5 Easy Fun Picnic Ideas for Kids To Make Your Picnic a Success!

Picture this: You and your family are sitting on a blanket in the great outdoors. You’re enjoying delicious foods from your picnic basket while your kids are squealing with laughter and running around the green grass. Your partner is setting up a fun family activity as butterflies flit across the grass. For you and your family, life is good. 

*Record scratch*. Ok, back to reality. While our dream family picnic scenarios are not always as idyllic or realistic in real life, we still love the idea of hosting a kid-friendly picnic. It’s a great way to connect with your family and keep kids entertained as you spend time outdoors. For those looking to picnic this spring or summer, we’re about to share five ultimate fun picnic ideas to make your kid-friendly picnic a success! 

One: Perfect the Picnic Set-Up

One of the most important things about hosting an outdoor picnic is making sure you have a comfortable set-up. Let’s be real: No one likes sitting in the hot and direct sunshine or on the wet and muddy ground. (And miserable kids can turn an outdoor excursion into an indoor retreat really fast.)

A key tip to remember is to hone in on the location. Whether you decide on an open field with tons of space to run around, a beautiful body of water to splash around in, or even your own backyard filled with activities, choosing an optimal location will help entertain your kids and keep them outside beyond just thirty minutes for your picnic lunch. 

Make sure when you are looking to pick the location for your picnic that there are restrooms nearby for your kids. If you picnic at a local park, chances are there are bathrooms or a bath house located on property that most likely looks similar to a local campground bathroom.  It is also important that your location provides shade, and if there isn’t shade provided, you should also be aware of planning ahead and bringing a beach umbrella or other sun-shielding gear. Make sure to check the weather a few days in advance to guarantee it’s warmer weather and a low risk of rain so you won’t have to move your picnic inside. Also, if there’s a potential for mosquitoes or gnats, make sure to bring the bug spray!

Another key tip to perfecting your picnic set-up is making sure the ground is nice to sit on. While this may seem like a given, often times the ground during the springtime may look welcoming and instead is wet and muddy beneath the grass. It can also be a plus to pick a location with picnic tables where you can use to display your picnic spread or place your picnic basket and fun picnic games.

Our tip to avoid sitting on muddy grass or a field with uncomfortable and poking sticks beneath you is to get a thick dual-lined picnic blanket. Often times these blankets have one side that is made of softer fabric that is comfortable to sit on while the reverse side is waterproof and is typically made of waterproof, thick, and resistant fabric. Often times these blankets come in a various of sizes and you can order a picnic blanket that your whole family can fit on! These picnic blankets are also a great gift to your fellow picnic-lovers such as friends and family members.

Name Bubbles Tip: To keep track of your picnic blanket while on the go, customize a clothing label with your name or your family’s name and stick it onto the label. Our clothing labels are resilient, waterproof, and laundry proof! This will make sure as you use your picnic blanket all picnic season, your picnic blanket won’t get lost and if it does, it’ll be sure to return back to you! 

Two: Become a Picnic Food Pro with DIY Lunchables

Rather than bringing along bags of chips and crackers and big containers of fruit and sandwiches, become a picnic pro by prepping and strategically planning all your picnic snacks. When you’re grocery shopping, make sure to choose simple and easy-to-eat foods that the kids will love. Think finger food like sandwiches, fruit salad, vegetable sticks, trail mix, juice boxes and, cheese and crackers.

To be even more of a picnic pro, package individually prepped containers or individual bags for every member of your family for their picnic lunch! Think of each container as a DIY Lunchable similar to at-home bento boxes. Lunchables are a great picnic lunch idea that kids love and are so much fun to eat and even prepare! Lunchables are famous for how they easily include all the ingredients needed for kids to create and eat a whole meal. Just like a Lunchable, each container should include everything you need for a picnic lunch: An entree, your sides and snacks, and even the dessert! We love Bentgo lunch boxes!

A few blog posts ago, we shared two picnic-friendly recipes you could re-create to serve as a snack on your outdoor getaway! Our hummus recipe is perfect to prepare a few nights before and easy to dip into with vegetables sticks like carrot or celery sticks. You can also go the classic route with grains like corn chips, pita chips, and crackers! 

If you decide to go the classic route and make sandwiches, one of our picnic ideas to add extra spice to your kid’s lunch is to use cookie cutters to mold your sandwiches into fun shapes. You can use smaller cookie cutters for little bites that are perfect for little kids. 

If you’re looking for three creative ways to serve apples and entice your kiddos to devour more fruit, try out our apple snacks recipes! We have three phenomenal ideas on how to turn casual apples into a tasty snack! Our blog is filled with more great picnic food ideas and great recipes to share with your kids at your next picnic – don’t miss out on recipes kids love and check out our previous posts!

Making an at-home Lunchable for you and your family is a great way to be prepared for an outdoor picnic and also an opportunity to create something fun for your family. This is also a great time to get kids involved to make this tasty lunch and we can guarantee they’ll have so much fun with this picnic idea for kids. After all, everyone loves Lunchables!

Tip: Make sure your picnic lunch has a ton of water bottles to hydrate and pack plenty of wet wipes in case of messy eaters or potential outdoor spills! If you plan on bringing your food cold, make sure your cooler bag is filled with plenty of ice packs.

Name Bubbles Tip: Customize each Lunchable with a Name Bubbles name label! Outside of the Lunchable container, place a Name Bubbles label with each family member’s name. To add some extra spice, choose label designs that represent each member of your family. You can even use our labels on any water bottles or a picnic basket. These customized containers will be helpful even outside of a kids picnic and will be super helpful for back to school when you’re packing your kiddos lunch! 

Three: Plan Ahead with Activity Stations

While the great outdoors offers so much to do, you can never be too prepared for a picnic, and planned activities are nice whenever the classic “I’m bored!” rolls around!

One of our easy picnic ideas is to try setting up a few activity stations around the picnic area to combat bored kids. We love easy activities like a bean bag toss, hula hoops or jump ropes, and even lawn bowling. Depending on the ages of your kids, you can choose to make these activities more or less complicated. A few great ideas that older kids may prefer are face painting, lawn games like giant Jenga or corn hole, or even a small obstacle course. You can even set up a picnic table with an arts and crafts station and bring out face paint and watercolors. Regardless of what you choose, just make sure that these are all activities that kids can do among themselves to keep them entertained throughout the day! 

Tip: To make your activity stations more interactive, make little scorecards with each kid’s name where they can record their scores. For example, If it’s a game like corn hole or a bean bag toss, calculate how many bean bags your little kids are able to throw into the hole! For jumping rope, write down the number of hops your kids complete. This is fun idea that is at virtually no extra cost to make! All it requires is paper and a pen and kids love having a souvenir of their picnicking experience.

Name Bubbles Tip: Use our Name Bubbles customizable name labels on even your yard games! This helps keep track of your summer gear, whether it’s jump ropes, a box of chalk, or bean bags, and you’ll know where everything is for the next kids picnic. 

Four: Have a big family game! 

Part of the fun in hosting a kids picnic is being able to spend time with your family. To really make your kid-friendly picnic experience a success, make sure to include a fun big family game! Once again, the game you choose will likely depend on the age of your kids, but here are a few group family game ideas we love:

Family Scavenger Hunt

• Hide hidden “treasure,” create a map, and write clues to lead your family on the ultimate backyard adventure! This activity is great for your backyard or a nearby park and will encourage your kid’s imagination and sense of adventure!

Group Kickball Game

• Kickball is a classic! For kickball, all you need is a large open space and a ball! This is a great activity for picnics with large families or if you’re picnicking with friends and their kids too!

Family Relay Race

• A relay race allows all your kids to participate but also cheer each other on! Split your family in half to make two “teams” and have a teammate participate in every event. A few event ideas are an egg race, a water balloon toss, a tug of war, and a three-legged race! 

Lawn Twister

• Drag your twister mat outside for some family fun! Warning: Expect a ton of giggles and belly laughs as you and your family try to figure out how to make your Twister pose and not fall down!

Five: Treasure these moments and enjoy the day! 

Parents, you’ve done it! You’ve successfully thrown a great kid-friendly picnic, and now it’s time to soak up the sunshine and spend time with your loved ones. The most important part of throwing a picnic is enjoying the time outside with your kids, family, and friends. 

Make sure to have fun and don’t stress. Snack on all the picnic food and picnic sandwiches and enjoy the fresh air. Play with your kids, enjoy our fun picnic ideas like your homemade Lunchables and treasure these moments.

For more blog posts on potential fun picnic ideas, picnic recipes, or just great ideas to enjoying time with your kids and get outside, make sure to check out our website and read our previous blog posts! Enjoy your kid-friendly picnic and we’ll see you outside!

If you try any of these fun ideas or picnicking tips, take a picture and share it with us on our social media! Tag us on Instagram at @namebubbles. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

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