Making Lemonade

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Our Playdate Picnic with Kmart Playdate Place

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There is no perfect formula for a playdate, except kids and toys being pretty important ingredients.  They don’t have to be fancy.  They can be spur of the moment or planned well in advance.  They can be large (and energetic) or small (and calmer).  Parents can accompany the kids or older ones may prefer to be dropped off. That’s why no two playdates are ever the same, which is what makes them interesting!  Kmart’s Playdate Place can help the planning process, whether it’s generating ideas for age appropriate toys or giving advice for potentially sticky situations.

Here’s the formula I followed for this particular playdate:

planned in advance + kids that know each other well + range of ages + new toys + moms and grandma =
a relaxing and fun time!
To celebrate the start to summer, I wanted this playdate to be extra special.  To start my brainstorming, I decided on a picnic theme.  Then, I visited the Playdate Place “Toy” tab to browse ideas for interesting toys in our age range.  Grills, bubbles, skates… all those fit the theme, so they went in the {online} shopping cart.

I knew I needed to kick it up a notch, so instead of serving the usual snacks I tried making my very first Bento Boxes.  I found the idea for the peeking bear online, but the crazy bagel + hummus rainbow and fruit out-of-order rainbow were all my own ideas (for better or for worse).  Get it, it’s a double rainbow!
Because I’m a novice bento-maker, I just used these Ziploc containers.  They worked, no need for fancy boxes:

Since we were going to spend the time outside I had a stash of first aid supplies should a knee get skinned or a finger bumped:

A tub full of juice boxes, lemonade, and water chills on the deck.  {see, ya’ll, I really don’t make lemonade, I buy it!}
About 10 minutes before our guests arrived I put the new toys, picnic supplies, and first aid kit on the deck.  What a picture perfect picnic day, thank you mother nature!
Check out the peanut gallery, watching as I put out the toys and doing their best to convince me to let them get their little hands on them…

Drama queens.

Phew, our guests arrived soon after so I didn’t have to stare at those pleading faces a minute longer.

We played and played and played.

As expected, the Get Out ‘N’ Grill was a hit with the entire group.

The ball kept popping out and hitting Bee on the head, and of COURSE he continued to push the button and then look into the chute.  The balls were very soft, so no worries about getting hurt, but some worries about Bee’s seemingly lacking understanding of cause and effect.
Thank goodness the Transformers came with a guide.  I’m SO not used to these tiny toys yet!

And ate, and ate and ate.

And parallel played.
And blew bubbles (the Bubble Bonanza set appealed to everyone!)

And gave flowers to each other.
We ended up using the Grow-With-Me Skates on the grass because the kids were like Bambi with legs splaying out when they tried them on the pavement.  The whole point is to use the first setting to practice walking in them, and that was very easy on the grass.  As they get more confident, I forsee moving onto the driveway to practice pushing forward.  It was super cute to see them striding across the grass in the skates!

And chatted in the yard.  Would love to know what these two were talking about!
When it came time to eat, I was unsure how they’d react to the strange mix of food in the bento boxes. Turns out they loved them, and ate all the veggies!  The bread, well… not so much.  I don’t blame them.  It was some organic whole wheat stuff, not exactly the kid-friendliest.

Unfortunately, there was a shipping delay with the VW Barbie PowerWheels so it arrived the day after our playdate.  We put it together this weekend and it’s raring to go.  Sounds like we’ll just need to plan another playdate soon to test it out!

Even though it was a whirlwind of kiddos, clean-up took under 10 minutes.  Here’s the aftermath:

And minutes later Noodle was quietly playing at the water table, decompressing from the exciting morning playdate while Bee took a nap.  I love playdate days, I’ve noticed my kids seem much happier on days we have friends over– sounds win-win to me!
Playing is fun.  Playing with friends is even better!  Thank you, Kmart Playdate Place for giving us some sound advice for planning and hosting a safe and relaxing playdate.
Noodle’s just going to wait here for her next playdate to arrive.  Anyone up for the challenge?
{are you listening, Jenny?  It’s O’s turn next!}

disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias.  All opinions are 100% my own and were not influenced in any way.

Meet Carrie Higgins


Dreamer, thinker, + lemon squeezer; you'll usually find me clutching a mug of coffee, glue gun, fandeck of paint colors, and a child at any given time. This mom of two (and wife to one) loves to share freshly squeezed ideas for home and family. Join the adventure as we learn most lemons can indeed become lemonade-- with generous amounts of sweetness, perspective, and love.

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