Jan Pinterest project- angry birds pizza

So I saw this pin on a friends board and quickly showed it to the boys. The boys love angry birds and this pizza was so fun. They of course wanted me to make it. I put it off. Of course in my defense I haven't made homemade pizza is weeks. Sadly I should confess that when we have had pizza it's been take out or even store bought frozen. Anyway last night I didn't feel like making curry as I had planned. So I asked everyone if pizza sounded good. It's not often pizza is turned down.

I used a gluten free crust that was given to me by friends. I then made two pizzas. One into Red and one into Chuck. Here is where I should note that at our house we know all the names of the Angry Birds. Cai bought the National Geographic Angry Birds book at Ian's school's book fair. In addition to learning about angry behaviors of birds we learn a little about all the Angry Birds. Really it's a great book. Anyhoo! I wanted to make two pizzas because I've been feeling that one hasn't quite been enough. But the thought of having 2 Red birds seemed silly. So the advantage of making Chuck is that he's yellow. Around our house people like Hawaiian pizza, well if you exclude me it's still not my favorite.  Pineapple is yellow! Tada I had my second pizza. Like the pin, I used pepperoni for Red.

 I didn't have mushrooms so I just used more cheese for the eyeballs. For Chuck I shaped the crust into a triangle. In some ways this might be easier with gluten free crust, seeing as how gluten free dough is more like a thick cake batter or cookie dough than traditional bread dough. I could use my spatula to help spread the batter into the correct shape. My original idea was to place pineapple chunks along with ham all over the body. Turns out I didn't have pineapple chunks, just crushed pineapple. 

The over all look is probably more what I was going for. Sadly this meant pieces with no ham on them. I had a bowl of ham that could be added on after the fact. Really I think they look very good. And they tasted good. And probably the most important  the boys loved them. We even started talking about what other angry birds we could make into pizza. Pesto and spinach pigs? Blueberry dessert pizza blue bird? A whole black olive pizza Bomber bird? There are lots of possibilities. We might just have to get creative with our pizzas :)

Underwear, Angry Birds, Creature Power and Mario?

My boys are growing up. And I'm noticing it in many ways. Aiden's is the most noticeable as he is in the middle of potty training. Like Ian, Aiden just decided it was time to use the potty.

 It started small. Him telling us on occasion that he needed to pee or poop. As I stated in my Boyne post, our trip back lasted much longer due to his telling us he needed to pee. Yesterday, after telling me he wanted to pee I asked if he wanted a diaper or underwear. He chose underwear. He wore a diaper for nap and one again after wetting his underwear while playing outside, and of course at night. But this morning when he woke up he again chose underwear.

More often than not he is wetting his underwear. But he trying to let me know when he needs to potty. And we always race to the potty to try. I figure it took Ian three solid days of being wet before I saw improvement and he was 3 months older than Aiden is currently. Cai took a solid week of no success before we even got him to use the potty once. And he was almost three. I think Aiden is doing well. And while there are moments I wish I could have planned this into my schedule, it is nice to see him making his own decisions on the matter.

 My toddler is quickly growing up.

The other boys are getting older as well. And I see this manifest itself mostly in their play. Both are more imaginative. Ian, especially, has gotten more aggressive. Which to be honest is very, very frustrating. Ian comes home with games about Mario and Bowser and I wonder does he even understand what it is he is playing? Sure Mark has let the boys play MarioCart and the original MarioBrothers on our mediaPC (a computer Mark creative for our TV), but he didn't start this game until months after said games were played. The joys of peer influence.

Of course, while some of his games are too aggressive for my taste and we have to sit down and talk about what is appropriate behavior and what's not, other games just make me smile. A favorite PBS kids show for Ian is Wild Kratts. Often for days after watching this show Ian and Cai will run around the house with "creature power." They have been hawks, shark, bears, and many other animals. No longer are my boys satisfied with pretending to be cats, dogs, dinosaurs or lions. No they are polar bears, great white sharks, and other animals I forget they even know about till I remember "oh yeah, they saw that on Wild Kratts."  The fact they even remember half of these animals illustrates how much they are growing up.  And while they can become aggressive in their play with these "creature powers" it more often than not make me smile to see them incorporating what they learned into their play.

 Yesterday a new game was added to their list: Angry Birds. Now Ian loves playing this on Mark's phone when he gets a chance. Mark doesn't allow them to play on his phone often, but when he does Ian tends to either play Angry Birds or some racing game. Cai likes Super Why game. Yesterday the boys set up balls on our couch. These balls were the pigs. And the boys then pretended to be the birds and would run and jump onto the couch and balls. I'm still not sure how I feel about this game. I do know that I'm grateful that they were not running and jumping on each other. And really they were kinda cute all running towards the couch together.

 My boys are growing up fast. And while I don't like everything this brings, it sure is fun to watch their transformations.