This post is also available in: Español
This is a sponsored post in partnership with JCPenney. However all opinions are my own. #SoWorthIt
For our family summer is all about creating family memories and one of our favorite things to do is spend time outdoors whether it’s at the beach, hiking or having a picnic at the park. Last weekend we spent the afternoon at a nearby park. Taking advantage of the long summer days we had a delicious picnic dinner at the sandy beach overlooking the lake.
We recently bought an awesome picnics basket at JCPenney and honestly it has taken our family picnics to the next level! With full service for four people and lots of space to put everything we need inside it, from the food to the picnic blanket, the kids now want to have picnics all the time.
Before heading out to the park we spent the morning at home preparing all the food we would put in our new picnic basket. Cooking together is something my family enjoys doing. Letting the kids help in preparing the food and packing the picnic basket got them even more excited about our day out.
Earlier this summer we visited my brother in law who lives in Spain so we got some inspiration from our travels and created Latino inspired picnic food that combined flavors from Spain as well as flavors from our home country: Guatemala.
Latino inspired picnic food ideas:
- Orange and mango agua fresca with blueberries
- Jamon serrano and manchego sandwiches with arugula
- Latino inspired cheese platter with queso manchego, queso cabrales, guava and quince paste, spicy citrus marinated olives, chipotle maple roasted nuts, jamon iberico and grapes.
- Watermelon queso fresco salad
- Black bean and chipotle hummus
- Mango coconut arroz con leche
We shop at JCPenney regularly because we like the great variety and quality at affordable prices. They have everything we need to really bring our summer to life including picnic baskets, coolers, patio furniture and even camping equipment. In fact the wooden cutting board we used for the cheese board and the mason jars with tealights we brought in case it got dark during our dinner picnic where also from JCPenney.
There is nothing like creating memories with family through experiences and though we love to travel we also love to spend time outdoors exploring our own neighborhood. Growing up in Guatemala, I used to go on picnics regularly and I had some great adventures. Now I am creating those great moments for my kids. While they explore and have fun outdoors I also share with the stories of my childhood adventures and tell the more about the country they where born in.
During our picnic we even made a new friend; a squirrel decided to join us and the kids had a lot of fun watching it try to “steal” food. I know that my kids will remember the fun time we had on our summer picnics this year and can’t wait for next weekend to get here.
What are your favorite family memories growing up?
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