Fun and Easy Family Picnic Ideas

One of the best ways to spend family time is having a fun and easy family picnic.  Picnics allow you and the family to enjoy the great outdoors, get some much needed and important vitamin D and fresh air, and they can be as expensive or as affordable as you would like them to be.  I am going to share some affordable suggestions for yummy, easy food ideas, and some affordable family picnic game ideas.

Here are some fun and easy family picnic ideas for food:

You will notice that all the food suggestions are made into single servings on a stick.  This is to help keep hands out of the food that others are eating, while making it a fun and easy family picnic!

1. Fruit Skewers – This is super fun and easy and the kids can help prep for this.  I just buy a fruit platter from the supermarket like the Great Canadian Superstore, so the pieces are already cut into chunks.  Then, we simply skewer the fruit like a rainbow to make sure each stick has a nice variety!  You can do this with jumbo grapes and freeze them for a delicious cold treat!
2. Sweet-Kabob – This is also super fun and easy.  Simply buy (or make if you’d like) a tube of brownie bites, cinnamon bites, and mini donut-holes.  Have the kids help you skewer a selection of each of the treats on each making a kabob of yumminess!
3. Charcuterie on a Stick – This is the savory stick.  Have fun creating yummy skewers of meats, cheeses, olives, breads and pita.  Make plenty, as this is the main course and make sure to have variety!
4. Watermelon Salad — The ingredients are: 6 cups cubed watermelon, 1 cubed whole cucumber, 2 tablespoons thinly sliced mint leaves, 1/2 cup feta crumbled, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons lime juice, and salt and pepper to your liking.  Three simple steps:  A) Whisk together the oil, lime juice, salt and pepper.  B) Combine the water melon and cucumber and mint in a large bowl. C)  Gently pour the dressing over the melon and cucumber mixture and toss.  Sprinkle the feta in and serve!

Fun and Easy Family Picnic Hacks:

1. From Frozen to Fun:  Fill up some water balloons and freeze them.  Then use them to keep the cooler cold, when they are melted, use them for a fun water balloon toss game!
2. Soak it Up:  Take a clean sponge and place it in a Ziplock bag.  Then fill the sponge with water and freeze it.  Use these to keep the cooler cold!  When melted you can now use it to wipe clean any picnic surface during clean up!
3. Mosquitos Away:  Simply slice a lemon in half and stick cloves into each half! Now the bugs will stay away from your food table or blanket!

Here are some fun (and funny) and easy family picnic ideas for games:

1.  Double Trouble –  All you need for this game is a pair of dice and a big bag of jumbo marshmallows.  How to play:  The object of the game is to roll the die and get a pair, if you do not, you have to put a big marshmallow in your mouth.  Then pass the die to the next person.  The game ends when someone loses because they cannot put another marshmallow into their mouth.  This game is for older kids and adults, to avoid choking concerns.
2. Hula-hoop Touchdown – All you need for this game is a two hula-hoops and a ball.  The call can be a soccer ball, football, basketball, any ball.  How to play:  Make to teams and face off in the middle of the two hoops.  The first team to get their ball in the other team’s hoop gets a touchdown and wins!  The ball can even just bounce in the hoop!  It counts!
3. It’s All in the Hoop – All you need is two hula-hoops and two teams of people. How to play:  Make two teams of the equal number of people.  Each team has to hold hands. (Make sure during COVID-19, each team is from the same circle or family.) The hula-hoop starts at one end and has to make it to the other end without hands letting go, each team has to get through the hoop until it gets the hand of the last person at the end of the line.  The object of the game is for the hula-hoop to get over a chain of people from one end to the other end.  The first team that gets their hula-hoop to the other end wins.  
4. What the Hula?  — All you need for this game is two hula-hoops, a box with pre-written charade suggestions, and two teams of people.  How to play:  Make two teams.  One person from each team battles it out by having to act out (without talking or sounds) what the paper drawn says.  They have to act out the same word and the team that shouts out the right answer first wins.  The twist is that they have to act it out while hula-hooping!

And here are a few bonus videos of picnic hacks!

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