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**Many thanks to Red Baron for sponsoring this post! As always, the thoughts and opinions expressed below are entirely my own.

Halloween is right around the corner! In our house we like to get ready extra early, and to really squeeze as much fun as we can out of the season.  My kids love Halloween as much as I do! Fall can be a kind of hectic time of year, though, and getting organized for Halloween is often at the back of Moms’ minds.  This year I thought I would share a few of my favorite hacks for the Halloween season– hopefully they’ll inspire you and make your celebrations extra festive!

But first, allow me to share my biggest face palm Mom Fail moment from last Halloween.  First of all: my kids got LICE the day before Halloween from school.  Yep.  So Halloween proper we spent the entire day in a lice-removal salon.  We rushed home to get the kids’ costumes on, headed out, and Yours Truly didn’t make sure that my two little dragons had eaten something before we headed out.  I figured we would Trick-Or-Treat and then eat after.  Well those kids just kept poppin’ candy as they gathered it, and forty five minutes in to the evening my kids were in a full blown sugar meltdown.  Then they wouldn’t eat dinner, AND they wouldn’t sleep.  Best night ever! LOL. Take it from me, and take my advice for my very first Mom Hack I’ll share with you: feed your kids a simple & delicious meal before you head out on Halloween! My go-to for delicious mealtime simplicity is Red Baron Pizza. 

I’ve spoken about it here before, but I keep Red Baron Pizza in my freezer for easy mealtimes when I’m stressed or pressed for time– or when I need my kids to actually eat the food I’m serving them! Red Baron offers three multi serve options: Classic Crust, Brick Oven, and Thin & Crispy– and it’s located in the freezer aisle of grocery stores nationwide.  I’m going to make Marlowe and Major a Red Baron Pizza before Trick-Or-Treating this year for sure.  Red Baron Pizza can also be such a great party hack. I like to slice it with a pizza wheel in to strips, and then I serve it with a trio of dipping sauces: Ranch, Honey Mustard, and Barbecue Sauce.  Add a couple of spooky figurines to the plate and you have the perfect Halloween party snack! Here are a few other hacks I love for the Halloween season…

Clementine Pumpkins

Another fun Halloween Hack is to make clementine pumpkins! It’s such a simple and cute snack idea, and it can be the perfect, festive addition to a child’s lunch box! Simply peel the clementine or orange, cut a small piece of celery, and insert it in to the top of the fruit to create your pumpkin.  I love serving these as a healthy treat at Halloween parties as well.

Spooky Ice Cubes

Spruce up kids drinks or cocktails with fun and festive ice cubes! I always take an ice cube tray, pop some plastic spiders in to each cube, fill with water, and then freeze.  Add grape juice or sparkling water for a kid-friendly refresher.

Easy Mermaid Makeup

This hack always impresses Marlowe, and with her Four-nado years in full swing, I’ll take as much street cred as I can get! All you need is some eyeshadow in aquatic colors, a fluffy eyeshadow brush, scissors, and a mesh bag from a sack of potatoes or clementines– or even garlic! Cut a square from the mesh bag.  Hold it firmly against the skin.  I like to start at the temples and move down to the cheekbones for a nice mermaid look! While holding the mesh to the skin, take the fluffy brush and swirl it a few times in the eyeshadow.  Pat it over the mesh on the areas you’d like scales.  Repeat on both sides of the face.  If desired, take a shimmery highlighting powder and brush it over the forehead, down the bridge of the nose, on the eyelids, and on the lips.  Top with gloss on the lips and swim away! This is such an easy costume choice for parents that don’t want to go all out, or as the face makeup for a full-on mermaid costume extravaganza.

Do you have any Halloween season hacks? Let me know in the comments below!

Photographs by Julia Dags.