quick trick: rainy day picnic

Surprise, surprise–another rainy, gray winter day here in Maryland.

So after we got home from Owen’s soccer practice, I got busy packing our picnic basket. Then Owen and Cora got busy setting up our favorite blue and white striped picnic blanket–right smack dab in the middle of the living room floor.

It might not have worked outside, but at our house, today was the perfect day for an old-school, Rainy Day Picnic.

Okay, so it’s not as much a Quick Trick as much as it is just a little something that usually brightens our spirits on rainy–or cloudy, or foggy, or snowy day–but I still thought it was worth sharing.

• Rainy Day Picnic: For my kiddos, any time juice boxes or packed lunches are involved, it usually qualifies as a good day. Today was a good day.

For Rainy Day Picnics, I bring out the fancy ole picnic basket that my husband and I received as a wedding gift for those impromptu, romantic, weekend picnics that we never actually had.

even Baby Cheetah made it to today’s picnic

I pack (of course!) juice boxes, sandwiches, and snacks, and napkins, and after the blanket is spread out, I walk the big walk (two rooms away), from the kitchen to the living room, I plop the basket down, and I unpack our lunch.

We chat, eat, and pretend we’re somewhere warm–the beach, the park, wherever. When Cora was too teeny to sit still on the blanket, I moved her chair to the floor so that she wouldn’t run around, but now that she’s weeks away from three, we are footloose and chair-free.

And that’s it. Not only do Rainy Day Picnics add a little sunshine to our day, but the clean-up can’t be beat: the trash is back in the basket, and I shake the crumby-blanket. Woo-hoo!