Last weekend I was invited to one of my friend’s birthday party. It was actually a birthday and picnic party combination. The celebration started at 3pm on Saturday afternoon out in one of the nicest local parks. This particular park has a water play area for the kids, a playground, a small lake with ducks, geese and so many other birds.

Since it was a weekend there were a lot of people in the park. Many young mothers were walking around the lake with their children and pushing the strollers getting fresh air for themselves and their babies.

Most of the guests arrived on time, still there were some who came a little late still everyone got to the party one way or another. Late or not the host didn’t care, he started dinner as soon as the majority of the guests arrived.

The birthday girl’s husband received a brand new BBQ grill as a Christmas gift from his wife and was just ecstatic to show off his new toy. Since I knew ahead of time what his wife purchased for him for Christmas – she told me - and I also know they just love camping, hiking and picnicking, my present for the wife for her birthday was an absolutely stunning wicker picnic basket for 4 with all accessories included and a lovely picnic blanket. You could just see the glow and joy on her face when she opened that present.

Because they had a camping trip scheduled for the following month for their 15th anniversary, she promised me they were going to take their new picnic basket on that trip. They were both so excited to go on this trip because grandma would take care of the children, so they would be free as birds for a whole week. Imagine, just the two of them, alone on a romantic anniversary camping trip somewhere in the back country.

While our dinner was cooking, the grown ups were talking, some telling jokes and the children got to play games, run around in the grass, splashing water at each other in the water park, and they had too much fun jumping on the huge bouncer that was rented just for them.

I got so carried away talking about these wonderful holiday gift ideas like a wicker picnic basket for 4 and the fun we’ve had that I completely forgot to talk about the food. Dinner included marinated grilled chicken, Cesar salad, grilled giant shrimp, homemade potato salad, hamburgers on homemade buns, pies and so much more. All was so fresh and tasty, the meats were juicy and the pies. Oh my! The pies were yummy! My favorite was the banana cream pie with the whip cream on top. Our birthday girl’ mother must have worked all night on those pies.

Our birthday girl was given so many presents and her husband was such a sport about carrying all those gifts to their car while we helped with the cleanup and the leftovers. The party was scheduled for about four hours but because all the guests had a blast it lasted much longer and I’m glad to say, the park was left so much cleaner than it was before the event.

All in all it was fantastic! Everybody had an awesome time and the kids did not want to stop jumping on the bouncer even after the Sun went down. I am certain I will be back next year for this party if I get invited.