Bedtime for a 5-year-old. It can go one of two ways. Fortunately, we’ve figured out a system to make it smooth, painless, and dare I say, enjoyable? For a long time, nights were hard. Really hard, y’all. Fortunately, I married the most brilliant man ever, who came to me with a suggestion. He said, “What about a routine? We can do the same thing every night and she’ll know that it’s time to go to sleep when we’re done.” He was right. So, every night, after dinner, Ayva changes into her jammies, gets a snack, and either Terrence or I read to her. Then she brushes her teeth, gets herself a cup of water in case she gets thirsty in the middle of the night, and goes to sleep. Guess what, guys? Routines really work! Guess what else, the new Gold Emblem abound snacks have me even more excited about bedtime than I was before.
Okay, blogger confession. I was going to share about these snacks over a month ago, but we kept eating them all. At one point, I dumped an entire box of both the Pomegranate & Cranberry Snack Bars and Superfruit Snack Bars in my purse because I was running late and I couldn’t make a choice between the two quick enough. I know! I’m hanging my head in shame as I reach into this bag of Probiotic Trail Mix to grab another handful of chocolate covered cranberries, almonds, and yogurt raisins. Our family was first introduced to this new line of snacks right before we went on vacation in August. Free of artificial preservatives and flavors, Gold Emblem abound goodies made the 6 hour flight a lot more bearable. We were hooked and at this point, our family has tried just about every single snack in the line.
So, back to bedtime. The best part of the snack for Ayva is the surprise factor. She never knows what she’s going to get. It’s actually part of our routine, and I really enjoy putting together a little plate of nibbles for her. Dinner tonight wasn’t very protein heavy, so the Gold Emblem abound Raw Natural Almonds were a good choice to make sure she doesn’t wake up later tonight hungry. We both love the Oat Bran Cookies with Cranberry, so I put a couple of those on the tray for us as well. The Sweet & Nutty Probiotic Trail Mix rounded out our story time snack. Ayva was was pleased, and I’m grateful to have snacks that I can take straight from the container and give to Ayva without worrying about a whole bunch of artificial crap. Many of the Gold Emblem abound products are even gluten free and sodium free!
Now it’s time for Mommy’s bedtime snack—a handful of nuts, a few Gold Emblem Abound Sea Salt Flavored Rice Thins, and a glass of wine. I’d say that’s a good night, for sure!
I received these products at no charge to review. I wouldn’t write about it if I didn’t love it. <3
I love this routine. I’ve never thought of giving a snack before bed, but it makes perfect sense. I haven’t seen the Gold Emblem abound line at my CVS just yet, but I’m going to keep my eye out for it now! Great review.
I’m really only here for the almonds, and I might think about sharing.
I love everything about this! What a great idea, to do storytime before brushing teeth, that way snacks can be given. I love it, and that’s perfect because my little ones usually take about 30 minutes to settle in and get ready for bed, which is just enough time for snack, storytime and getting ready for bed. I can definitely relate to bedtime being a nightmare, dealt with that for years with my youngest two! Routines really do work! So glad you guys are settling into a rhythm and I’m loving ALL of these snacks!
These snacks are the bomb. Nuts, dried fruit, cookies and crackers are great for those before bed cravings. Did Ayva like the cookies?
That is a really nice snack tray while you read the bedtime story. I like the way you put everything in the little tray for portion control. The snacks sound good. If you did not have the little tray it would be easy to go crazy.
I love healthy snacks and the snack tray is too cute. I always get the urge to snack, but I don’t want to mess up my diet but these are perfect.
Healthy snacks for the win! I might have to give this a try, we have a reluctant sleeper in our home!
Our bedtime routine includes a snack too. My 4 year old son’s stomach is a bottomless pit these days.
If I let him eat from the moment he gets home from school – until bedtime – he would.
But het gets one last dessert before bed and he really looks forward to it.
I don’t give my kids snacks at night because the usually have dessert but this is a great alternative that I’m looking forward to trying and also maybe using for an after school snack or in their lunches. They have some really great varieties that mommy is looking forward to trying! 😉
My kids are always “starving” at bedtime – this sounds like a great routine to implement for the snacks and to make them aware that bedtime is approaching. Great ideas! These snacks would, also, be great at my desk so I wouldn’t be tempted to hit the snack machine so much.
Danny is always looking for a snack after dinner before bedtime. We have gotten used to having coffee and dessert of some kind at his cousin’s house. I am hoping I can swap our normal sweets for something healthier like those Oat Bran Cookies. They also look like great snacks for us to have at work! I hope they carry them in my neck of the woods!
Those look yummy. I love a good healthy snack!! And my kids have to read daily as well. Love the routine!
I LOVE these snacks and want to work with this brand sooooo much. Met them at Blogher food and haven’t been able to reconnect. They are seriously delish and make excellent airplane snacks
You had me at the chocolate covered cranberries. I love the combination of cranberries and almonds. Nice healthy snacks always make bedtime go faster, and I love this routine.
These are great ideas for healthy snacks. I was just thinking of ways to “sneak in the healthy” for both myself and Jam. These almonds look delish.
Snacks are always great! I want to try that probiotic trail mix. Looks good.