’t need to cook all day before.  There were a few  good short cuts with the rotisserie chicken and the bakery cookies, and we made just the goat’s cheese and caramelized onion tarts and the chocolate mousse from scratch.

We brought some beautiful blankets to make it cozy and a everyone got a pillow which certainly helped to keep us comfortable after sitting there many hours enjoying the food and then the play.

The girls all managed to stay awake and follow the plot of their first Shakespeare play.  We thought starting out with one that included fairies was a good plan. 😉 The day was a raging success, and I think it just might need to become a yearly tradition.

With a Midsummer Night’s Dream picnic, life really is a party!