Basketball Season

Baseball season is in full swing here at the Andros house (pun intended).  But I'd better recap our basketball season before it's too far past.

Chloe's season started just after the new year and she had her last game on March 15th.  She overlapped with baseball for a few weeks, which was tricky.

This was her second year in this league.  It's a well organized league and Chloe had the same great coach as last year.

New this year was this inflatable dome that the teams ran through before the game, as an announcer called out their names and numbers.

Chloe was always called first- alphabetical order, maybe?  It pays to have an "A" last name.  ("A" is for awesome, too). :)

They play 6 periods.  Each girl gets to play a full period, every other period.

That's Chloe at the top, yellow wristband.  To teach the girls how to guard each other, each girl puts on a wrist band that matches the color of another girl on the opposite team.  They guard the girl with the same color wrist band.

We really had to stress to Chloe the importance of rebounding this year.  At the beginning of the season, she was not trying to rebound at all.  We worked with her at home to turn around and box out whenever the ball was shot- offense or defense- and to go after the ball. 

Look at that defense!

Great shot!  She had a few baskets this year.  She has been working really hard on her shot, making sure to only shoot with one hand. 

At half time, one of the refs called all the little kids over to shoot around.  Leah was very excited about that and ran right out.

Leah is a tiny little thing, but loves sports.  It is hilarious to watch her 33 pound frame shoot a big old basketball.  Great follow through, LJ!

The ref lifted her up for a slam dunk!  She was in heaven!

Ahh, basketball is exhausting!

Chloe had a good season.  She enjoys playing and we enjoy watching her.  Chloe does not have much competitiveness in her (is she really my daughter??), which can often lead to her not being as aggressive or motivated to work as hard as she could.  She enjoys it and is learning new skills, which is most important.  Her mother would love to see a little more fire in her- maybe that will come with more experience. 

The kids have loved having a basketball hoop in our driveway.  The height on it is adjustable, which is awesome, and it provides them lots of outdoor fun.

I love walking outside to find some or all of the kids playing ball.  Mitch was bummed that he wasn't old enough to play in the league Chloe is in.  He is ready to play!

Basketball season wasn't complete this year without a little friendly family competition during the NCAA March Madness tournament.  I printed off a bracket for everyone (minus Olivia) and made a "March Madness" wall where we could hang the brackets.  For FHE the week that the games started, everyone filled out a bracket. 

Then we hung the brackets on the wall and updated them after each round.  The kids were excited to see how they were doing (compared to their siblings).  Our kids may not be the most competitive on the field/court during sporting seasons, but within our home and with each other, they are super competitors.  The scoring system was 1 point for round one, 2 points for round two, 4 points round three, 8 for round four, 16 for round five and 32 for round six. 

The Tuesday after the championship game, we tallied up our final points.  Ben was the winner winner chicken dinner.  None of us had either of the final 2 in the final round. 

In the order that the kids won, we let them pick a box of candy for their prize.  Leah was last of all the kids and was super bummed with the box of candy that was leftover.  She liked the candy (Reeses Pieces) but I think was just upset that she had to pick last and got leftovers.  (The competitiveness strikes again).  She put on a forced happy face for the picture, after her amazing mom promised to take her to the store the next day and let her pick out something different.  If only life were always that kind.

Basketball season was fun- we decided to make filling out March Madness brackets a yearly tradition.  None of us had a great bracket at all this year, but it was really fun to do.   So long basketball!  On to baseball season- it'll be a hit!