Before the Spring season really even sprung, my girl Chelsea and I made our spring and summer bucket list together. It was a very serious activity. We picked up food, put a movie on in the background, and set up the kitchen table with our notebooks and laptops to make our lists come to life; beyond the paper! We both wrote the lists, so we had them handy to be able to look back on and check each off each idea as we experienced them, but we are both visual learners. We feed off the photographs, charts, colors, and bold texts that bring each one of our noted ideas come to life. Last weekend, we decided to bring our perfect spring picnic out of the mood board and onto my beautiful backyard!
First things first: We must visit the farmers market and grocery stores to pick out the prettiest pieces of produce to conduct our menu with!
The menu for this patriotic picnic:
- Stacked sandwiches- SUCH a picnic staple. I seriously do not think you should host or attend a picnic without these showing up on your blanket. Yes, it really is that serious! It’s equivalent to showing up to a beach day without hoagies, chips, and cherries. Come on, now Diamonds! Both sandwiches are different because Chelsea is a bit of a picky eater, where I am not. However, there is no right or wrong. A sandwich is a sandwich and they are all succulent in their own special, unique sensational way.
- A fruit platter- filled with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, and watermelon slices because what’s a Memorial Day picnic without watermelon? Also, please remember that the quality and freshness of the fruit can 100% make or break your platter. The fruit must be fresh, crispy, juicy, and sweet as sugar.
What would a strawberry be without whipped cream?
- There is really nothing better than serving some whipped topping garnished with sprinkles to go along with your fabulous fruit platter! A pretty picnic with your bestie always calls for more whismical excitement!
Every picnic has to include savory sides with their sweet:
- Thin, crispy, salty potato chips.
- Crispy chicken and chickpea caesar salad pasta salad. This was dynamite! If you all want a full recipe for this salad, please leave your comments down below! If you do not want to, or you simply don’t have time to make any homemade sides, you can go to your local deli to pick up your favorite ones that you believe your loved ones will love as much as you love them. Caesar dressing is Chelsea’s absolute favorite. It’s her preferred salad, as well as breaded chicken vs. grilled, so I just knew I’d make her entire day with this one!
What to bring to the blanket?
- Well a blanket, of course!
- The fantastic food from the menu you perfectly curated!
- A sweet treat! In this particular picnic I set out some patriotic sugar cookies that I picked up from the farmers market.
- Bags of chips or your favorite snacks.
- Cozy colorful pillows.
- Cold, fizzy drinks.
- Water!
- Books to read or write in.
- Journals.
- Coloring books and markers.
- Board games such as scrabble or card games would be really fun to play while you soak up the sun and enjoy all of the yummy, colorful eats you prepped for the picnic.
- Speaking of sun, if it’s a warm or even super hot day like it was the date of our picnic, you must layer on some good smelling sunscreen. It’s so very important!
- Now, speaking of hot.. if it’s really hot, you might want to bring out a spray bottle to mist yourselves while you embellish in all of these glorious activities for the next few hours.
- Lastly, your friend must be there to accompany you! Unless, perhaps you’d like to have a solo picnic session which is perfectly acceptable and sounds so lovely, actually!
What to wear on the blanket?
- Something light, cozy, and on theme for what you are planning the picnic for!
Chelsea is sporting a cute and comfortable summertime lounge set that definitely matches that Americana theme we were going for being that Memorial Day was just around the corner. She also has a hat on that matches her shorts perfectly to protect herself from the hot sun. Sunglasses are always a necessity when stepping outside into the strong rays since you wouldn’t want to be squinting the entirety of participating in the picnic. That would not be enjoyable and we absolutely want to enjoy this time as much as humanly possible!
We honestly had the most relaxing time together! We relished in every activity and savored every single sip and bite of food that I had set out for us to revel in. We soaked up the sun, watched the breeze blow between the leaves of the trees, listened to the rustle of the bushes moving by the sway of the wind, read in the sun, and planned some additional girly dates to check off more of our spring/summer bucket list. Everything was outstanding and we can’t wait to do something similar again. We’re most definitely going to be planning an autumnal picnic to soak in the fall sun and stare at the leaves changing while we indulge in festive eats and spooky snacks! I’m already probably too excited about it as you can tell. Lol. I wanted to show you Diamonds how much you can celebrate this memorable holiday even if you are not hosting or attending a huge cookout where loads of people are running in and out of the house, jumping in and out of the pool, and you are having to refill, re-pour, and reset all of those party favors that you’re continuously in charge of when you’re house is where the main event is located at. This picnic is something you can embark on to celebrate the weekend with, while not having to spend an excessive amount of money, worry about making sure the house is beyond perfect for guests, and raking your brain to come up with an insane menu that all 30 of your friends and family will be raving about all the way up til next May. It can be so simple! Bring a blanket outside and set up all of your favorite things to do on it. Then, stay there as long as you see fit! If it happens to be a wash out of a weekend just as it is right here in my hometown as we speak, you can set the scene in your enclosed porch, or right in your very own living room while you watch Memorial Day starring Jonathan Bennett that the girlies all know and love from Mean Girls. If you grew up as a millennial in the early 2000’s, this movie was the epitome of your teenage years.
Deepfrieddiamonds 
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