quick trick: rainy day picnic

Surprise, surprise--another rainy, gray winter day here in Maryland.

So after we got home from Owen's soccer practice, I got busy packing our picnic basket. Then Owen and Cora got busy setting up our favorite blue and white striped picnic blanket--right smack dab in the middle of the living room floor.

It might not have worked outside, but at our house, today was the perfect day for an old-school, Rainy Day Picnic.

Okay, so it's not as much a Quick Trick as much as it is just a little something that usually brightens our spirits on rainy--or cloudy, or foggy, or snowy day--but I still thought it was worth sharing.

• Rainy Day Picnic: For my kiddos, any time juice boxes or packed lunches are involved, it usually qualifies as a good day. Today was a good day.
  

For Rainy Day Picnics, I bring out the fancy ole picnic basket that my husband and I received as a wedding gift for those impromptu, romantic, weekend picnics that we never actually had.

even Baby Cheetah made it to today's picnic

I pack (of course!) juice boxes, sandwiches, and snacks, and napkins, and after the blanket is spread out, I walk the big walk (two rooms away), from the kitchen to the living room, I plop the basket down, and I unpack our lunch.

We chat, eat, and pretend we're somewhere warm--the beach, the park, wherever. When Cora was too teeny to sit still on the blanket, I moved her chair to the floor so that she wouldn't run around, but now that she's weeks away from three, we are footloose and chair-free.

And that's it. Not only do Rainy Day Picnics add a little sunshine to our day, but the clean-up can't be beat: the trash is back in the basket, and I shake the crumby-blanket. Woo-hoo!