Thank you, Pop Secret, for sponsoring today's post!
Check out the new Perfect Pop App to make your family movie night a memorable one too.
Check out the new Perfect Pop App to make your family movie night a memorable one too.
A few months ago, Penny got to meet a couple real-life princesses and ever since then it has been 100% princesses 100% of the time. We've got princess books, princess shoes, princess dresses, princess necklaces, princess balls, princess dolls, princess forks...ok you get the drift. If I need to convince Penny to do something, I tell her that this is the princess way. For example, she got this weird bloody nose right before nap time a few weeks ago, so after cleaning her up and getting her back to bed for her nap, I wanted her to lay on her back for a few more minutes to make sure the bloody nose had stopped. Penny normally likes to sleep on her side or stomach, so the best way I could convince her to sleep on her back was to show her how Princess Aurora sleeps, on her back and her hands clasped at her chest. Worked like a charm!
Riding along this princess wave, one of the ways that we reconnect as a family at the end of a long week is our weekly family movie / slumber party nights. We don't ever have to ask Penny what movie she wants to watch; you guessed it - Princess Movie! This typically means Frozen, Tangled or The Princess and The Frog. We've tried a couple other animated movies but these three have stuck.
Snacks are an important part of movie nights, and because our movie night is also a slumber party we opt for bed friendly snacks. We fill our water bottles for the night and keep them close on the night stand, this way we don't worry about spilled drinks in our bed. We also opt for easy to grab snacks, specifically popcorn, because c'mon, movie night just isn't complete without popcorn! Our favorite popcorn is Pop Secret Movie Theater Butter. Other ideas include meat and cheese slices or hummus and pita bread triangles. We try to avoid sugary snacks because it's late and part of the point of a movie night is to not have to actively put your kids to sleep ;)
Our tradition is to pile into our pile into our king sized bed around 6:00 on Friday nights and snuggle together for a couple hours of uninterrupted, technology free family time. I nurse Ruby to sleep and we settle quietly in. Penny will usually stay awake for the entire movie, but sometimes she curls up and sleeps on me like she did when she was a baby. Oh, my mama heart swoons when my big toddler girl snuggles on me like that!
I had mentioned popcorn on movie nights - isn't burned popcorn one of the most annoying things in the world? It's such a difficult balance between perfect pops and making sure all the kernels are cooked. I recently got to try out the Pop Secret Perfect Pop app and I think we've got a winner!
With our microwave, the Perfect Pop app suggested that we stop 34 seconds early. The result? Not one burned piece and they were softer too. I ran a comparison bag (because one bag simply isn't enough) without using the app and the popcorn was tougher. However, and maybe this was a fluke, there were more unpopped kernels in the first batch than there were in the second (90 vs 70). I still think that I'd be willing to give up a few kernels to make sure that my popcorn tastes good.. Quality over quantity, right?
If you're like me, you're probably wondering how does an app know that my popcorn is done (and isn't that what the popcorn button on the microwave is for?!). Well, even with that handy-dandy button we still end up with burned bags from time to time. The Perfect Pop app listens to the pops and the time in between and will tell you when it's done. In the meantime, it also gives you trivia to pass the time!
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Pop Secret, though all opinions are my own. Apple is not affiliated with in any way, nor does it endorse or support this third party app.
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