Anderson Township Park District Basketball: The Nets

{Almost} Birthday Girls

Kaitlyn and Brynn's 5th birthday is on Friday.  My girls are nearly FIVE YEARS OLD!  I can't believe it.

Preschool is only on Monday- Wednesday, so they are celebrating their big day in their classes today.  36 cupcakes and princess napkins were taken and handed off at drop off.  I'm sure they'll have colorful frosting smears on some part of their bodies to show how yummy they were when I pick them up at 3:30 pm.

It will be a non-stop party with these two until Sunday.  Tomorrow we are having their party here with the family in Cincinnati.  Cake, balloons, party decor, ice cream and presents.  They can't wait to wake up and see the table of gifts, decorations and streamers down in the kitchen.  The party can't last too long, since we fly to Utah tomorrow night at 6:00 pm. 

They will be able to share their real birthday with their grandparents (for the first time)! We are going to Build-A-Bear and Brynn has been dying to get her ears pierced (Kaitlyn says 'No Way!') and they want to make a visit to Toys-R-Us to spend the $3 gift cards that came in the mail last week.  On Saturday we'll hit Chuck-E-Cheese in Orem to wrap up the festivities.  Party Time!  I say:  Bring it On!!

Crafts for the class

The girls spent all weekend creating special things for their school classmates.  It took over the entire kitchen and spilled into the basement as they dug through boxes looking for ribbon.  They loved using the 'stampler' to secure the bows in place and might have a future in bracelet design. They worked tirelessly until every every piece was just perfect.   Loving my totally girlie girls!

Spring

First day of spring.  High 83 degrees.  Sunny skies. 
The world is alive once again.

* Photos taken using the Instagram and ShakeIt iPhone app

Sunday Snapshots

*Rich was stuck reading out at the hospital, so Zach was my little buddy at church.  Last week, just minutes after Rich snuck out of nursery (after staying with Zach for the entire first hour), Zach cried so hard he made himself throw up.  I was mortified.  It's not often they bring your child to you and stay they just vomited.  Awful. 

So today, Zach happily tagged along with me and the girls to Primary.  He was in HEAVEN!  He swung his arm just like the chorister, hummed the songs and even went up to the front when they called another boy named Zach to come up.  So funny.  He was pretty good during my lesson and only climbed on our little baptism matching game just a couple of times. 

Zach never knew what he was missing when we all left him and his dad and went off to Primary.  He'll be in serious withdrawl from now on.  Good thing we'll be in Utah next week to help ease the pain.

3 AMAZING 'B's

It was an excellent to be a 'B' today in the tourney.   In fact, I loved my 3 beautiful 'B's so much I didn't care one bit that they all hurt my picks, but that's okay.  At some point I see the good again instead of the win and start rooting with my heart.  Every victory was a celebration.

BIG BLUE:  So, I had my Cats falling to West Virginia in my picks, but I was thrilled when thier young team looked strong and got their second victory in the tournament.  UK freshman Brandon Knight dropped 30 points on good ol' Bob Huggins West Virginia Mountaineers.  The 71-63 victory pushed my Cats to the East Regional Final in Newark, New Jersey.  Anyone that can knock off meanie Huggins will get a cheer from me.  Go Big Blue!

BUTLER:  Josh proudly sported the Butler t-shirt we purchased after the game in December (Trey was in BYU). We were all cheering for the bulldogs, even though none of our brackets showed it.  It was a game I'll never forget.  I have never, ever, ever seen such a more wild and crazy ending to a basketball game in my life.  #1 Pitt vs #8 Butler in a showdown in D.C..  In the last few seconds, my emotions were high and low and then high again.  You can't even make this stuff up. 

Here's ESPN's Dana O'Neil's take on the ending.

Matt Howard stepped to the line while bedlam and hysteria broke out around him.


One side of the Verizon Center booed its displeasure; the other screamed its joy.

Pittsburgh players, who just seconds before were euphoric, now stood with faces paralyzed in disbelief.

Butler players, who only seconds before stood frozen, smiled in euphoria.

Emotions were stripped bare in Butler’s 71-70 upset of No. 1 seed Pittsburgh, leaving even the winners feeling like wrung out dishrags.

There were actually three acts to this grand finale, an operatic drama that packed more action into 10 ticks of a clock than some teams can cram into a season.


Pitt had the ball and a 69-68 lead, but instead of bleeding the clock for a good shot, Ashton Gibbs heaved a disaster after the shot clock already expired.

With eight seconds left, Butler inbounded the ball to Shawn Vanzant and the player who set up the winner against Old Dominion appeared to do it again. He drove down the right side of the lane and dumped the ball to Andrew Smith. The sophomore laid it in and Butler led 70-69 with three seconds left.  Brown went to the line and sunk the first free throw to tie it at 70. But then the 78 percent free-throw shooter missed the second.

As Brown’s missed freebie fell to the right side of the rim, Howard went up to get it. Nasir Robinson came up behind him and when the two landed, ref Antinio Petty raised his fist. He had called Robinson for a foul 92 feet from the basket, putting Howard on the line for two free throws with 0.8 left on the clock.  He hit the first, intentionally missed the second and the game was over.

The Bulldogs will next face Wisconsin in the Southeast regional semifinals. No matter what happens, it will almost certainly be tame compared to what Butler went through in Washington.

BYU:  The game was decided, the clock ticking down and the Brigham Young fans were the ones doing the celebrating.

"Sweet 16! Sweet 16!" they shouted. Then, an even more fitting refrain: "You got Jimmered!"

Yep, Gonzaga sure did.

And next, Jimmer Fredette takes his high-scoring show to the Big Easy.

The nation's leading scorer lived up to the hype once again Saturday, going for 34 points to lift third-seeded BYU to an 89-67 victory over 11th-seeded Gonzaga and send the Cougars to New Orleans for the regional semifinals. (From ESPN.com)

I couldn't not have hope for more.  Not only did BYU take and keep the lead against the 'Zags, they looked great.  Jimmer was able to move the ball around and the Cougars do better when he's not the only one scoring.  The victory sent BYU to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 for the first time since Danny Ainge’s celebrated "Stormin' Mormon" drive to the Elite Eight in 1981.   I was thrilled with the win and can't wait to watch them battle it out against Florida next week. 
 
Favorite 'Jimmerisms'
 
* From Jimmer Range
* You got Jimmered
* Fredette About It!
* Baptized by Jimmersion
* Fear the Jimmer
* Got Jimmer?

One Lucky Day

"BEST DAY EVER!!"

-Rapunzel

How lucky to find that the first day of the NCAA men's basketball tournament fell on St. Patrick's Day.  Two of my favorite days of the year, squished into one.  It was a perfect day.  One that I will look back and smile, because I pretty much had a huge grin plastered on my face all day long.  I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.  Even luckier than a Leprechaun.

I woke up with stirrings of excitement.  My heart raced as I opened up ESPN.com and carefully added my selected teams on my bracket and entered them into our families tournament challenges.  I agonized over my picks for THREE DAYS.  I'd sit and stare at the sheet going back and forth, back and forth, hoping for inspiration as to which team was the right one.  Rich laughed at me as he watched me struggle.

While I rode the bike, my little brother Jeff called.  He had some major St. Patty's Day luck when his attending let him go at 10:30 am.  He considers tourney time the happiest time of the year, so he was thrilled and wanted to share his good news with someone who feels likewise.  We chatted games, possible upsets and who we thought would win.  I loved every second of our conversation.

The girls were up and busy before Zach was awake.  During breakfast the girls worked on their rainbows out of Fruit Loops and they turned out darling.  Kaitlyn had begun one at school but wanted to finish it, so we picked up a box of cereal the day before so she can Brynn could finish it on 'Green Day'. 

Then they discovered a real treat!  A Leprechaun had visited us either in the night or that very morning (the boys didn't see it at all!) and left behind a fun St. Patrick's Day surprise.  He must have loved our special green t-shirts we were all sporting this year.

The girls, Zach and I got dressed in our green attire and headed over to the school for lunch with the boys.  The girls sparkled in their gold glitter shoes and shiny shamrock shirt and Zach really was an Irish charmer in his little green tee.  We gobbled up chicken nuggets and green Italian ice, admired other kid's outfits and chatted with the boys about their day. 

We got home in time to catch all the thrills of the end of the early day games.  Oh my!  I screamed out loud as Butler got a tip in to win by 2.  They were my team.  I had to pick them after visiting their campus in December and watching them in action.  I let out a huge wail as Louisville was sunk by a lowly #13 seed Morehead State.  I had the 'Ville going two rounds, but you have to cheer for the Cinderella.  Morehead State's win would only have been bigger if their victory was over UK.  It was like the Kentucky stepchild took out the bully big brother.  HUGE.  Really.  Basketball in the Commonwealth is life and death.  UK escaped a grisly ending by the smallest of margin.  Oh, those Cats fans would have been in mourning until next season began if the brainiacts of Princeton could have pulled a basketball powerhouse like UK down in the first round.  The Cats just got lucky at the end.  Pure and simple.  There was the nail biter between Temple and Penn St. and my team (Temple) came up on top.   Good for me, bad for Josh who was hoping up and down in agony because his team wasn't mine. 

We took a breather from the games to gobble up some green treats the Leprechaun left for the kiddos, take some funny pictures of the girls with their green hats and then raced back forth from piano to basketball (Josh and Matt) then back to piano and basketball (Trey). 

While in route I called my dad to talk about the games.  He told me he got a cool app for his phone.  Trey downloaded as I drove and seconds later we had a live stream of the games there on our phone.  Can I say INCREDIBLE!  Rich came out in between practices to grab the Burger King I picked up and we all stood in the parking lot of the Beech Acres complex watching Vanderbilt choke and loose to #12 Richmond.  The bookies in Vegas had said it would be close.  They were right.  What a memory of us huddled around a phone in Cincinnati, Ohio watching a live game played in Denver, Colorado.  Amazing.

Then came the night games.  Rich finally was able to sit down after a LONG day of work, plus coaching two basketball practices and enjoy 'The Dance'.  And it didn't disappoint.  BYU hashed it out with Wofford and finally got it done in the end.  Cincinnati and U Conn looked tough.  Utah State got killed and my Zags, who I always pick and wanted to pick, but somehow talked myself out of this year, looked great.  I'm afraid for BYU next round.  Very afraid. 

Then we had a tiny bit of drama, twice. Even a perfect day has to have to ups and down, otherwise it wouldn't be real life.  The first time was when I realized my bracket for the Jackson 'March Madness ONIONS!!!' did not save correctly.  It was under Rich's profile and was saving my points, but it was not added to the group.  Not good, but not to worry, if I do well in the end, I'll make sure all the Jacksons know my score.

The second time was when UCLA started beating up Michigan State.  I had a hard time picking this one, so I went against my rules and asked Rich the night before.  He told me Michigan St. could win.  As the game raged on, I looked at Rich's picks and discovered Rich had picked UCLA.  WHAT?!  Was he trying to sail me down the wrong river?  I wasn't happy, until the game got close at the end, then I felt my pick of Michigan St. was justified and I forgave him.  Nice of me, right?

We all went to bed FAR TOO LATE, but with a perfect day slowly winding down, and a few close games we had to see to the end, we had to milk every second of it and soak it all in.  Lucky for all of us, we get to watch the second day of MADNESS today!  Woo Hoo!

I love this time of year.  I love the tradition.  I love the picks.  I love talking hoops with Rich, my boys, my dad and my brothers.  I love the magic in the air.  I've loved going to the games in years past.  I love cheering for 'my teams' because every game matters when you put pen to paper and record who you think will win.  St. Patrick's Day and the first day of March Madness 2011 was one I will forever love and cherish because it was one I could spend sharing so many things with those I love.

"It's March Madness BABY!"  -Dickie V.

 Visit from a Leprechaun who left us yummy treats

 Morning craft by Kaitlyn and Brynn

 Lunch with the fellas

The picture I wanted....

The one the girls wanted.  Luckily I love both.

P.S.  Hoping in a few weeks from now I see Ohio State, Kansas, Duke and Florida alive and well in the Final 4 in Houston, Texas.  Got my fingers crossed!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

an Irish blessing for each of you:

May your pockets be heavy –
Your heart be light,
And may good luck pursue you
Each morning and night.

Enjoy your GREEN Day!

Let the MADNESS begin!!