Running, Chopped, and Baseball

On 1/25, Josh, Zachary, and I ran the Hot Chocolate 5k.  It was Zachary's and my 2nd time, and Josh's first time.  They changed the course this year - it didn't feel as hilly, but it was my slowest 5k time ever, which was a bummer.  But we still had fun, and Zachary really enjoyed the addition of the chocolate chip station along the course.  And we all enjoyed the chocolate at the end!

The boys have really gotten into the show Chopped lately, and they have been dying to have a Chopped night at home.  So that evening after the 5k, Josh made a Chopped dinner.  The boys and I came up with his basket ingredients, and then we gave him some time to think about what he wanted to do (and also so he could go to the store in case he needed something else that we didn't have), but then he adhered to the 30 minute time limit for the cooking.  His basket consisted of fresh spinach, apple grape juice, white cheddar corn puffs, shredded cheddar, and pork chops.  We were careful to include things that we would not mind eating, knowing that this would be our dinner.

So, what did he come up with?  Well...he made pork chops breaded in the white cheddar corn puffs.  They were pan seared and then finished in the oven.  For the spinach, he cooked it in the apple juice and some vinegar.  I think it could have been good, but he was a little heavy handed with the vinegar, and none of us could eat it.  But my favorite part of the whole dish was the twice baked cheddar cheese sweet potato.  I could eat that every day.  He needs to make that again.

All in all, Chopped dinner was a success.  I think the kids are now looking forward to Chopped breakfast, or Chopped dessert - the possibilities are endless!

Liam finally lost his other front tooth!

On 1/31 the boys finally had their baseball evaluations.  First up was Liam.  He did OK, but not amazing.  Then we had to change parks for Zachary's evaluation.  His hitting was not amazing but he did really good running the bases, and he did pretty good fielding.  Then he did a catcher evaluation as well.

We finally heard from both boys' coaches late last week.  We didn't know either coach, and Zachary didn't know anyone on his team.  Liam only knew one kid on his team.  So this will be an interesting season.  Both of them are Yankees this year, which is so funny.  They each had their first practice this past weekend.  It sounds like both coaches seemed to know what they are doing, so hopefully that's a good sign.