It is that time of year when college basketball starts the madness of buzzerbeaters, 3-point shots, cinderalla's, sweet 16's and all the other cliche's used by the TV announcers. In our house it is a time called "Brackets". For a long time I used to reserve my bracket picks for office pools or online contests. It has now become an annual tradition in our home for the entire family to fill out their brackets and see who wins the Final Four. This tradition started when Isaac was old enough to talk and understand the difference between certain animals. When he was young I would ask him which mascot he liked better and that team would advance in his bracket. Marina started the same way but does not get as into it as Isaac, Vycci and I. For those of you who don't know, Vycci is a big college basketball fan (despite her occasional denials). In high school she loved the Hoya's of Georgetown, the Buckeye's of Ohio State, the Hurricanes of Miami and her favorite team the Running Rebels of UNLV. Vycci continues to pick her favorites when we fill out our brackets but she will also watch the bracket selection show to try to beat me out. Isaac has traditionally picked teams that were either Wildcats (Kentucky, Arizona, Villanova) or Wolf Pack (Nevada, North Carolina State). Marina tends to pick the teams who have strange mascot names (Gaels, Golden Flashes, Torero) of course she also doesn't do that well in her bracket. I usually pick my brackets based upon who I think will win and I always pick upsets. My favorite teams include the TarHeels of North Carolina, the BearCats of Cincinnati (not in it this year) and the Gators of Florida. Honorable mentions include the Bruins of UCLA, the Jayhawks of Kansas and the Orangemen of Syracuse (also not in it this year).
So it is that every March my family fills out brackets and I score them as the tournament progresses. I give 1 point for correct picks in the first round, 2 points in the second and so on. The winner is the person who has the most overall points on their bracket. So now the question you might have is how do I get my kids to do this. Well, first of all they like picking the mascots and seeing who is the last mascot standing, but more importantly the winner of the brackets gets to choose which ice cream place we get to go to when it's all over. Vycci likes Basking Robbins and DQ, Marina and Isaac like Sonic and DQ while I enjoy Coldstone or DQ. In short, we all win but have a fun time watching most of the games, cheering for Bulldogs, BlueDevils and Musketeers knowing that in the end ice cream is on Dad! Go TarHeels!
On Friday Isaac participated in the 2nd grade fairy tale ball. Although I was in San Diego at a conference, Vycci was able to go (the perks of working at your kids school) and snap a few shots of the event. Isaac's class has been studying different fairy tales from around the world and this was the culminating event for their unit. In addition to dressing up "fairy tale" style, the class learned how to waltz and they were able to waltz their way through the ball. Each student had one main parner for the waltz, Isaac was partnered with Uvea (upper left) but managed to dance with other friends as well. His friend Kevin (far left) went out and bought a brand new suit for the event and bought his first pair of adult sized shoes (yes he is still in 2nd grade). Isaac was the only knight to attend the ball, but Vycci said there were several princes, queens, kings and even a couple dragons. 
