How to Host a Teddy Bear Picnic + An Awesome Crustless Quiche Recipe

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I’m really lucky to have Friday’s off to spend with my son. We are also lucky that we have an awesome group of friends who are also off on Friday’s too. London’s got some great friends that were born all at the time same he was, and we get together with them as much as possible for play dates.

I thought it would be cute to host a teddy bear’s picnic themed lunch for the kids. Looking around online I wasn’t re-inventing the wheel or anything – there were lots of ideas out there for this type of lunch.

I started with asking all of the kids who were coming to bring their own teddy bear’s to our house for the party. When each child arrived they were given a cute tag with their name on it so they could put their bear in Teddy Bear Daycare. I found some free printables on this website here, and they turned out really cute! I created the Teddy Bear Daycare sign myself, and I had the Daycare “Check-in” at the front door. I think it made the kids feel like this was a serious event for their bears!
 

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I used the same website for a printable tag for water we had with lunch as well.
 

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I kept the food pretty basic for this party – I have a tendancy to take things a bit overboard sometimes, so I tried to keep things really simple. For the adults I had salad, sandwiches, and a mushroom, feta and spinach quiche which I will talk about later when I share the recipe with you!

For fun I made rasp”berry” lemonade, and I added real raspberries and basil for flavour (and because it looked pretty too!).
 

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For snacks I had Teddy Graham’s in a candy bowl, and everything was picnic themed in a checkered pattern.

 

 

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For dessert I had macaroons, tarts, mini apple pies, and I made vanilla cupcakes decorated to look like there was a bee on a beehive. I made the bees out of jellybeans. I cut black and yellow jellybeans into strips to make the bee body, and added some white royal icing to make the wings. I was kind of annoyed because I had the perfect tip to make the beehive, but of course I couldn’t find it the morning of the party, and when a toddler is running around your feet when you are looking for something important, concessions are made. I had to settle with it not looking quite the way I imagined it!

 

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Finally, the actual picnic!

I purchased a plaid table cloth at Homesense for $9.99 because it looked like the perfect picnic blanket. I just layered another blanket underneath so it was a bit more comfortable.
 

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The idea was to first have the kids play for a bit, then take their bears out of daycare to have a picnic. They sat down with their bears on the picnic blanket, and I brought over a picnic basket full of plastic food to feed their bears. It was really cute to see them take it so serious and feed their bears lunch!
 

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Finally it was time to feed the kids. I bought baskets to go with the picnic theme at a store called Wholesale Club where they sell restaurant supplies. Each basket was only $1.50. I added one of the checkered pattered napkins to make a cute picnic basket for their lunch.
 

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In their baskets each child had an apple juice, fruit cup, a couple cerely sticks, a Bear Paw, and a sandwich.
 

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It was a really fun theme to work with, and I think the kids had a good time!

For the adults I made a crustless quiche that I found on Budget Bytes that turned out really well! I have made a few good recipes from that website, and they have been really good. I changed up the recipe a bit, and I’ve added my own changes and step-by-step photos below as well.

To see the original recipe, visit the Budget Bytes website here. Like I said I changed it up a bit from the original.

Here is what I needed:

A handful of fresh spinach
One package of sliced mushrooms (I used cremini)
One clove of chopped garlic
2 oz of crumbled feta
4 eggs
One cup of milk
Half a cup of shredded Parmesan
One cup of shredded Mozzarella
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil spray

Step one was to chop up the fresh spinach, and layer it along a baking pan. I sprayed the baking pan with olive oil spray so the quiche wouldn’t stick to the pan.

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Next up I put the mushrooms and garlic into a frying pan and cooked them on medium until they were soft and there was no juice in the pan from the mushrooms. I added a little salt and pepper at this point as well.

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Next up I added the mushrooms and garlic on top of the spinach.

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I like to use Apetina Feta in water, and I took a few handfuls (2 oz-ish) and added them on top of the mushrooms.

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In a separate bowl I wisked the four eggs, added milk and the parmesean cheese and some salt and pepper. I poured this onto the ingredients in the pan, and then put the mozzarella cheese on top. That’s it – super easy! It baked for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. The quiche was pretty yummy, and so easy to make. And easy is very important when you have to worry about throwing something in the oven in the middle of a party! I planned on having tea at the party as well with a really cute tea set I had, but I completely forgot in the middle of all the chaos. Oh well, now my next party theme will be a tea party!
 

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Leather Sleeved Jackets for Fall and Winter

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I’ve been pretty leather-obsessed lately, buying any type of top, pant, or skirt that is either leather or has leather accents. Lucky for me it’s not hard to go shopping and find of one these items. Not so lucky for my wallet, but a girls got to build up her winter wardrobe!

My latest hunt was for a jacket with leather sleeves because I just love the look of them. I had a hard time choosing one, but my final choice ended up being from Forever 21. I’ve added what I found along the way below.

 

 

This is the one that I am wearing from Forever 21 below.

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This jacket other jacket from Forever 21 was in my online shopping cart for a bit!

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This one from Reitmans is only $29.99!

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Aritiza always has what I am looking for, and of course they have super cute versions of this style. Talulah’s version is cute!

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This Mackage jacket from Aritzia will probably break the bank (it would break mine), but wow it’s pretty!

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This furry one from Express looks cozy. That’s likely because it’s furry. Well played Express.

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This Banana Republic outfit as a whole needs to be mine. I love how slim the jacket fits.

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Club Monaco has a few jackets with leather selves, but this one is my favourite!

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Stay Warm and Gorgeous with Danier – Take the Quiz and You Could Win a $500 Shopping Spree!

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This is the easiest thing you are going to do all day, I promise! Take this short quiz to have the chance at winning a $500 shopping spree from Danier.

Leather is everything right now – I have been buying everything I can with leather accents, and my leather skirt collection is becoming epic. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you about this contest so I would have a better chance at winning, because apparently I need this shopping spree.

There are only 5 short questions, and then voila, you just need to enter your name and email address to have the chance at winning!

Click here to enter, and good luck!
 

 

 

 

 

 

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