Epic Snacks for Epic Play

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Goldfish® but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

My karate kids are growing up!

A few weeks back it was belt test day for all three of my girls and they all passed. Blue belts for both Ava and Lola, and a white belt with two black stripes for my littlest ninja Mathilde.

The girls worked so hard preparing for their belt test. They practiced their kata moves and their sparring skills every week at karate class in the park until they had perfected them.

All that karate work makes for hungry kids and hungry kids need tasty snacks that pack a punch like a blue belt!

Goldfish crackers have been one of the kids' favorite go to snacks for such a long time, so we were super excited when we discovered the new Goldfish Epic Crunch Nacho flavor. A classic favorite with a new twist for my growing girls. The perfect after karate class snack.

Talk about packing a punch! These tasty little morsels sure do live up to their name. The zesty nacho cheese flavor was a big hit with the kids (and grown ups!) and the extra tortilla crunch made for epic snacking fun.

Goldfish Epic Crunch are baked with whole grains and contain no artificial flavor or preservatives. They're always baked, never fried.

The big, bold flavor of Goldfish Epic Crunch comes in a big, bold new size. With a flavor and crunch that appeals to bigger kids, these tasty snacks come in a bigger size for more flavor and crunch in every bite.

A knock out hit with my karate kids!

Looks like we've found our new go to snack for lunch boxes, road tripping and sharing with friends after karate class!

To learn more about about all new Goldfish Epic Crunch Nacho and to find a retailer near you click here.

Smile Worthy Back to School Moments with Goldfish

Can you believe it? We're about half way through the long Summer break now. How did that happen?

While the kids are blissfully unaware that their laid back Summer adventures will be done in just over a month, I, like many parents, am thinking about back to school. There's so much to prepare before the kids go back to school, but for me the most important thing is making sure that it's a smile worthy time for the kids. 

After such a long break from the structure of the school year, I find it important to ease the kids back into their schedules. So rather than having the Summer fun come to an abrupt halt once school starts back up again, I'm thinking ahead and planning small after school adventures to take together. Hikes in local parks, swims at the lake, visiting fun playgrounds... We're lucky here in the Bay Area that there are so many great places to visit. The weather here in early Fall is usually our warmest which is perfect for afternoon adventures.

Goldfish Mandala

This past weekend was incredibly rainy here in the Bay Area, and the kids and I found ourselves stuck inside for the most part. With such limited space in our apartment, the girls tend to get cabin fever when they're stuck inside for extended periods of time, so I made sure to keep them occupied with lots of fun activities. We baked cookies, we drew pictures, we made jigsaw puzzles, we built forts out of blankets and pillows, we played restaurants with wooden food, and yes, there was plenty of TV and computer games. Lots and lots of rainy day fun. However, the stand out activity for both the girls and I, was when we decided to play with our food! Yes - playing with our food!

We always have a pack or two of Goldfish crackers on hand in the kitchen as they happen to be one of the girls' favorite snacks. This time we happened to have the Colors variety of Goldfish, and as I was getting a pack for the kids to snack on it struck me that these colorful little treats might make for an amazing art work. We've made stop motion animation with Goldfish before (which you can see here) but this time a mandala made with varying colors jumped into my mind. The kids loved this idea and right away they got to work creating. 

Ava and Lola emptied their Goldfish crackers into a bowl while I laid down a large piece of white card as a back drop. After discussing what they would like their mandala to look like the girls got to work.

They started off working from the center of the mandala, adding one row at a time. The girls worked together so well deciding which color to use, which direction the crackers should point, how the colors should alternate... It was so nice to see them working together as a team and making decisions together.

The girls really put a lot of effort into making their mandala as neat as possible. I was a little worried at first that there may be arguments over one bumping the other, or maybe Lola not making her parts quite as neat as Ava would like, but they were so keen to make their mandala look great that they helped each other out when needed.

Of course, there were a few snack breaks while they worked!

Back to work!

 Once the mandala was finished, Ava decided to add a few extra touches on the sides.

The girls were really happy with how it turned out and so am I. It's amazing how something as simple as Goldfish crackers placed in circles can have such an impact.

The girls were keen to animate their mandala, so with a few adjustments, we made a few rows of Goldfish crackers change direction and created a simple GIF.

Such a fun and creative way to play with your food! And the best bit? The girls got to eat all of it when they were done!

For more fun inspiration visit the Goldfish Pinterest board here.

Stop Motion Animation Fun with Goldfish

Between swim team and karate classes, my girls are generally pretty busy after school. Weekends, however, are a different story. I like to keep weekends free from regular activities so we can be free to do whatever we want without having to work around a schedule. We tend to spend a lot of our weekend time just hanging around at home relaxing. It's nice to have a little down time after such a busy week, but at the same time it can get a little, well... boring! To keep the kids from heading straight to the tv I like to have a few activities up my sleeve to keep them busy. Simple things like painting, coloring, building with Lego, playing board games, or making puzzles generally go down pretty well, but sometimes they want to do something a little bit different.

A while back we visited the Children's Creativity Museum in San Francisco and the girls made their own animated movies. They had a blast making their little movies and have been asking if they can make their own at home. Stop motion animation is actually really easy to make at home with just a few items: a camera (or smart phone/tablet), a tripod, a background, and small items to be the star of the show. You can really use anything: toy animals, dolls, building blocks, toy cars... even food! We decided to go down the food route and made Lola's animation with one of her favorite snacks. Goldfish crackers!

Goldfish crackers are a big hit in our home when it comes to snack time so we've always got a pack or two in the pantry. They're oh so moreish and the whole family loves them. With their smiley little faces, Lola decided that Goldfish would make the perfect characters for her animation. Well, that, and it gave her a fantastic excuse to them afterwards!

Here's a look at how we made our animation...