The sun is out, let’s have a picnic.

This month’s Tots 100 Center Parcs Challenge is all about picnics. We had family visiting from New Zealand over the Bank Holiday weekend, so took advantage of a break in the clouds to get out for a picnic at our local park. The thing about picnics is that they can be as simple or as complicated as you want: my Girls often have a carpet picnic for tea during the week- just sandwiches, crisps and fruit, for example, which takes little effort and which they really enjoy.

Or you could take picnics to a whole new level of creativity- which I am far more likely to do if they are on a school trip- and follow the example of Jill at Meet the DuBiens, who has a wealth of Bento-related archives for you to drool over. Or use as inspiration. Likewise Pippa from a Mother’s Ramblings does an amazing job varying the contents of her children’s lunchboxes. There is a host of recipes on the Lunchbox World website, which also sells some fabulous lunchboxes if you are looking.

We kept it simple: DH bought mini-rolls at Waitrose, which we filled with Marmite- both Kiwi and English. Grown-ups got full-sized beef and horseradish, ham and avocado and chicken and chutney rolls. All delicious. There were packets of crisps, slices of melon and pineapple, and mini-cakes and tarts, again courtesy of Waitrose. I am a fan of mini-things where children are concerned. The small size appeals to them. Needless to say that, in the shade of a large tree, it all got eaten pretty swiftly, so that we could get back to the important business of a family game of football.

That’s the thing about picnics- they are a super group activity. We have had so many over the years in all the countries my parents lived in whilst I was growing up and two things are essential: food and ball sports. Actually that should be four things: food, good weather, ball sports and beer. The life of an expat always seems to involve beer at any group activity!

After we had eaten and played and were in need of a new challenge, I unveiled ‘secret spies’. I have been wanting to try Geo-cache for ages, but the final push were a couple of my Facebook friends who posted pictures of their families having so much fun. So I downloaded the app- at £6.99 it isn’t cheap but after only one session I have no doubt that we will get value from it. We used this app to navigate around the park, finding the caches of varying sizes, with some success. Only once was there anything other than a log book in the container though, which saddened me: I can’t help thinking that British people are the worst for just helping themselves to the contents of boxes….

We were by no means stealthy: 4 adults, 4 children, a dog and a pushchair would still look obvious even if we were in camouflage. But we had a super fun time: the children loved searching for the boxes and following the compass on the app on my phone. We loved that they walked miles without complaint as we played ‘secret spies’. And I have to say that we are hooked. Especially when there is an ice-cream van just waiting for us as we finish.

 

For a chance to become the newest Center Parcs Family Blogger and to win a family break to a Center Parcs village of your choice, simply share pictures of your fun-filled family picnic on your blog and tweet @tots100  a link to it. Be sure to include the Center Parcs and Tots 100 handles in your tweet, as well as the #CPFamilyBreak hashtag before the challenge closes on May 31st.