Review of Murals Your Way

Yay!  My first review!  A few weeks ago I received an email that I'd won my choice of a Dinosaur Train mural from Murals Your Way and Mom on Timeout and I was so excited.  I am obviously a dinosaur fan and my boys enjoy both dinosaurs AND trains, so it was a win for all of us!  I choose Next Stop the Triassic Period and measured out my youngest's wall since he never gets anything this cool at age 2, and his birthday is coming up.  I was able to choose the design, the size, and customize it with Ayden's name.  That was about 10 days ago. Yesterday a large box arrived via FedEx and I was so excited!  I was really going to save it for his birthday, I REALLY was... But I couldn't wait until May.
So after pretty much tricking my lovely husband into doing all the hard work last night, we had a mural up!  It came in 3 large pieces and was a bit tricky at first.  I do warn you, our's is 8 x 10 and it takes a little work, best to have at least 2 pairs of hands.  We realized it was easiest to just pull a little of the backing off starting from the top and laying the mural over towards the front.  It took about an hour to get it all up and smoothed out, then we had to cut a bit of excess off the bottom, that is how it is made in case you have irregular walls (which we apparently have).
But at the end of the day, we have an amazing mural!  I think it looks very nice.  The images are clean and were easy to match up.  It sticks well once you get it smoothed out and my kids, who's opinions are probably the most important, they were so excited!  They really loved that it said "Ayden's Train" on it and couldn't wait to imagine themselves on the train when we were getting it up.
So, it was a little tricky to get up, but not too bad considering the size, but it looks so great up!  Thank you Murals Your Way and Mom On Timeout, we are thrilled to have such a fancy wall!

Pizza Night!

I think my little dinosaurs are part Ninja Turtle, we go through so much pizza!  One of my favorite meals to make (because there is usually no fussing about eating it!) is home made pizza.  It is delicious and a great way to sneak veggies into the picky eaters.  I am a bit picky too, so this even works for me.
First I use King Arthur's Crust recipe and make two crusts, they are BIG crusts if you get them rolled out you may just want one, but we like a thick crust and let's face it, I'm feeding bottomless pits by their own account.  While the dough rises, I make the sauce.  I really wing it here based on what I have in the house.  Usually I use a can of tomatoes or tomato sauce and tomato paste but today, I had some fresh tomatoes that were on the verge of not being so fresh.  So today's sauce 3 tomatoes, 1 can of organic tomato sauce (small can today), then I used 2 large peppers, I usually use smaller sweet peppers that are red, orange, and yellow, I love the way they smell and give the sauce a good color!  But today I had these larger sweet peppers so in the sauce they go!  Then I add onion, not a whole lot so it is not over whelming, about 1/4 of a small onion chopped up. Then carrots. Yes, carrots, my oldest son doesn't love carrots so I try to be a little bit sneaky. I add a LOT of carrots chopped up because once it cooks no one ever knows they are there.  Once all the veggies are chopped and in the pan, I use a deep skillet with a lid, then I add 1/3 cup olive oil (I use extra virgin) then I sprinkle in salt, a little bit of sugar, usually brown sugar, then garlic, basil, and other Italian seasons to taste.  Once that simmers about half an hour, I slather it thickly on the crusts and cover it in cheese.  Bake as the instructions of the crust call for which is usually less than 30 minutes and serve!  I know this is a very basic recipe, lots of people make home made pizza but I love mine so much I wanted to share.  If you add something else to your sauce, please share!  I'd love to try it!

A few instant win games

I don't know if I've ever won an instant win game aside from some Burt's Bees back at Christmas but they are fun and quick to play!  So here are a few to give you a thrill!
HBO and ATT   Chance to win a trip to Ireland or other prizes!

Kroger's Bake Off  Vote and register to win prizes including a $500 Kroger card and a baking kit.

A golf trip to Scotland with lots of perks!

and Honest Tea is giving away a Citizen Folding bike and other great prizes!  I will be playing that again tomorrow!
I'll add more to the list soon!