Brie Puffs (our family's favorite)

Recently, hubby and I went to a very fancy restaurant and went all out. After all, it was our first alone date for hours and hours for a long time (a friend watched the kids all evening and even invited them to stay overnight...wow). We could finally take our time eating and enjoying the experience (no offense, kids).

So we ordered an appetizer that sounded delicious, and it certainly was!

The following week, I got some brie and tried to make it at home: SCORE! We found another keeper!

This can be either an appetizer or a dessert. Totally delicious either way.

Ingredients:

- brie cheese, cubed (1/2 inch or so), 24 total

- raw organic honey (or any honey you have)

- 2 boxes puff pastry (about $3.50 each, found in freezer aisle), thawed

  Note: I will eventually make this from scratch, but it is good store-bought for now.

- sliced almonds (to taste) I used about 1/2 tsp per puff

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Thaw the puff pastry sheets and cut into 12 squares each (for a total of 24 squares).

Have all 3 ingredients in front of you, ready for stuffing. Brie, honey, almonds.

Grab a puff pastry square and hold it in your non-dominant hand.

Put a piece of brie in the middle of a puff pastry square.

Drizzle some honey on top (we like a lot of it).

Add as many sliced almonds as you'd like.

Close the puff pastry up into a ball, making sure all the ingredients are "trapped" inside.

Place on cookies sheet or mini muffin tin.

Do the same with the rest until all 24 balls are made.

Put in the oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool for 5-8 minutes.

Enjoy!

Optional: You can drizzle more honey on top if you'd like.

Optional: This goes really well served with grapes.

They taste great at room temperature, but they taste best when warm.

Week 11: Different and more relaxed

K has always been enjoying boyish stuff, but especially lately. He loves superheroes, tractors, dinosaurs, cars, and muscles. He cracks me up when he's showing off his "muscles" or when he's pretending to be a dinosaur, stomping all over the place.

Another thing: As soon as we get home, K loves to take al of his clothes off, except for his big boy underwear. Must be a boy thing, too! By the way, he is almost completely potty trained! It was incredible! One day, he's not "with it," and the next, he's holding it and going at the right times like he's been doing it for years!
In the past two weeks, he has had no accidents during the day, he has stayed dry during naps and has peed in his pull up at night only twice! I couldn't be more proud! And I am so glad that the worst is behind us. After all, he's a big boy...he'll be 3 in December. Sigh. Bittersweet...

About our homeschool, well, I am in awe that we've been at it for 12 weeks already. Incredible. We took it easy this week and didn't fret with schedules. There was a lot to do that wasn't related to homeschooling, that I was like "Oh well..." <shrug>
He still learned a lot; we just didn't, per se, do Calendar / Circle Time every single day.

For Chinese and Spanish, I made a poster of K's favorite animals.
He really likes it and tries to read them often.
I still have to help him with the correct pronunciation,
since he wants to read them with an English accent.

This is a chart of the colors in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

"It is my deepest conviction that the children should be seen and heard as our most treasured assets.  They are not ours to be used or abused but to be loved and nurtured and encouraged to engage in life to the full extent of their being, free from fear."   ~Nelson Mandela