I've never met a child who doesn't love pizza! My children love pizza but are specific about their toppings. Mr Paganini (at South Bank, Brisbane) is our all time favourite place for pizza. We also love to make our own pizza at home! 

Otis recently made pizza on a playdate (the mum is a wonderful dietician) and he's still talking about it. It's so much fun as a group activity! I love that making pizza is often a family tradition. Our pizza night has slowly moved from a Friday night to a Saturday, but it always has a slow, relaxed feel to it. It's predictable, it's safe and it's comforting. The only real mess issue I have is with the flour when making the dough but if we do that earlier in the day, it's all cleaned up by dinner time! 

Our must haves for pizza night:

Small pizza pans - Kids love to make their own pizzas so small pizza pans are a must! We use a pizza stone when cooking in our main oven but use the small pizza pans when cooking in the kids' toaster oven - which is so much faster. There is no reason why kids (with supervision and I would say from 5yrs+) can't cook their own pizzas, the little oven assists with this level of independence and empowerment. 

Child-made pizza bases - We love and use the lazy pizza dough recipe at Smitten Kitchen (if we have it we like to use pizza flour). It takes less than five minutes to make (add rising time) and it's completely child-friendly. Otis loves making the pizza bases and will do it for the whole family. It's great to get the kids involved and get their hands all doughy and sticky. 

Favourite Ingredients - I learnt early on that while it's good to challenge the kids' taste buds occasionally, there is no need to waste time and effort on extra ingredients no one likes. Most nights we stick to our favourites and everyone is happy! 

Cheese + Fresh Herbs - A mix of cheese is essential (for us) including cheddar, parmesan and mozzarella and fresh herbs also! We secretly love this cheese mix and pizza sauce! 

Some of our other pizza favourites: 

1. Peaceable Kingdom Scratch and Sniff Pizza Stickers - These smell strangely good and actually like pizza (perhaps oregano)! We've recently ordered new scratch and sniff stickers here (Australia). 

2. Kids Pizza T-shirt - Caspar has this one and it's so super soft and fun! 

3. Pampered Chef Kids' Pizza Set - Love the cutting mat and small pizza stone in this set! This pizza cutter is the best style we've used with kids for cutting pizza (wheel style). 

4. Child size tools - these are by Glueckskaefer (Australia here). 

Is pizza night a tradition in your home??