Teddy Bears Picnic day has just passed on July 10th and to celebrate we were given the chance to choose a lovely new stuffed animal to hold a little picnic of our own. The boys love picnics, even a simple picnic in our back garden always makes a meal time more fun and is such an easy way to inject a bit of extra fun into our daily routine.
We chose this cute Hamley’s Ping Ping the Panda from House of Fraser. He is so soft! I love him and the boys do too as you can see here Mr T is giving him a big cuddle.
Bringing in teddies for our picnic also helped to make it more of on occasion and to incorporate some fun role play too.
I recently wrote about Mr R’s learning through play with a teddy bear’s picnic using wooden fruit and many of the same things apply with real food. The boys helped me to chop the fruit before the picnic, and we talked about the different foods and pretended to share with Ping Ping and some of our other teddies.
I just prepared a simple selection of food for the children’s teddy bears picnic with sandwiches, different chopped fruits, cheese, crisps and jam tarts along with juice for them to drink. Our jam tarts were shop bought this time but if you want to make your own for your picnic you can try our easy jam tart recipe and take a look at some we made recently. They are a classic choice for picnics! I remember having these things in picnics as a child, so although jam tarts are a little “retro” nowadays I like to pass on those same traditions to my kids because I know we are making some more fun memories.
A simple activity like a teddy bears picnic can be great over the long summer holidays. You don’t really need to spend a lot of money or do something elaborate all the time, just taking the lunch outside and adding a fun element like some teddies can sometimes be enough to brighten the mood if the children are tired, bored or getting restless at home.
Depending how long you have and how you want to extend the activity, you could bake in the morning and then carry out the teddy bear’s picnic for lunch or just whip up the children’s usual kind of lunch with a few extras thrown in if you have something available.
The other panda there is Mr R’s old panda (called Pand) which he loved when he was a baby. Pand has now been assigned to the role of being Ping Ping’s baby, and came along to join in the teddy bear’s picnic.
After eating, the pandas were treated to some scooter stunt shows by the boys. They set them up to watch while they burned off some more energy
I’m sure we will have many more teddy bears picnic with Ping Ping our new panda friend in future, whether at home, in school (our local school does teddy bear picnics for the new reception children each year, you can read how Mr T got on with his here), or having a picnic on the beach.
We have a traditional picnic table and bench set up in our garden which I bought about two years ago, and I must say that it’s a great addition to the garden and gets loads of use not only for picnics but also for painting, outdoors messy play and all sorts of fun things.
We were sent Ping Ping the panda and some supermarket vouchers to enable us to have a teddy bear’s picnic and share it on the blog.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Hurrah for the Teddy bear’s picnic. It is something I must do with the younger children here on the farm, a classic that children always enjoy, and the food too! Thank you for sharing with me on Country Kids.
What a fun way to celebrate Teddy Bear Picnic Day! Looks like your kiddos had a great time.
Utterly stunning pictures, nothing like a Teddy Bear’s Picnic! #countrykids
We love having teddy bears picnics with real and pretend food, great activity for indoors and outdoors too.
Aww… this is so much fun Anna! You just inspired me to throw a picnic for my kid’s cuddlies. I think it will be fun.. in fact.. I think I’ll make teddy have his first Fast tomorrow and then throw an iftar party. 😀 wouldn’t that be educational and fun?!
aww teddy’s iftar – so fun! I love that idea 🙂
What a lovely idea and Ping Ping is a great choice! I will have to get my two out for a teddy bears picnic over the summer – though I’m not sure we have enough room in the garden for their many, many teddies!
Looks like so much fun, I think I am going to have to put this on our list of things to do in the holidays 🙂 #countrykids
Looks like they are having a great time!
The cutest picnic ever! Next time we do go out for a picnic I might invite my son’s stuffed toys too =) #countrykids
Lol “pand” isn’t that Carrie m???
Carrie M is his code name lol, don’t break his cover! hehe 😉
Summer Teddy Bear’s Picnic! Nice idea. During free times or weekends, we often have our chichat outdoor and I just love our Picnic benches. You really feel like relaxed and peaceful. That would be so much fun. 🙂