Paper Twins

Last week we were outside playing with sidewalk chalk when Catherine decided to just lie down right there on the sidewalk. Cameron asked her if she would like him to trace her and she said yes. They spent the next 20 minutes or so tracing Catherine and then drawing her clothing, hair, etc. As soon as they had finished she stood up to look at "herself" when...it started to RAIN. Poor Catherine was beside herself! "She" was washing away and it really upset her. She stood there in the rain, crying as she watched their drawing wash away.

Then Cameron suggested making another Catherine drawing on paper inside the house. After shedding a few more tears Catherine decided that sounded like an acceptable substitute for the Catherine drawing which had just been turned into colored puddles in front of her eyes. We all went inside and the kids got out the large rolls of paper and colored pencils and began to work on a new Catherine drawing. When they were done she was *SO* happy! (In case you couldn't tell by the light in her eyes in the picture.) We hung it on the wall at the foot of the staircase and she sat in front of it just looking at"herself" for a very long time. Cameron decided that he wanted to draw a picture of himself too, so he took his turn lying down on the large roll of paper while I traced around him, then he drew and colored his own picture and hung it up next to Catherine's. But the fun didn't stop there! They have spent chunks of time here and there over the last week adding to those drawings. All of the space around their pictures are slowly being filled in by smaller drawings, labels, descriptions and diagrams. There are drawings of Mom, Dad, their pets, their house, and their favorite toys, as well as of some of their favorite games like Club Penguin and movies like "Kiki's Delivery Service". Every time they think of another thing that they feel is important enough to be added they get out the colored pencils again and spend another 10 or 20 minutes adding to their creations. It's like an ever changing mural at the foot of our stairs. The drawings have become very important to my kids, especially Catherine. She even had to tell them "goodnight" last night as she was heading up the stairs to bed! (I believe her exact words were "Wait! I forgot to tell myself goodnight! LOL) My favorite part has got to be the word "IMAGINATION" curling out from the tops of their heads though. That just says it all, doesn't it?

If it's Monday, it must be pizza...or is it?

(I'm blogging this topic because Cameron says every Monday night: "We need to put this on our blog, MOM! This one is SOOOOO good! So, here you go, Cameron!)

For many months now the kids and I have been making Monday nights homemade pizza night. I didn't think the kids would ever get tired of pizza! Week after week we made the standard favorites in our household - cheese pizza for Catherine, sausage for Cameron, black olive and mushroom for Dad, and soy cheese or cheeseless veggie for me. Every week we'd follow the same routine. We would come home from our regular Monday classes (swimming and drumming...the only "classes" my kids take) and put the dough ingredients into the bread machine. While the bread machine did all the work we would do whatever it was that we had going on at the time. After the dough was done Catherine would help me roll it out and then we'd each put our own toppings on our individual pizzas and bake them. And every week I heard the same thing..."I love pizza nights!" (from Cameron) and "Yummmm! I love our pizza, Mom!" (from Catherine)

But somewhere along the line someone started to get bored with the "If it's Monday it must be pizza" theme. I'm not sure if it was me or Cameron, but someone decided that we needed to try something new with our weekly pizza nights. A couple of months ago we started experimenting in the pizza department. We still have pizza on Mondays, or at least it *looks* like pizza, but sometimes looks are about all our creations have in common with pizza.

So far we've come up with a few favorites and a few so-so recipes, but no duds. One of our favorites was the cheeseburger pizza with "the works". We've made that one several times because Dad didn't get any the first couple of times we made it. It was gone before he got home! We use catsup instead of pizza sauce and top it with soy burger crumbles and lots of soy cheese. When it's cooled a bit we put all of our favorite burger fixin's on top - mustard, mayo, lettuce, pickles (but only on Cameron's half!), onion, and tomato. Better than a burger imo, especially when the lettuce, onion and tomato come straight from our garden!

Another favorite was the chili cheese dog pizza - a "chef Cameron" creation. Instead of pizza sauce we used chili sauce and topped it with sliced hot dogs and cheese. Served with frosty mugs of root beer, of course!

One of my personal favorites was the Mediteranean bruschetta topping and provolone style soy cheese pizza. We usually have plenty of pizza left over for lunches for a day or two after pizza night, but that night I ate the whole thing by myself!

All of this pizza experimentation started because of an old favorite family recipe. Ever since dh and I were first married 15 years ago we have been making pizza with fresh spinach, feta style cheese, mozzarella style cheese, black olives, and Italian salad dressing drizzled over it in place of the pizza sauce. We were discussing how long it had been since we'd made our "Greek pizza" one night and someone said wouldn't such-and-such a topping be good. The ideas for alternatives to traditional pizza toppings and sauces just started flowing and we started writing them down so we wouldn't forget.

Our next gourmet pizza is probably going to be reuben sandwich style. Or maybe buffalo wing pizza. Or maybe roasted vegetable and pesto. We have a very long list of ideas and haven't decided which one will be next!