Our Weekend With the Girls... and the Age of the Notorious "Pizza Wars"

Esther practicing on the uneven bars...

                So this last weekend we had all five of our beautiful girls.  It began a bit worrisome as the forecast called for rain every day and a house full of five bored little girls and two tired parents does not a good recipe make...  Our Saturday morning began as usual rushing off to Esther's gymnastics class to watch her balance and climb, leap, and jump.  It never gets old.... no really... it's pretty fun to watch. 



Girls playing "HQ"... yes... very intense stuff...



                In the end it was a very good day, with the girls playing their funny game of "HQ" as they call it... short for "Head Quarters" which they have set up in our outdoor eating area, with official signs, and name tags, and assignments.  So far from what Mick and I can gather, HQ consists of the girls running around the perimeter of our house "spying" on us, or some bird or a passing lizard and vigorous bouts of Biggest Loser-inspired workout sessions...  Needless to say, we were so happy they kept themselves entertained for a while, and it was pretty funny to watch. 

Mick... the Pizza War Master

               Sunday after the mad rush to church and then pious hours of quietly sitting we came home for another tournament of what we have begun to refer to as the "Pizza Wars".  It all began when Mick and I decided that frozen pizza, any you can find in Australia, is total crap, and any that you can order costs pretty much an arm and a leg... and still you wonder if it was really that worth it.  So we began to make our own pizzas.  It has now become one of our favorite things to make for dinner and no two pizzas have ever been the same.  We love to always try new things and new weird, creative ingredients.  In the end it has inevitably become a competition between Mick and I to see who can make the BEST freakin pizza.  I must admit... that Mick's style carries with it a certain disregard for traditional "pizza-making rules" and a sense of reckless, daring, abandon... (it's probably the Aussie in him...) Where as all too often my downfall has been in sometimes being a bit too conservative and not pushing the pizza making limits far enough.  And so it is that I readily admit that yes, Mick has rightfully so won the pizza making wars... But, I have had my moment or two....  Now we have gotten to the point where the girls have become our judges to officially taste our creations and vote on whose is the best.  Knowing of course that certain biases exist we do not let the girls know whose pizza is whose... It has been pretty fun and they feel pretty darn important.  The last time they voted, Taylah and Carsen hands-down voted that my pizza was the best, but Lucy and Esther adamantly agreed that Mick's was the clear winner... As Lucy put it, Mick's pizza had "so many flavours that made it more interesting and complex"... well said sweety... In the end I agreed with her and Mick won.... once again...  Sigh... I married a pizza genius...

Mick adding his magical touch...



Trying my hardest to beat the Evil Genius