How To Have The Best Summer Picnic Birthday Party

Our twins turned ONE last week! So many feelings about that. Goodness, it is just unreal. For their first birthday, I really wanted to keep things simple and celebrate with just our family but it needed to be special and memorable too. We opted for a birthday party at the park and if you have never done this before, you will want to keep this in mind for your next summer birthday. Having a summer picnic birthday party was the best idea ever.

Invites

I found adorable teddy bear picnic invites on Etsy. I waited a little too long to get the invites out, so I wanted to find something I could download and customize myself. These were perfect. I edited the invite to say it was a birthday picnic and then I was able to print them at my local copy store. I had professional invites that were really inexpensive in less than a day.

Cake

When deciding to do a birthday party at the park and keeping things simple, I made the decision to get a really fabulous cake and smash cakes. The idea was that I wanted something special to remember about their first birthday party. I found Baker’s Nook in Saline, MI and they took my idea for a teddy bear picnic party with my boy/ girl twins and made a cake I will always remember. It was beautiful and delicious. I was over the moon with how it turned out. I am so happy I splurged on this. It really made our simple picnic party seem extra special.

They were simply the cutest! We opted for no candles and simply put the babies on the red and white picnic tablecloth on the grass and let them dig in. I think it was a highlight for everyone to watch the twins smash into their birthday cakes. It was so cute!

Outfits

At our party, it was a beautiful sunny day. 85 degrees and I wanted little onesies that said ONE on them. It was a very last-minute decision but I was able to find exactly what I wanted on Etsy. I am so happy I was able to get them in time because this was not something I planned out too far in advance. They arrived quickly and I was so thrilled with the Etsy shop owner. They were perfect. If you are interested in the Etsy shop it is lilbellenbeaus. Paired with some little navy shorts and it all looked super cute together. Once they were done smashing their cakes, I changed them into a dress for a princess and a t-shirt and shorts for the little man to open gifts.

Food

We really wanted the whole picnic-in-the-park theme so we went with fried chicken (even the babies were thrilled with this idea – they really love chicken), chips & salsa, watermelon, strawberries, grapes, veggies & dip, and popsicles. It was kept pretty simple. Hubs went to pick up the chicken (that we ordered in advance) once we were all set up at the park. The fruits we got from Costco and all I had to do was wash the fruit, make the veggie dip, and cut up the watermelon the morning of the party. The food table just screamed “summer picnic” with the food choices and everyone loved it.

Gifts

Big sister really wanted to make the twin’s first birthday really special so we went to Build a Bear and she made them each a special stuffed animal for their birthday. This went right along with our whole teddy bear picnic idea and it was a way for her to do something special for them that she was a part of.

Party Favors

We had only 6 kids, including my older girl, so making a few little favor bags for the other kids was easy to do. My older girl had fun picking out things she thought her other cousins would like too which was fun for her. We had 4 older kids and 2 babies. For the older kids, we included a coloring book, a box of crayons (thanks to the 50 back-to-school deals), a little beanie boo, a tootsie pop, and a bubble wand. The babies got a rattle toy and a fabric baby book.

Activities

The kids had fun running around and playing with each other. They all used their bubble wands from the favor bags. I also brought a bucket of chalk for everyone to play with. The park we picked had a splash pad and two kids’ playgrounds. The kids spent a lot of time at the playgrounds and were close by to come back for cake and to eat. It was a good setting for them to have things to do while the grown-ups were able to sit around and hold babies. Other than bringing the chalk and bubble wands, I didn’t plan any games or activities. It seemed to work out just fine as everyone just wanted to hang out anyway.

Overall

I had a lot of fun pulling everything together. A picnic party is pretty easy to have. Having a child (or twins) with a summer birthday is new to me. Being able to do a party outdoors was just so fabulous. I love that we kept it simple to just our family. All of the grandparents, aunts & uncles, etc got to hold the babies and everyone got to be involved. If you are interested in some of the things we used, check out my list below.

Tablecloths

We really wanted fabric tablecloths, not just those flimsy plastic ones. I found these and they were perfect. We even used it on the ground as a picnic blanket for the babies to smash their cakes. I loved the way the red and white gingham looked with the green park and the white t-shirts. So sweet!

Preview	Product	Price
	AnapoliZ Plastic Checkered Tablecloth | 6 Pcs Pack - 54” Wide x 108” Long | Red and White Picnic...	$12.79	Buy on Amazon

We also made sure to buy a bunch of these tablecloth clips which really worked well for us. We didn’t have any problems with the table clothes flying off.

Party Favors

We used plain brown paper gift bags and beautiful matching red and white gingham ribbon to pull it all together. It was simple but tied in nicely with everything and the kids really liked it. If I could have found little teddy bear stuffed animals to go in the party favor bags I would have done that too.

Plates

I loved the look of our lunch plates and cake plates. They looked great and we paired them with simple white napkins and red plastic silverware. Since we had to buy all of this stuff anyway, I am glad I took an extra few minutes and found ones that matched our picnic theme. We got the 10″ and the 6″ plates with this red gingham pattern. It looked all really great altogether.

Preview	Product	Price
	Amscan Picnic Gingham Party Round Plates, 8.5", 40 Ct., Red/White		Buy on Amazon

Do you have a summer birthday in your family?

I’d love to hear your summer birthday party ideas. Have you done the picnic party theme? Now that we have the twin’s birthdays at the end of July, we will be loving outside birthdays in the future too. Feel free to join the conversation.