Dance! Show! Final! Post!*

On December 20, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead7 Comments

* Many thanks to Julie for that kick-ass title.

So. Dance! Show! is all over for another few months and I have the usual burn out. I think what happens, after the finale, is that a huge chunk of my brain that was very busy keeping track of all things Dance Show at all times suddenly has nothing to do, and it’s like a physical withdrawal. I get all bitchy and cranky. Or maybe that’s just PMS.

Also, I always seem to declare the latest season as being the worst ever, and again, I find I was not as engrossed this season as I have been in the past. Of course, that could be because I watched most of the episodes in super-fast-forward with Little Miss Sunshine whining beside me that she waaaaants to waaaaatch Toooopy!

Proposed: Dance! Show! has jumped the shark due to the loss of critical choreographers and the lack of remaining mature talent in America to tap, and thus will never again see the heights that were Seasons 2, 3, and 4. Discuss.

In the meantime, let’s break down Season 6, shall we?

The Good

The best thing about this season was the addition of the specialty show — the extra episode in which each set of dancers got to do a number in their specialty. There’s no question that this show was specifically added so that tap dancing could be profiled on the show — Nigel makes no attempt to hide his affection for tap. Still, I hope they keep this format, because it led to some of the best numbers of the entire season (witness half of this program being re-shown in the finale).

Also good: the addition of Adam Shankman as a permanent judge. I thought I would miss the various guest judges, but Shankman really did me proud this season, offering up meaningful and hilarious commentary. In fact, dare I say that he has become the most relevant judge on the panel? I hope he’ll stick around for next season as well. The only real drawback is that we don’t get to see any of his fantastic choreography while he’s sitting at the judges’ table.

In other good news, I really enjoyed most of the group numbers this season. In the past couple of seasons they’ve been kind of hit-or-miss for me, but this year there were several I really loved. Of course, Wade Robson’s Top 20 number — the dance-off to the fantastic song Comanche — is my favourite group number of all time. So if nothing else, there’s the beauty of Wade.

The Bad

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I’m a little disappointed in the winner. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so strongly about who should win the show — usually by the time the top 4 roll around, I have a personal favourite but would be happy to see any of them take the title. This year, though, I was on Team Jakob all the way. He was seriously a cut above every else this season — and possibly ever, the only person I think who could match him for talent is Season 3’s Danny — and he deserved to win. I hope he goes on to have a fabulous dancing career, because I’d totally pay to see him on Broadway or in his own show or wherever.

It’s funny, but way back in Season 2 there was a similar showdown between Benji and Travis (Travis Wall, now a choreographer on the show). Travis was the more skilled dancer but Benji, who was a ballroom dancer, had this amazing charisma and made every number he ever danced into something fun and powerful. Back then, although I recognized Travis as being the better dancer (and lordy, the judges were totally cramming him down the throats of the voting public with their effusive praise), I really wanted Benji to win (and he did). This season, my sympathies were totally reversed. Interesting.

The Ugly

Oh my heavens. That finale SUCKED.

First of all, THREE musical guests? And TWO numbers by J.Lo? I understand that this is Prime Time and you have to goose the ratings however you can. But it is Dance! Show! after all! All that craptastic singing left precious little time for, you know, DANCING. Traditionally the finale is my favourite episode of the season, because all my favourite numbers get repeated and I just swoon and swoon over the glory of the movement. This time there were, what, like six numbers?

And almost half of them were just the pre-taped version?

And like, 80% were either from the specialty show, or the Top 6 show that had aired just the very night before?

SUCKS.

Speaking of the penultimate episode, I felt there were few standouts. The best part of the whole show was when Ashleigh danced with Ryan (mushy contemporary, I totally called it!). I thought they were actually pretty good — it was maybe the best I’d ever seen Ryan dance a non-ballroom number — and I liked it fine. But the judges! They were so hilariously careful in their comments. They didn’t want to say that it was terrible, so it was all softball crap like, “You’ll always remember this special night,” and “What a wonderful moment for you,” and “That must have felt so wonderful for you.” The whole undertone was, “We’re so glad it was good FOR YOU, because it was rotten for us!” Poor poor married couple.

And to add insult to injury, they even had them throw together a last-minute jive for the finale because, apparently, their professionally choreographed number was just TOO GROSS to repeat air. Seriously, Nigel, was it that awful?

Overall, I do feel that this season was low on the big numbers, the ones that will live on in memory, but here are a few of my favourites that I wish they had found time for:

Karen and Kevin hip hop to Ice Cream Paint Job, where Kevin is the mechanic and Karen his muse, by Taboleon, Week 2
Ellenore and Ryan tango by Miriam and Leonardo, Week 2
Mollee and Nathan Bollywood routine, by Nakul, Week 2 (shown in the finale)
Ashleigh and Jakob jazz routine to Relax, with the cane prop, by Mandy Moore, Week 3
Noelle and Russell african jazz (shown in the finale), by THE CHEESEMAN (so awesome!), Week 3
Channing and Victor blackbird number (with the birdcage), by Tyce Diorio, Week 4
Kathryn and Legacy jazz with Sonya from week 5 – this is the one where they wore the red costumes and Legacy entered with a crab walk and it was SO COOL
Mollee and Jakob Broadway routine to Easy Street from Annie, by Joey FREAKING Dowling, in Week 8
Ellenore and Legacy contemporary routine to Machine Gun, with the table prop, by Travis Wall (shown in the finale)
Kathryn and Ryan samba from the top 6 show, by Jason Gilkison — this was practically the only ballroom number from the season that I thought was truly outstanding, and I hope we see a lot more of Jason next season

And that’s a wrap! See you in the summer.

Advent Update Number Two

On December 17, 2009December 17, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead8 Comments

This past Tuesday, for our advent activity, we made beaded snowflakes:

getting ready to bead
snowflakes

I thought this craft was much better for the four-five-six crowd than the paper snowflakes from last year. The kids had a great time pawing through our big bin of beads looking for matching sets of six beads to put around their snowflakes. They sometimes needed help threading the beads but even Little Miss Sunshine liked playing with the beads and sorting them. I bought a bunch of really pretty beads from Michaels for this craft but they were way expensive and not really worth it — we had a bunch of plastic and wood beads here from various sets of Gal Smiley’s and they were just as nice and easier to work with. Next year I’ll save some money and just buy a big bag of cheapy beads from Zellers.

We also made gingerbread houses this week, always a popular activity that leaves my kids completely hyped up on sugar. Our houses are simple creations made from graham crackers, that are totally meant to be consumed the very second they are finished (although we do try to spread it out over a few days just to contain the sugar a bit).

Reminder to myself for next year, because I always forget this part: the glue-icing that holds the house together takes time to dry. It would be better to make the basic houses the evening before so they can dry/harden in time for decorating the next day.

gingerbread fixings

This year I tried a new Vegan Royal Icing recipe and it worked much better than last year at holding the houses together — in fact, once it was dry, the houses were rock solid. Here’s the recipe:

1 cup icing sugar
2 teaspoons water or rice milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon clear vanilla

Mix the sugar with the water/rice milk until smooth (if it’s clumpy, do NOT add more water, just work it in as best you can). Beat/mix in the corn syrup and vanilla. If still too thick, add more corn syrup, but remember, this is for glue — it should not be runny at all, and should be more like dough than spreadable icing.

I found this easiest to work with by scooping out a small ball with my fingers, molding it or rolling it into a worm-like string, then pressing the string along the seam I was trying to join. It held quite well right away but pressure from little fingers pushing candies onto the house did cause it to give way a bit; letting it harden for an hour or two before decorating would be better.

Oh, and I almost forgot, we also added a Christmas tree in front of each gingerbread house this year — a sugar ice cream cone covered in green icing. Here’s Little Miss Sunshine’s creation, moments before being devoured:

Little Miss' house

Last night, we cleared the furniture from our family room and had a dance party — probably my favourite activity to date. Today, we’ll be making a mural of pictures of toys and Christmas-y stuff I’ve cut from magazines and flyers – sounds simple but again, the kids love it because there’s a huge pile of things to sort through and paw through. It’s always exciting when they score something from the heap that they think is particularly special.

Man, Christmas is coming soon!

Pie

On December 16, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead31 Comments

Baby don’t you cry
Gonna make a pie
Gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle

Baby don’t be blue
Gonna make for you
Gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle

Gonna be a pie from heaven above
Gonna be filled with strawberry love

Baby don’t you cry
Gonna make a pie
And hold you forever in the middle of my heart.

-Quincey Coleman, from the movie Waitress

So! One of my goals for this year, before I turn 40, is to become a master pie-maker. My mother is reknown for her amazing pies. She makes the best pies I’ve ever tasted, possibly only bested by my uncle, her brother. She’s the queen of fruit pies; my uncle makes the best merangue. It’s a toss up. A delicious, delicious toss up.

So far, none of my sisters nor I have taken up the pie-making mantle. I am not a good cook, but I do love to bake, and I’d really love to be able to make a pie that’s almost as good as my mom’s. So this year, it’s going to happen.

I’ve decided that to get proper pratice in, I should make a pie about once a week, give or take. Unfortunately, the kids are alien freaks who all HATE pie. It’s not even like it’s their least favourite dessert or that they’d prefer cake. It’s like, WORSE THAN BRUSSEL SPROUTS.

I know! I only hope that they take me with them when their mothership arrives.

So I expect to have a lot of pie to give away this year. Let me know if you’d like to be a taste tester/guinea pig, and if you have some draw-string pants ready to go, I’ll sign you up for the program.

This week I kicked things off with a simple double-crust apple pie. This is my mother’s signature pie, like seriously, her apple pies are a giant slice of heaven. More like two slices of heaven. Okay, okay, three, but I definitely have to stop after that.

So nothing like aiming high or anything. Sheesh.

Here’s my pie. Sorry for the half-eaten state. Sir Monkeypants and I have only seven days to get through this one! We had to act quickly!

apple pie

I should mention here that since the kids totally hate pie, I haven’t made more than a couple of pies in my life. So for an almost-first try, I’d say this pie was not bad. The filling (Empire apples with a little sugar and cinnamon) is very good. I’d give it a B+.

The crust, however, needs some work. It’s a little too heavy and unevenly rolled, although still edible (and better than a lot of cafeteria pies I’ve had, although I guess that isn’t saying much). I made this one with two cups cake and pastry flour (my mom says it’s a must) and 2/3 cup lard (don’t tell my mom, since she is dedicated to Crisco, but the Captain lately seems to be developing a sensitivity to Crisco and I was really hoping he’d try this pie). Also, the edges are a little well done but I could not for the life of me figure out how to “tent with tin foil” as described in the recipe. The tin foil kept squishing the pastry and wouldn’t stay on and eventually the pie started to fall apart so I panicked and put it in the oven as-is.

So overall, I give the crust a C. Although it definitely does not seem to stop us from eating it.

Last night we tried very hard to have the kids try the pie. Gal Smiley helped me with the filling so she was fairly eager to try out her work, but spat out the one bite she tried and declared it to be terrible.

PIE. I KNOW.

The Captain was even worse, to the point of hilarity. When we told him he had to try the pie, he cried and cried. He was terrified of the horrible, scary, pie. Full of totally disgusting things like SUGAR and APPLES. GROSS.

We were so convinced, though, that he would love it (because it’s PIE, HELLO) if only he tried one little bit that eventually we forced a small bit through his clenched teeth, and eventually he stopped weeping long enough to declare that the pie was, “Okay, maybe,” and then went on to have at least five or six more bites before moving it back to the “totally gross” category.

But hey, progress towards BEING HUMAN, so that’s good!

I’m sure I’ll be trying the apple pie again, and often, this year, but in the meantime, I’m in the hunt for next week’s selection.

Yum, pie!

Canadian Blog Awards

On December 14, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead10 Comments

Just a quick post today about the Canadian Blog Awards. Round one of voting is finished; the top 10 vote getters in each category move on to round two (which I think is the final round).

Turtlehead made it! I’m still in contention for Top Family Blog.

You can vote for me here. As before, if you’d like to vote for me, rank me “1st” in the dropbox on the left hand side and then submit your vote.

You can vote every day. Actually, you can vote every few hours if you are really devoted and have nothing better to do…and if that’s true, call me and we’ll go for a coffee.

Advent 2009

On December 12, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead5 Comments

I can’t believe how much blogging I’ve done in December, and yet I haven’t even mentioned the Advent Calendar. Where was all this inspiration during NaBloPoMo?

Anyway, we’ve been steadily working through our Advent activities and having a really good time. This year I’ve found it a bit more challenging than last, for two reasons. First, the Captain is in school full days now, so I’m trying to work our activities into the narrow window between home-from-school and cooking-dinner. Since that time is also for doing homework and having a snack and occasionally playing with friends who are invited over, it’s been tough to squeeze it all in, but so far, we’re making it happen. Second, the Captain has complained about a couple of activities as being “too babyish” for him and he has been a fairly reluctant participant. Next year I’ll have to brainstorm some more exciting things.

I’ve been taking pictures all along the way, but since I don’t post pics of the kids here, it’s hard to find photo evidence of our December fun. Here’s a sampling, though.

First up, we hung up our stockings…

Angel Stocking Hanger

And then we put up the tree…

Tree

Both of those were fun and will likely remain the same every year.

On day three we made rice krispie squares, the first activity that the Captain claimed was below him (say what? Krispies are ageless, man!). He was more than happy to eat the results, though. Since it’s Christmas and everything I let them go to town on the pan and they each had three big pieces, before dinner. It was a good night. Not shown: Little Miss Sunshine with a face full of marshmallow.

On day four we went to the LEGO exhibit at the Science Museum. It was our second time going — we wanted to have another chance to see the LEGO before it goes away in January. It’s worth it to go back in December because they are having a “guess how many pieces” contest with the giant Space Shuttle that was built for the exhibit on the day it opened. I can’t tell you how many we guessed because we are TOTALLY going to win. The Captain has already spent most of the $1000 prize (which must be spent on LEGO, which is SO not a problem for the Captain).

And again, I can’t show you the pics because the kids are in all of them. Doh.

On the fifth day we were supposed to wrap some gifts, but I decided to take the older two kids to The Nutcracker instead. It was lovely and I have to say, our seats in the very back row of the upper balcony were excellent. The kids were able to stand any time they wanted to, and I didn’t worry as much about the noise they were making. Plus, they could lean over and see right into the orchestra pit. I would possibly actually choose to sit there again in the future. The Captain in particular loved it; Gal Smiley was ready to go home after she’d heard her favourite “Russian Song” in the second half, but she stuck it out until the end.

Day six was family swim, always a good time. Day seven, we built a fort in the front room, so now my living room looks like this:

Fort

This was another activity that the Captain chose not to do — he played LEGO with his buddy in the kitchen while I built the fort with the girls. He likes playing with it now that it’s done, though. Hm. I am detecting a pattern here. A pattern of LAZINESS.

Day eight, all three kids had a bubble bath in the big tub:

Jelly Belly Toes

Always a hit, I had to force them to get out. Although, we are starting to move the Captain toward having more private time in the bathroom, so this may be the last year that I put all three kids in together. And now I’m sad.

Day nine, we coloured pictures for Nanny and Ba, the kids’ two grandmothers. I like this activity a lot because it gets them thinking about other people and doing something nice for someone else.

Colouring

Gal Smiley and the Captain were really into this idea and made several pictures each for their grandmothers, and then they were pretty excited to mail them afterwards. Then they went outside and played in the massive snowstorm we were having and all in all, it was a pretty awesome day.

On Day 10 we made peppermint bark (recipe at the very end of the linked post), which I love. I must say, we have entirely too many treats in the house this December. I’m already pushing the boundaries of my pants, and we still have weeks to go. Not good.

Peppermint Bark

Not shown: Little Miss Sunshine with a face full of chocolate.

Yesterday was Day 11. Sir Monkeypants took the day off of work because it was Gal Smiley’s Christmas concert in the morning (CUTE. OVERLOAD.). Then we picked up the Captain from school and took the kids to see Santa at the mall, and to drop off some toys for Toy Mountain, only I forgot the toys at home (DOH), so now we have to go back there today or tomorrow or some other time when I’m ready for the hell that is the mall in December.

Santa was good though. Not shown: Little Miss Sunshine with a face covered in candy cane.

Question for you parents out there: do you try to manage your kids requests to Santa, or do you just let them ask for anything they want? Like, do you let them ask for a pony if they really want a pony, knowing that there is no way in hell that they are going to get a pony? Or do you gently suggest things like, “I don’t think Santa can fit a pony in his sleigh, honey, why don’t you ask him for a toy pony instead?” Last year the Captain seemed really heartbroken when Santa didn’t bring him exactly what he asked for, so this year I have tried to provide some guidance. I also planted the idea that Santa knows what kinds of things you like, and will bring something he knows you will enjoy, even if he can’t fulfill your exact request.

It’s such a tough call, though. I invite opinions on this topic if anyone is still reading this EPIC NOVEL of a post.

Today, day 12, we’ll be chilling out by watching a Christmas movie (A Muppet Christmas Carol) with some chips and popcorn. Yum! And then tomorrow, we’ll be making gingerbread houses with FameThrowa and Mr. Chatty. Double yum!

Time to bring out the buffet pants.

Fin AWL Lee

On December 11, 2009December 10, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead2 Comments

This is it! The Dance! Show! finale is coming early this year, like a special Christmas gift that arrives in the mail from your super organized faraway aunt. Six dancers left, and just one show to decide their fate. Who will win?

You KNOW that there’s going to be pain if America messes this one up. I can’t remember the last time I cared so much about the overall winner. BE GOOD, America. Santa is watching you!

Here’s my final rankings of the remaining six.

1. Russell. His Santa solo this past week was SO CUTE. He’s just such a squisher. However, he is not the best dancer. I suppose there is a reason that they call the winner “America’s Most POPULAR Dancer” instead of “America’s Best Dancer,” but just one time, ONE TIME, could we vote for the dancer who is actually the best? As a present for me? Russell is cute, but please consider…

2. Jakob. Oh my, do I ever love Jakob. He is not only incredibly talented and a great actor, but he’s the rare dancer who can elevate his partners to greatness. Last week he showed that Ellenore was capable of connecting with a partner and she looked amazing. This week, he turned Mollee into magic. Watch his numbers with Mollee — you’ll see he is constantly looking at her, to make sure that he’s completely in sync with her at all times. That’s generosity; that’s a dancer who cares more about the overall performance and the audience’s experience than himself. And, he even made a Joey Dowling Broadway number into something great. JOEY DOWLING. GREAT. If that isn’t sheer dancing brilliance, I don’t know what is.

3. Kathryn. What up, America? Last week she’s in the bottom two, this week, the Safest of the Safe. I don’t get it. All I know is, I like her a lot, and like Jakob, I think she manages to click with every partner she’s given (except perhaps Nathan). This coming week she’ll be Jakob’s partner, so I expect WOW BAM SHAZAM from these two.

4. Ellenore. This week, I felt she was back in the mode of fantastic dancing, weak partner chemistry. I don’t know what it is about her — I love her solos, but she just doesn’t seem good at the pair-dancing thing. This week she should be paired with Russell, who I also think lacks chemistry with a lot of his partners, so I’m worried for her. Still love her, though.

5. Ashleigh. I like Ashleigh, and I really like her dancing. But you KNOW how I feel about free passes given to dancers who are injured — NO. At least she was included in the voting process, and not given a total free pass like Noelle earlier this season, and I did really appreciate the way she came on stage and talked about how eager and willing she was to get out there and how it was killing her to have the doctors bench her. Also, the footage of her dress rehearsal showed that she was ready and on point before the shoulder thing. STILL. I thought Mollee was just brilliant this past week (did I mention the Joey Dowling? And how it was actually GREAT?) and she totally deserved to stay. That makes Ashleigh the lowest ranked woman in my book.

6. Ryan. Dudes, how many times do I have to rank this guy last before you start listening to me? He’s a great partner for the women but he’s so stiff at non-ballroom styles. His solos are lame and he does not have the sparkle of Legacy (HUGE mistake, America). However, keeping him around does set him up for the Ryan-Ashleigh pairing, and I expect lots of super romantic numbers for them (a Samba or a Waltz, perhaps, along with a Contemporary piece in which they can spend the whole song staring into each others’ eyes). So they both might end up moving ahead of some of the other dancers. But that would be wrong.

Is there another Dance! Show! season coming in January? Or will we have to wait until summer again? Just wondering so I can warn Sir Monkeypants — he likes to be prepared for the onslaught.

See you at the finale!

I’ve Had It With Six

On December 10, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead8 Comments

The other day I had to go to a lawyer’s office to sign some papers, and the lawyer called in her assistant to be a witness. I had the girls with me, and The Assistant and Gal Smiley got to talking. When Gal Smiley told The Assistant that she has an older brother, age 6, The Assistant said that she has a little boy, age 8.

Then she turned to me, totally unprompted, and said, “Their behaviour gets a lot better when they turn 8.”

Oh man, did I ever need to hear that. It was like a small beacon of hope shining in the middle of a terrible storm of silliness.

When my nephew AvidReader was about the same age as the Captain, we went to visit him and his family. My sister in law warned us before we came that AvidReader might be annoying. “Why?” we asked. “He just tries to do things that he thinks are funny all the time, but they aren’t,” she said.

I must admit, we didn’t see what she was talking about at the time. Sure, AvidReader was maybe a bit more spirited than usual, but we had fun with him and it was a good visit.

But boy, do we EVER understand what she meant now that we have one of our own. A six year old boy that we live with, day in and day out, who CANNOT. STOP. THE. SILLY.

The crazy faces when you’re trying to discipline him. The shouting out of, “Where’s my dinner? Where’s my dinner?” when it’s sitting right in front of him. The repeating of everything you say, but with the word “poop” thrown in. The random tackling of family members. The frequent sudden declarations that, “YOU’RE BLUE! YOU’RE BLUE!” followed by insane laughter.

And the worst part is that he’s totally corrupted Gal Smiley to his cult of silly. Now all day long all I hear is them attempting to one-up each other in the most ridiculous conversation ever.

Witness this exchange that took place in the van on the way home from The Nutcracker, because there’s nothing like ballet to put you in the mood for a little crass talk:

Gal Smiley: The sun is setting!

Captain Jelly Belly: Bed bed bed wetting!

[hysterical giggling]

GS: The sun is having a poop.

[hysterical giggling]

CJB: My eyeballs are bleeding!

[hysterical giggling]

GS: Blah blah blah dancing queen!!

[hysterical giggling]

CJB: Why don’t you pick your nose and eat it?

[hysterical giggling]

GS: You’re going to step in nose poo!

[hysterical giggling]

CJB: Sid! YOUR NAME IS SID!

[hysterical giggling]

GS: DOOBY DOOBY DOOBY DOO!

[hysterical giggling]

CJB: Sid, why are you driving me crazy?

[hysterical giggling]

And then my head exploded.

A blog post cannot remotely capture how annoying this is. One time, vaguely amusing, maybe. Sixteen hours a day of this nonsense, non-stop — OH. MY. GOD.

And it’s such a grey area when it comes to discipline, too. On the surface of it, they’re having fun. They’re happy, they’re playing well together, they’re making each other crack up. The only real danger is busting a gut from laughing, or perhaps future overuse of the word “poop” in business meetings.

And yet, there’s only so much we can take, before one of us blows up and tells them to KNOCK. IT. OFF.

Half of me says, they’re just kids, they’ll outgrow it.

The other half says, what if the only reason anyone else ever outgrew it is because their parents cracked down on that crap every single time? And if I give up and just try to ignore it, they’ll grow up to be Carrot Top and Joan Rivers?

Eight years old better hurry up and get here!

Getting Over Myself: A Small Christmas Gift Guide

On December 8, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead5 Comments

Whenever one of my friends’ kids has a birthday, or when Christmas rolls around, I always want to know what they are getting for their kids for gifts. It always feels so awkward to ask about it, though. It feels akin to asking about how much money someone makes. It’s just taboo, and makes people feel like they are being judged or compared in some way.

Not that I let the awkwardness stop me from asking, anyway. I’m always on the hunt for awesome gift ideas for all ages, so I just want the info. No judgment here! Just excitement about new finds!

This year, like many people, we are cutting back a bit on our Christmas spending on the kids. Also, we looked around for some non-toy presents since they will be getting toys from their grandparents and aunts this year. So here are a couple of ideas from my own shopping list — no need for the awkward asking!

See, I’m always thinking of you guys.

For the Captain — he’s six and a half — we wanted to get him a Star Wars shirt. He loves the Star Wars, but we wanted something on the theme that wasn’t a toy. There are plenty of cute shirts available online for like, a thousand dollars each plus a million dollars shipping. However, I did find this pretty good one at Sears.ca for just $14.99. Free shipping, too, if you’re willing to pick it up at a location near you. Warning — they fit big, I bought the size 8 (small) and it’s surely going to fit him until he’s 17.

He’s also getting some Ricky Ricotta books that he saw at the bookstore a few weeks ago, and fell in love with. But if you have a six year old, may I recommend the Wayside books instead:

They are hilarious, and their short-story format makes them perfect for bedtime reading. They’re probably too hard for your average six-year-old to read themselves but we just finished working through the third book as the Captain’s bedtime stories and I think it’s safe to say, he’ll love them forever.

Gal Smiley is five this Christmas, and she is a tough person to shop for. She is not into girly-girl things like Barbie and Polly Pockets and fashion jewelry and handbags. She’s all about the cargo pants and climbing trees. One thing she really likes is playing “camping,” so she is getting a hand-crank flashlight from Lee Valley, for just $10:

She also loves to have a cup of milk in a mug in the mornings, so we are getting her a custom photo mug from the Photolab at the Superstore, with a picture on it of her with her favourite sleep buddy, Shearly the Sheep (starting at $14, depending on how fancy you want your mug).

She’s going to love it. There’s lots of other great custom photo gifts to consider too, like t-shirts or Christmas ornaments or puzzles, with a picture of a special toy or brother or sister on it. For Gal Smiley’s birthday, I printed out several photos that she had taken with the Fischer Price camera we got her last year (totally awesome gift, absolutely perfect for her, by the way) and put them in a little album and it’s one of her favourite things — another inexpensive gift that was a big hit.

Little Miss Sunshine is two and a bit, and she’s so easy to shop for. Unlike Gal Smiley, anything pink and sparkly will do just fine. So, she is getting sparkle shoes from the Joe Fresh line (the Loblaws/Superstore brand). I’ve seen sparkle shoes at the mall for $35, and I’m sure they are excellent quality, but considering the Little Miss is going to wear them when she is digging sand at the park, the $14 price at the Superstore will be just fine. Unfortunately I could not find a picture of them online because the Joe site is SO ANNOYING, but they come this year in black, silver, and gold (we got silver) and they sell out super early, so act quickly if you are interested.

The Little Miss is (not suprisingly) obsessed with ballerinas, so she’ll also be getting a couple of books about ballerinas, including this one called Ballerina! by Peter Sis:

It’s about a girl getting ready for a ballerina show and practicing her moves. Oh man, am I ever going to be ballerina-ed out three days after Christmas.

Lastly, if you have an almost-three-year-old, I highly recommend the Letter Factory video by LeapFrog, which is just $11 online:

We already own it but we are buying it for my nephew this year, because it totally changed our lives. Actual education and early reading skills, passed on to your kid while they think they are mindlessly watching TV! We just started bombarding the Little Miss with this one and she already has learned that the A says “aahhhhh!”

Okay, now it’s your turn! What funky and different and inexpensive ideas do you have?

Disclosure: I got bubkis from any and all of these companies for mentioning their stuff. I just like it.

The Legion Of Extraordinary Guest Dancers

On December 7, 2009December 10, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead4 Comments

Well well well! What a difference a week makes. Many couples struggled to find chemistry with their new partners this week, leading to some major shake ups in the top 8 handicapping.

1. Jakob. No surprise that he totally rocked this week — if anything, he was even better with Ellenore than Ashleigh. Jakob is an amazing dancer, and yet seems to lack the arrogance of Season 3 Danny and the blandness of Season 5 Brandon. Could this be the rare season when the actual best dancer takes the trophy? The screaming girls in the front row say, “YES.”

2. Russell. Second only to Jakob in girl-screams, Russell confirmed his status with the fans and the judges this week. I have to admit I really liked him a lot with Mollee, and felt they had by far the best chemistry of any of the new couples. I totally agree with Nigel — had they been paired from the start, it could have made a big difference to both of them. As it is, his solos are fantastic, the people love him, and he’s a sweetie pie — a recipe for triumph.

3. Ellenore. How silly of me to think the people did not love her as I love her! She was great this week with Jakob. Since she’s unlikely to be paired with Ryan again, she’ll be with either Russell or Legacy this week — both good omens for her status.

4. Legacy. I still think the people love Legacy…but it certainly was a shock to see him standing with Nathan in contention for one of the bottom two slots. Perhaps that jolt will motivate the voting public to support him. Perhaps he’ll be just like Season 3 Dominic — super popular, but going out in fifth/sixth spot, just shy of the top four (as do all my favourite dancers, it seems). In any case, he was not that great this week, although I didn’t really like his choreographers, so next week I think he has a good chance of rebounding.

5. Mollee. Mollee really did what she needed to do this week — break free of her cutsy-cutsy partnership with Nathan and do some serious dancing with a serious partner. She’s still on probation but her quick bump to safety on results show night does bode well for her, if she can keep the good dancing coming.

6. Ashleigh. Again, some love her, some hate her, but DAMN, what a good back story. I totally skipped over most of the backstory montages (snooze!) but I was glued to the screen for any news of Ashleigh’s history. At last, some juicy info about her “illness” and a whole “triumph over adversity” story that brings a tear to the eye. She could really work it if she dances well and gives some warmer interviews.

7. Kathryn. Oh, how it saddens me to see Kathryn down here. Love her, love her dancing, but being paired with Nathan did her no favours. Let’s hope she pulls Jakob this week and really blows our socks off, or — oh dear, I don’t even like to think about it. In fact, let’s analyse the remaining couples:

Jakob must be with Kathryn or Mollee (to avoid past partnerships)
Russell must be with anyone but Mollee
Legacy must be with Ellenore or Mollee
Ryan must be with anyone but Ellenore, and I don’t think they will put him with Ashleigh, more because they are the same style than because they are husband and wife.

So I’m going to predict:
Jakob with Kathryn (only because I really HOPE for this matchup)
Russell with Ashleigh
Legacy with Ellenore
Ryan with Mollee (warning: MISMATCH.)

Hm. I am absolutely terrible at predicting the couples like this, and looking this list over, I have to admit, poor Kathryn will probably be put with Ryan, in order to avoid the dreadful horror of the Ryan/Mollee pairing. (Don’t let the “pull names out of a hat” garbage fool you. There’s a very small subset of names in that hat available to be pulled, I know it.)

8. Ryan. Definitely the weakest man left, and likely the least popular — he’s a sure bet to go home this week unless he really pulls a rabbit out of a hat.

In other news, did you see The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers on the results show last week? That was so awesome, I’m going to have to get all street on you and say it was SICK. My love knows no bounds. You want to go to there!

I Usually Do Well At This Sort Of Thing

On December 6, 2009December 3, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead9 Comments

This week we got the Captain’s first Grade One report card. It is such a mysterious document. I mean, the letter grades are there and I guess that’s fairly straightforward. But reading through the comments is like reading a foreign language.

I’m guessing that Board guidelines, formulated so as to not offend anyone ever, instruct the teachers to couch all their real comments in such convoluted sentences as to be completely misunderstood. You have to read each sentence at least ten times to understand its basic meaning; then you have to read it several times in the context of the whole paragraph to understand the nuances of each word.

For example, here’s a sentence:

“He usually prints letters legibly and leaves a space between words.”

On the surface, that sounds good, right? He’s printing things! He’s doing it! He’s making it happen!

But the key word here is, “usually.” Usually is the word that indicates the level at which he is doing these things. In reality, handwriting is the Captain’s weakest area. With this sentence, the teacher is trying to communicate the he needs more handwriting practice.

If he were doing well in this area, she might have said, “He always prints legibly.” If he were having a lot of difficulty, she might have had to go all the way to, “He sometimes prints legibly.”

Instead, the selection of the key word “usually” is meant to flag it as a problem area that needs work, but isn’t threatening his ability to pass.

Crazy, eh? It’s like every single point in the report card must have a positive sound about it, no matter what it is really trying to say. You really have to read between the lines to understand why your kid got the mark they did, and what they really need to work on.

Here’s another one:

“He applies knowledge and skills in familiar contexts with considerable effectiveness.”

This comment is about math. The key word here is “considerable” — this means he’s doing very well. If he were having trouble in math class, she might have said, “with some effectiveness” or maybe, “He usually applies knowledge.”

It took me a very long time to learn to speak this kind of language.

I guess the Board is just trying to protect its teachers from ugly confrontations, but we really just wish they’d tell it like it is — it’d feel a lot less like homework!