Thoughts?

This weekend, we have 3 eating adventures.

1. Saturday morning/lunch: four adults, five children (ranging from 12 years old to Iain). We will probably go over to the park, but then I need to give us all lunch and...I dunno. A salad, yes. Fruit, yes. Maybe pre-baked chicken breasts and buns? I'm trying to imagine all the food grumps 5 kids could offer and it's terrifying.

2. Saturday afternoon at Red Butte Gardens. Four adults, three kids, from seven years old down to Iain. In fact, the middle kid is also Ian, and he's 3.5. I think this should be snackage, plus cool drinks. We're meeting at 4:30, so that's a weird time for food.

3. Sunday brunch at the park. Iain, me, Luca-from-Iain's-school, and Luca's Mom. Plus an unknown number of people from Iain's class and their toddlers. Last week it was bagels and orange juice. This week....?? I found a bakery that makes the best croissants I've had since LA (and that includes France. Sorry, France.), but they're 'spensive. Very 'spensive. So that's out. Also, the last thing I want to do is drive all over the place to get to a park across the street.

Ideas?

Let me say this to start: traditional picnic foods tend to be a bust with us. We're not going to eat/make/smile at potato salad, for example. Or pasta salad. As a kid, I used to have a mental loop that went like this: "What if you sneezed and instead of...stuff...out came a piece of elbow macaroni? So doesn't that mean that elbow macaroni is...yucky? Yes. Yes, it does." I cannot explain this certainty, but pasta salad is out, and that's that.

So we're left with questions like: is crusty bread and cheese a cop out? If the chicken breasts are cold, would that make the sandwich gross? Will kids eat a big green salad with sliced almonds and goat cheese (ok, that's obvious: probably not.).

Did I mention the allergies and the fact that at least some of the people on some of these outings are kosher?

Maybe I should just get some jumbo Snickers bars and be done with it. What do you think?