Summer Mother Daughter Picnic Ideas | Simple & Beautiful

When life is hard I want to create and relax, which is why I’m so excited to share these simple mother daughter picnic ideas with you!

If you haven’t heard yet, we have been home with our adopted daughter for 7 weeks.

I shared a bit about the first few days it in my cottage container garden tips post a couple of weeks ago.

But more time has passed, and while some of the challenges we faced early on are settling, we are finding new struggles.

Currently, our biggest struggle is communication.

She is so smiley, but when she wants to communicate with us and we don’t understand her it is a very frustrating thing for everyone.

2-year-old tantrum level frustration.

This also means that our attention is often on her instead of the big girls, if we’re not careful.

Que Mother Daughter Picnic

So I decided to create a mommy and me picnic in the backyard to help the big girls.

I wanted to be intentional with them and make sure that they knew that our love for them has not changed.

So I decided a backyard boho picnic would be a fun way to remind them, that although a lot has changed, not everything has.

(These backyard picnics are one of their favorite things.)

This picnic is also a perfect way for me to flex my creative muscles and work out some frustration.

Because let’s be honest, does anyone find it enjoyable to listen to a child throw themselves on the ground a scream at you?!

This mother daughter picnic is a picnic for so many things.

Not that this couldn’t be a great Mother’s Day picnic, but if you’re looking for some more inspiration I have a gorgeous Mother’s Day Picnic for you HERE.

How can I make a picnic more fun?

The best way to make a picnic with kids more fun is to make sure you include their favorite things.

I did a kid-friendly charcuterie board earlier this year and talked about all the things you should include for food in that post.

But beyond the food make sure you include the little things that bring a smile to their adorable little faces.

I’ll get into the details of how we accomplished that for this picnic in a bit.

But just generally make sure that you are not focusing on your wants and desires.

Think about the little kiddos who will be sitting around the table with you.

I like to envision the scene before it happens and to get some ideas.

Mother Daughter Picnic Ideas

Mother Daughter Picnic Ideas | Let Them Set the Table

Before we picked the flowers or the food we walked around the house and decided how we wanted to decorate the table.

This was actually a really fun thing for me.

If I’m being honest this is the first time I’ve given the girls this much freedom to pick the table decor.

And they did a fabulous job if I do say so myself.

At the start I was trying to add brass and copper (my usual table decor materials) but then I realized what they were creating was more beautiful with my ideas no mixed in.

So I put my stuff back and started leaning into their ideas.

Now I’m not saying that I didn’t guide them at all, because I did.

For instance, I knew we didn’t have enough flowers to fill the HUGE bucket, but we did have enough for a couple of small vases.

It was so much fun watching them run all the pieces and parts out to the table and then start setting the table up.

Mother Daughter Picnic Ideas | Let Them Select the Food

The list of food requests for this particular picnic was very short.

I’ll be honest, it worked out better for me that way haha!

We had garden-fresh rhubarb pie with homemade sourdough crust.

(If your looking for a recipe this one is so easy and comes together really quick.)

I’ve also made a delicious sourdough discard lemon cookie which would have been perfect for this Summer picnic too.

Anyway, the only other thing that was requested was a basket of blueberries.

We’ve been picking blueberries from our blueberry bushes every day for a couple of weeks now, so we have blueberry brains, haha!

I suppose it was more of a light refreshment picnic than a full-on lunch picnic this time around.

But like I mentioned before, this picnic was about the girls and what they wanted.

Not me and me perfectly scheduled ideas.

Mother Daughter Picnic Ideas | Let Them Pick the Flowers

For this Summer picnic, my oldest daughter and I went wandering around the yard to pick the flowers.

I invited everyone, but our middle daughter decided to play on the swing set with her baby sister instead.

Before it was over my oldest was so excited to put all the flowers in a vase and get them back on the picnic table.

Speaking of the picnic table, if you don’t have a low table like this you can always make an easy DIY picnic table out of pallets.

That’s what we did before we got this table.

After I cut these flowers and put them in their vases, I put them in a cool dark place until it was time for them to go to the table.

This is actually a mix of faux and real flowers because of timing.

Go figure I would decide to do this after almost all the Spring flowers were done blooming haha!

But the girls didn’t care.

Isn’t it funny, the things that truly matter to them and the things that we get all hung up on?

Mother Daughter Picnic Ideas | Pull Out the Special Dinnerware

This is something I did without them knowing it at first.

I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise.

I added great-grandmas glasses that we use for special occasions.

The girls LOVE when I pull these out.

I also grabbed their favorite plates that we picked up at a thrift store not too long ago.

It’s not a huge thing, but when they saw them they were so excited.

It’s the little things with kiddos.

The Main Goal

At the end of the day creating a special mother daughter Summer picnic is about putting someone else’s needs above our own.

If we want to shower someone with love we need to make sure we’re speaking their language and showing them love the way they receive it.

For my big girls that’s in the form of little things like homemade rhubarb pie with Mommy.

For my baby girl she feels love greatest when we wrap our arms around her and show her that we are going to take care of her.

The next time you want to make something extra special for one of the littles in your life try including them in the process and if nothing else, envision the things that they would love.

Pouring love out to others is less about what we feel like, and more about how it makes them feel.

At the end of the day, this picnic took longer to set up than any I’ve done yet, and I’ve done a bunch of these backyard picnics.

Boho Garden Party
Early Fall Picnic
Hot Cocoa Picnic in the Snow

But this one has a special place in my heart.

It was our first as a family of 5!

How do I spend my mother daughter time?

This is just one of the wonderful ways that you can spend your mother daughter time.

Some of the other ways we have been intentionally spending time together are:

• Doing favorite hobbies together (We like to go running together)
• Family read-a-loud time
• Have a spa day at home
• Watch a favorite movie together
• Make dinner together
• Make fun crafts together

I hope this encourages you to find ways to turn regular everyday activities into special time.

It’s definitely been a huge help as we walk through this big transition.

Pin for later!

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Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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