My mom and I were shopping in a used furniture store and we saw a picnic-set backpack. I remember those were THE wedding present a number of years ago—I wonder if they still are? They’re just so charming and romantic, with their tableware for two, their wine-bottle holster and plastic wine glasses, the whole concept of newlyweds picnicking on a grassy hill. And yet the picnic backpack we saw was completely unused, and a friend of mine offered a similar report: that they had even registered for a picnic set, but then never got around to using it a single time and so finally re-gifted it to another couple.

This is not a large enough sample on which to base a decision on the suitability of the “picnic set as wedding gift” idea. For one thing, it’s really a sample of ONE couple: for all we know, the unused set at the used furniture store could have been from a couple who received two or more sets as gifts. And my friend who told me they never used their set was not a member of a couple that went on hikes and picnics BEFORE they got married, so they may have just gotten caught up in the idea that everything would change as soon as they were married—just as many women have a foggy concept of wearing long white nightgowns and sitting in rocking chairs as soon as the baby is born.

So the first thing I would like to know is whether you received a picnic set as a wedding gift, and the second thing I would like to know is if you have used it. And then I would like to look at some options, partly for the fun of seeing what’s available, partly for the usefulness in the current wedding season, and partly so that people can say, “Yes, we got one—hey, it’s the third one down!”

The Picnic Time Insulated Backpack for Two (photo from Amazon.com) is similar to what my mom and I saw.
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Elizabeth, age 7, has realized that 2-piece swimsuits are unacceptable without skirts. I say “realized” instead of “decreed” or “decided” or “declared,” because that is how it seems to her: that she has become aware of a fact, not that she has made a rule or experienced an opinion. Luckily I bought her swimsuits on clearance last year for $3-4 each, so it doesn’t really matter that THEY ARE A TOTAL LOSS. Also luckily, this is the time of year swimsuits start to go on sale/clearance.

But this means I had a very particular quest: a 2-piece swimsuit that meets my guidelines for little-girl suits (the usual “It should look as if it were made for a LITTLE GIRL”) and also HER revised-and-updated guidelines for suits (the two pieces of the suit shouldn’t show much skin between them, if any, and the bottom needs to be skirted or to have a skirt add-on).

It spoils the suspense to go right to the one I bought, but so be it:

Xhiliaration 3-piece tankini set (photo from Target.com). Bonus: I think that skirt will go with one of the non-skirted 2-piece suits I bought her before I knew The Fact.
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The twins turned seven, and for me it meant not just “O MY BABIES ARE GROWING UP” but also “O MAN THIS IS A LOT OF PRESENT IDEAS TO COME UP WITH.”

One of the more surprising successes was a calculator (photo from Amazon.com) for Edward. He’d kept stealing mine, so I wondered if he might like to have one of his own—and although his first reaction was not quite the level of THRILL a person might be looking for in a birthday gift reaction, he’s played with it nearly every day since.

My parents bought LittleMissMatched socks (photo from LittleMissMatched.com) for Elizabeth. I had the fun of choosing, so I chose all from the buy-3-sets-get-1-set-free section, to reduce the pain of paying THREE dollars PER sock PLUS shipping. This was a great gift idea for grandparents, because I KNEW Elizabeth really wanted the socks but I was having a hard time getting over the hurdle of the price (and the SUPER annoyance of not being able to use a free shipping code on an order containing buy-3-get-1). My mom: “Pish! They’re perfect! Let’s order them!”
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Every summer I like to buy an assortment of fun things and little treats. (Buying things: it’s how I cope.)

Our first treat this summer was a selection of Hostess items (Twinkies, cupcakes, Sno-balls, a fruit pie) for cultural literacy. (Verdict: no one liked them as much as they’d expected to, but it was fun to do/try.) We also tried the York Peppermint Patty ice cream bars (verdict: pretty good) and the Reese’s Cup ice cream bars (verdict: two kids didn’t finish theirs and the others thought they were fine; I thought they were VERY YUM and I gladly ate the ones the two kids didn’t finish).

Then I bought the game Scrambled States (photo from Amazon.com). William got an “area of concern” marking in U.S. geography this past year, so he and I are working together on our geography dislike/difficulty. (My grandfather was a cartographer. You can imagine the pain he felt when, for example, he would ask me if I knew where Egypt was. Me: “Let’s see. It’s not in North America or, like, near England. …Wait. Right?”) We’ve been playing the game for a couple of weeks, and it’s a really good one. It’s marked “8+” and it’s definitely perfect for Rob and William (and, er, me), but it’s easy enough that the 7-year-old twins can play it with us too as long as I keep reassuring them that the rest of us have already LEARNED our states (…theoretically) so of COURSE we’re better at it.
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