Last week we headed to one of our local parks and set up camp for the afternoon for a little birthday picnic for Gus and his pals. The sun shone, we had food and drink and fab party bags I’d bought  from The Jelly Rabbit and a brilliant picnic rug from Barbour… 

Gus slept for the first half (typical, eh?) but once he woke had great fun with a brilliant inflatable flying saucer, an inspired choice by our journalist pal (clever types, them) Sophie (and thankyou Soph for letting me include pictures here of the lovely Echo!). Basically the best part of the party was spent with the kids chasing the flying saucer around the park while the parents looked on in a mixture of bliss and alarm – yes, it got caught in the trees (queue jumping on the husband’s shoulders to get it down, haha!) and yes, eventually, eventually it blew into the road and – [loud bang!] – met its end beneath wheels of a car. But great while it lasted.

My top tip is handing out the party bags first, that seemed to go down quite well, although maybe I’m missing something key. Sweetening the pain of parting the party, perhaps? But I was so proud of them, I was aching to see the kids enjoy the racing snails, whistles, party lazers, mini dinosaurs and balloons. And that way, it felt like everyone’s party!

The Barbour Rather Handy Picnic Rug  was a godsend, and held up well under the trampling of toddlers’ mucky feet. Definitely something I’ve been missing in my summer arsenal, as I’ve tended to use quite nice scarfs for park visits in the past, which has always been a bit wince-worthy. If you like the look of it Barbour are giving three away every day 15 June – 6 June – to enter share a picture of your British summer and hashtagging #BarbourPicnicRug on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. Here’s to lots of lovely sun-filled afternoons in the park!