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Home » Parties & Entertaining » Children's Birthdays

The Picnic Party

Modified: Oct 21, 2024 · Published: Sep 9, 2011 by Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist · This post may contain affiliate links · 4 Comments

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

bunting flag invitation
Jump to:
  • DIY Bunting Invitations
  • Picnic Party Decorations
  • DIY Party Bunting
  • The Table
  • Picnic Drinks
  • Picnic Blankets
  • The Beach Picnic Activities and Games
  • Sand Castle Building Contest
  • The Food
  • Individual Picnic Party Lunches
  • Picnic Party Desserts

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

bunting flag invitation

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.

DIY bunting flag invitation

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.

picnic party

We also had some fun red and pink balloon bouquets.

picnic party balloons

The Table

We set the picnic food up in the dining 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.

picnic party decor

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.

picnic party decorations
picnic party flowers
picnic party flowers

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.

picnic party drinks
picnic party 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.

picnic party 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 party supplies

Picnic Blankets

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

picnic party blankets

The Beach Picnic Activities and Games

picnic party loot bags

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.

diy beach pail

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

picnic party beach pails

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

picnic party favours

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!

sea shell tic tac toe
picnic party loot bags

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.

picnic party roses

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!

picnic party loot bags

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.

sand castle trophies
sand castle building supplies

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

individual picnic lunches

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 lunches

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!

individual picnic basket lunch

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.

picnic party menu

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

individual picnic lunch bags

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.

individual picnic lunches
individual picnic lunches

Picnic Party Desserts

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

picnic basket desserts
picnic party individual picnic lunches

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.

cupcakes in a 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.

cupcake in a jar
cupcake in a jar

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!

indoor picnic lunch
indoor picnic party

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

picnic party

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.

Pretty Picnic Lunch: Individual picnic boxes, wild flowers, tissue paper tassels, and a delicious menu make this the perfect picnic lunch.

More Children's Birthday Parties

  • Princess and the frog party table with food and decorations.
    The Best Birthday Party Home Decoration Ideas
  • Teddy bear breakfast party with teddy bear themed food.
    Teddy Bear Breakfast Party Ideas
  • Beauty and the Beast party table with food and decorations.
    Beauty and the Beast Party -Themed Dinner and Movie Night
  • Cinderella Party table with Cinderella inspired food and DIY party decor.
    Cinderella Party -Dinner and Movie Night

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alycia Nichols says

    September 09, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    This is so cool! You thought of everything! I can just imagine the little kid coming out in each of the adults as they unpacked their sack lunches! Something about a sack lunch that makes you think of grade school and the anticipation....what did Mom pack today!? Mom never packed it THIS great, though! Excellent job! You put a lot of thought and time into this, and I'm sure everyone really enjoyed it!!!

  2. Marigene says

    September 09, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    What a fun picnic for little ones!

  3. dnr says

    September 09, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    Thanks so much Sabrina for the kind words. I couldn't find the "quilted" pattern mason jars in Canada anywhere, so I picked these up on a trip to the states, at a hardware store. I love them too, and sure I will find a million uses for the them.

  4. Sabrina says

    September 09, 2011 at 11:42 am

    Oh! You've done it again! I just checked out your last post - Part 2 of the party and I'm even more impressed!!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE those little portable cupcakes- you are so gifted! Where did you find the mini mason jars for the bean salad and the cupcake jars? Ingenious!!! Pat yourself on the back! P.S. Also love your daughters cute dress.

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