The days are getting longer, the walk home from school is lighter and lights on at home is getting later. The snowdrops are out in full force, the daffodils are stretching towards the sunshine but it is still cold. Often frosty in a morning. Spring is almost here but not quite.
Outside picnics and BBQ’s are away off yet but we are British and we’ve never let the weather stand between us and a picnic. So when Emma Bridgewater challenged us hold an indoor picnic we thought it was a great opportunity to have some picnic practice for the scorching Easter we will be having are sincerely hoping for! After a busy Saturday morning of swimming and ballet lessons for Lil H and Diva G respectively we embarked with some of Emma Bridgewater’s gorgeous polka dot melamine goodies on our indoor picnic.
Grandpa had dropped off a new loaf, he’s been inspired by Paul Hollywood and the Great British Bake Off and his bread maker Christmas gift is serving the whole family well. So we sliced up some of his sun dried tomato and parmesan bread – yum!
Spread, top and cut the sandwiches into some jaunty angles – that’s the thing about homemade bread, it’s a bit quirky! We laid down a blanket on the floor, the napkins on laps, poured juice in melamine mugs, shared crisps in bowls and toasted “cheers” to declare our indoor picnic officially open!
A beautiful array of colourful matching polka dots. The matching melamine made me very, very happy indeed and the even better news was it all went in the dishwasher. It goes without saying that the children loved not eating at the table, a rule which I am pretty stringent about following a series of, shall we say “wandering spillages”, that required professional cleaning!
Once the hungry swimmer and ballet dancer were fed, the desire for the indoor picnic wasn’t sated, “my babies would like a picnic” Diva G requested. Indoor picnics are not just for people it would seem! The guests were gathered – Barbie, Baby Annabel, Cabbage Patch Gisele and Red Riding Hood (she brought her own basket of goodies!)
We laid out Diva G’s melamine heart tea set, a favourite second birthday present, a plate, tea cup & spoon for each dolly and a wooden cookie and piece of birthday cake. Everyone had their own candle and we kicked our second indoor picnic off with four recitals of “Happy Birthday” to Barbie, Annabel, Gisele and Little Red!
Indoor picnics with people, with dollies – what’s not to love?
Thank you Emma Bridgewater for inviting us to join in the Indoor Picnic Challenge and the melamine picnicware they sent us – we love it!
