How to express the same sentence differently

In writing, we do not want our readers to get bored after reading our works. To avoid this from happening, we have to vary the way we write our sentences. We should not stick to one sentence pattern. Hence, it is worth experimenting with various ways of expressing the same intended meaning in a sentence. I shall elaborate this point with a few examples.
Sentence 1: We had a picnic near the beach.
We can express this sentence in two more ways, that is:
a) We went for a picnic by the beach.
b) We were picnicking on the beach.

Sentence 2: The boy looked very thin.
This sentence can be rendered in other ways such as:
a) The boy was a bag of bones.
b) How skinny the boy was!
c) The boy had a skeletal look.

Sentence 3: Occasionally, we were scolded by our parents when we were up to our mischief.
You can express the above sentence differently as:
a) Sometimes, our parents told us off when we were naughty.
b) Once in a while, we got a telling-off by our parents for being mischievous.
c) For our mischief, at times we were reprimanded by our parents.
d) Our parents sometimes told us off when we were mischievous.

Sentence 3: His comic look triggered off our laughing machine for quite some time.
A few sentences of the same meaning can be made out of the above sentence.
a) We could not help laugh when we looked his funny face.
b) His comic face had us in stitches.
c) We laughed incessantly because of his funny look.

You can try our hand at making sentences with almost the same intended meaning. With practice, you can surely coin unique sentences in your writing.