Today we had a story picnic!  It all started a few weeks ago when one of the children suggested we had a book day.  We had a lot of fun collecting books and matching soft toys, making displays and reading together, and we have repeated the activity a few times since.  I think it is going to be a regular Friday activity from now on.  We have managed a few book-themed snacks from time to time, but today we decided it was time for a story picnic.

Yesterday afternoon we spent some time collecting suitable books.  We had lots to choose from so we will be doing the activity again, I am sure.  In the end we settled on a menu.

Peter Rabbit’s salad (lettuce, beans and radishes) and blackberries

Teddy Robinson’s Teddy Bear Crisps

Kipper’s picnic sandwiches (cheese and jam)

Egg sandwiches (the relevant story book was lost so we read a non-fiction book about Eggs and Chicks instead)

Harry’s dinosaur sandwiches (peanut butter and marmite)

Winnie the Pooh’s Honey sandwiches

Paddington’s Marmalade sandwiches

Lola’s moonsquirters (tomatoes) and pink milk

Floppy’s cake

Peppa Pig’s chocolate chip cookies

Grandpa Pig’s carrots

The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s very big picnic

Rabbit drew a picture of some fruit and vegetables yesterday before she went to bed, and this morning all four children spent a long time making labels for all the items on the menu.  They were all lovely and I was very proud when Rabbit wrote “jam” without asking how to spell it.  Even Tiddler drew a picture of Floppy’s cake.  He also helped me to make the egg sandwiches (for some reason I don’t seem to have a picture of them close up) and was very pleased with himself (“I very good at choppin’ eggs, mummy!”)

Tiddler helped me to cut out the dinosaur sandwiches as well.  We have had a lot of use out of our dinosaur cutters over the years and they are very popular.

Rabbit also helped with making the sandwiches, washing the tomatoes and sticking the labels in.

The excitement was building as the children caught a glimpse of the chocolate cake!  They helped to lay out the picnic blanket and then carried out the books, soft toys and plates, cups and napkins.  Rabbit had carefully chosen four book-themed cups (two Maisy, one Elmer and one Peppa Pig!) and we used some leftover Gruffalo napkins from Tiddler and Owl’s party.

Next we carried all the food out and started to arrange the picnic.  We decided to leave Grandpa Pig’s carrots whole with their tops on as they looked so pretty.  I took the vegetable peelers out too, as the children enjoy peeling them and eating them whole, which I have recently discovered is a great activity as well as a snack.  Today though they couldn’t compete with all the other tempting treats on offer, so we saved them till supper time in the end.

The very last thing we did before taking the photographs was to take the ice cream out of the freezer.  And of course we couldn’t leave it to melt, so we had to go and get three more, and that is how the children started their picnic.  They did eat a lot of the rest of it too!

We finished up by reading some of the stories together.  They all listened to The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Kipper’s Picnic, and then I read an Usborne Book about Eggs and Chicks mainly to Owl and Tiddler, while Monkey and Rabbit climbed in the apple tree above our heads.  Lastly I read Winnie the Pooh and the Ten Busy Bees to Tiddler while the others played in the garden, and then we had to go inside because it was too hot (for a change!)  We didn’t read all the stories but I don’t think that matters.  I’m sure we’ll be having a story picnic again soon.

This is our entry for the Tots 100 May Challenge: Perfect Picnic with Center Parcs