picnic basket | JahBella

We had our first family picnic of 2015 over the weekend and we had it with tons of other families during the SG50 Family Picnic at the Istana organized by Families for Life.

Family pic before entering the Istana

Families for Life is organizing a series of family bonding activities and monthly family picnics in conjunction with the SG50 celebrations this year. In fact the monthly family picnics started last year and is held at a different location/neighborhood park each month.

The one we attended over the weekend was held at the Istana and was one of the largest one to be held, with families from all over Singapore gathering on the Istana grounds.

There were games, music, free milo, ice cream, coffee and popcorn. Bouncy castles and play equipments were set up all over the lawn to enter the little kids. Balloons and stickers were given out to kids and families. Each family that pre-registered for the event was also entitled to a complimentary cooler bag with some useful items like first aid kit, rain coats and a small umbrella to name a few. The cooler bag came in very handy for us to store our bag of ice because we were too lazy to lug a cooler box with us. :p

Milo truck

Items in our free cooler bag

SG50 Stickers and Calendar

Playground on the lawn

Families could also purchase up to 2 picnic baskets ($10 each) with proceeds going to the President’s Charity. I loved the little red picnic basket and it had some nice little treats inside. Especially nice for families who may have decided to travel light for their picnic. We, on the other hand braved the load and probably looked alittle silly carrying bags of bottle drinks and sandwiches and pies with us while queuing to get in but we were absolutely happy with the extra ice cold drinks and food. :p

Picnic basket goodies and more!

While the weather threatened to dampen our moods with passing showers (literally passing with 5 minutes of rain each time) and the occasional drizzle, the event was pretty cool. The kids went absolutely crazy with the space they had around them. The sprawling park and lawn where they could run freely without having us adults shouting at them to be careful. Something we really are not quite able to do or not do anymore. The live music that they could dance and groove to and the whole family just being able to relax and bask in the sunlight or huddle under one brolly together.

Perfect blue skies!

I’m singing in the rain!

The process of getting into this event was I assume slightly more tedious than the other park events but this is to be expected, given that we had to clear security etc to get through. Perhaps we will attend one of their other monthly picnics again soon to check out the difference. That being said, there is really nothing stopping us all from organizing our own little picnic with our families is there? 🙂

This is truly an awesome initiative and I hope more families will look to spend more time with each other. I’m fortunate that JahBella has the ‘village’ to spend weekends with, their ever sporty and fun uncles and aunties! #familytimeprecioustime 🙂