Picnic Day

Steve and I are both graduates of the University of California at Davis. I was an undergrad from 1990-1994, then got my teaching credential there in 1995. Steve (who is four years younger than me) started his undergrad in 1994. Each April, UCD hosts an open house called Picnic Day. It is an amazing event. Every department on campus shows off its stuff with exhibits, games, activities, foods, demonstrations, or something else. There is a parade, a Battle of the Bands competition, a Doxie Derby, and about a thousand other cool events. Almost everything is free, including admission and parking.

Both Steve and I attended Picnic Day each year as students and most years since. We started taking Trevor when he was two. Picnic Day is very child-friendly, even for toddlers. Trevor absolutely loves it.  He starts making his Picnic Day game plan weeks in advance, pouring over the schedule to decide what old favorites he wants to see and do (like the Materials Science Magic Show, this horrifyingly awesome art project, corn shelling, the multi-cultural children's craft and activity area, the exotic fruit taste test, the liquid nitrogen ice cream, tie-dye shirts, planting tomatoes, etc), and what new activities he wants to try.

2014 was the Centennial Picnic Day. UCD celebrated the centennial in many ways, but the one that caught our eye was a huge scavenger hunt all over campus. Trevor LOVES scavenger hunts. (So do I. If you type "scavenger hunt" into the search bar to the right, there are 8 pages of posts that come up. We do a LOT of fun and creative scavenger hunts in the deRosier household.) We decided to make the scavenger hunt our main activity for the day, figuring that it would take us to most of our regular favorites and introduce us to other things as well. Sure enough! It was a blast.

Scrapping it was just as fun. I struggled to narrow down the photos, but ended up with five that did a pretty good job of representing our day. I used the GORGEOUS teal polka dot patterned paper by Traci Reed that I've been drooling over since CreativeLive and paired it with a neutral stripe. I wanted to play up the red balloon and red phone booth in the photos, so I hand-stitched around the title with red embroidery floss, added a red arrow, and set off my journaling with a strip of red (that is actually Christmas paper). I love how it turned out.

Picnic Day 2015 is already on our calendar! If you're within driving distance, I'd highly recommend marking your calendars for Saturday, April 18. It really is an incredible event.