March Madness

Our brackets are filled out, so who knows who the winner will be in the Hannon household. The girls' picks were based on numbers, familiarity of location (ie Florida), and just because. Adeline and Emmie favor a strong performance from BYU in their brackets. Emmie also picked a few major upsets, so it should make for some good family competition. 

On Thursday evening, I watched one of the intense games on the computer.  Once Eric got home, we hooked up the system to watch another game on the television. However, we could not stay up late to watch the late night games, so we watched the last few minutes of MSU lose on Friday afternoon. Knowing the score ahead of time completely took away from the game intensity, but it was still a good fight to the end.

 

Friday evening, we watched more games, but this time, Eric watched one more game into the late night. Saturday morning, he showed me the highlights of those games. After the first major batch of games, Adeline and I were in a tie for first, Eric was one point behind us, and Emmie was two points behind us. 

Saturday afternoon, Adeline completed her self- assertiveness weekend course recommended by her teacher for all of the students.  A local organization was hired to teach the children how to be strong and aware of what is happening in their environment. The girls were separated from the boys for this instruction. Over two days, the leaders taught them through various workshops and role playing how to establish their imaginary bubble representing their comfort level in a situation, how they can determine what is appropriate or inappropriate interaction with another individual, and how to defend themselves. We are very proud of Adeline for doing this session and earning her certificate. 

Our Saturday evening was spent on the couch watching games again. We are already tired of the six or so commercials which are repeatedly played; especially Irish Spring for lads as the volume on this commercial is too loud. Eric stayed up really late into the night watching the games, so Sunday morning was a little tough for him. Once moving, he showed me the nail biting conclusion of those games. I am proud of him for keeping quiet while the rest of the house slept.

After tallying up Saturday's game results, our bracket standings are as follows: Adrienne and Emmie tied for first, Adeline in second, and Eric hanging in there.

The good thing is we have been able to insert US geography lessons throughout the games. Before Adeline could fill in her prediction, she located the school on the map. Then after a round is played, while Eric and her are tracking the winners, she has to locate the winning team on the map again. 

It was warm and sunny for Hofheim's Spring festival on Sunday afternoon. After church, we strolled downtown to listen to Hofheim's Big Band play and enjoy the fresh air after spending the past few days on the couch. We also toured the antique car show and answered many questions Adeline had about why cars were built so different then. It was nice to look at some old Mercedes and other little rare convertibles.

Sunday evening, the Lotz family came over to join in our March Madness festivities. Carsten is a UNC fan, so he was happy to partake in our tradition of consuming chili cheese fries while watching basketball. He even made buffalo wings to add to the snack buffet. This was Melanie's first basketball game she ever saw and also the first time she had chili cheese fries. It was a great evening for both families. Afterwards, Eric and I watched the intense Michigan game. It sure was an awesome game, but in the end, the winner was good for all our our brackets.