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Halloween (2013)

Halloween this year was a blast.  More time was spent visiting friends and passing out candy than trick-or-treating, but all three of us had a super time.  A few days before Halloween we placed out our decorations.  During the holidays, especially Halloween, we always like to make the front area look fun.  The Mr. placed the giant, paper stuffed spider on top of the roof, and I hung a festive wreath on the door, but we didn't stop there.




This wreath was the same one that I made following Little Miss Momma's tutorial a few months back here.  Since I loved it so much I decided I was going to keep it on the door even for Halloween, but thankfully I came across a way to dress it up thanks to Lil Luna's Halloween Wreath Roundup.  Of course, I put my own twist on it, but still, it turned out wonderfully!  

The giant spider going up on the roof.  Now this was a comical moment seeing as the wind was blowing and not helping one bit.  I will admit, I was a bit tickled watching The Mr. wrestle with the huge thing.

The night of Halloween all of the decorations came together and looked "spooky.".  We got about 380 trick-or-treaters throughout the night, but that's actually less that the years before. The Bean went as a brown barn owl this year and he looked marvelous!  



The owl sweeping through the picture.


We went through about eight, large bags of candy, and two bags of Halloween party favors!


The Bean always gets Halloween surprises too! (Thanks Grandma, Uncle Will, and Aunt Kayla!)

We always decorate the inside of the house too, just for ourselves.  These fun decorations come from the Red Snail Classroom on a day we had a little Art appreciation. You can follow along with what our classroom does by visiting our Red Snail blog here.

Homemade quick pizza

Every Friday night in our house, we go for pizza. We have created so many different varieties of pizza in our home kitchen that it almost seems to come second nature to all of us to throw together something on a pie fast.  Here is our version of a 10 minute homemade pizza.


What you'll need:

• Pizza dough:  You can either make this from scratch or use one of the many varieties out on the market now days.  Of course, we have tried both ways and we prefer the Mama Mary's variety in the Thin & Crispy.  The crust comes out in perfect texture every time.

• Pizza sauce:  We really like to doctor any type of pizza sauce we get, so we go with a varieties that doesn't have too much garlic with and just enough of the other spices to make it delicious.

• Toppings:  We go with the old standbys of pepperonis and black olives (smashed by hand), as well as cheese. 

We also incorporate the cheese flavoring from BRAGG Nutritional Yeast Seasoning.  We are trying slowly to eat more clean, and these "secret" ingredients allow us to slowly introduce our bodies to new tastes and flavors that are healthy for our systems.

We cover the entire pizza and make it a family effort.  Everyone gets to add something to the pizza before it's cooked.



Once it's covered in the toppings, it cooks for eight minutes at 375 degrees. (adjust this temperature and time depending on your oven.)

Once it's done cooking, remove it from the oven and slice up.