Spider Webs/Song of the Week #4

Click on the image to see it big enough to read.

Dream Catcher Lullaby is a common camp song. I first learned it from a fellow missionary when I was 21. She taught me the chorus and the descant and we had a good time singing it together. Many years later I found the song again and discovered that it had verses. Except for the first verse I didn't like them very much. (They were all about a guy who was going to be executed for his crimes.) So I wrote my own. There is a reason I don't have a career as a poet, but it's still fun to sing and it works well on the guitar.

My friend Pam and I performed it for a Relief Society activity once. I strummed the chords and she did some fancy picking. We are both altos, so if your voice won't go down to an A you'll want to get out the capo.

Special thanks to Melea for reminding me about this song (her kids are still singing it), and suggesting that I use it. I even got my guitar out today.

Little Bunny Purple Pants/Song of the Week #3

Little Bunny Purple Pants joined our family last year. Chesson was getting her third set of ear tubes plus having her adenoids removed. The surgical center had a pile of stuffed animals for the kids to choose from and Chesson was irresistibly drawn to the fluffy white bunny in the beautiful dress (with purple pants).

Surgery is a difficult business even if you don't include the illness or surgery itself. You have to arrive early in the morning and you can't eat breakfast so the child is tired and hungry and feeling a little worried by all the excitement. Parents are tired and tense. You have to wait in an unfamiliar place with nothing to do.

Then surgery.

Then you have to hold your terrified child as they come out of the anesthesia. Then wait a while until they are ready to go home.

In an attempt to keep Chesson calm through all of this Keith came up with a song that has become part of the family repertoire.

(Sung to the tune of "If your happy and you know it.")

If I stand on my head you can see my purple pants.

If I stand on my head you can see my purple pants.

But if I sit up tall and put my dress down low

I can wear purple pants and no one ever knows.

The dancing bunny is the best part. Chessy was still a little loopy when they got home from the hospital and showed us the song. The hysterical giggling was about the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Song of the Week II/Oh Henry!

Thomas and Estella performed in their school talent show today. So choosing the song of the week was a no brainer.

Unfortunately I can't load the video onto my blog, so you can't see how cute and funny my kids are. However, it saves you the discomfort of watching my wobbly, blurry video. (The autofocus was having a hard time.)

The song is "There's a Hole in the Bucket."

This song is a conversation between "Henry" and "Liza" over how to fix a hole in a bucket in order to haul water. It is also a circular song, meaning that the end meets back up with the beginning and if you wanted to you could just keep on singing all night long.

Click here for a link to the words. http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/theresaholeinthebucket.htm

And here's a great recording of the song by Henry Belafonte and Odetta

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlICWoBb5Ik&feature=related

We picked this song for several reasons

• It had two parts and there were two kids involved
• The verses flow logically from one to the next so it's easy to remember the words
• There is good comedic potential
• It isn't by Taylor Swift (Ok, we like Taylor as much as anybody, but she is pretty popular in elementary school talent shows.)

If anyone really wants to see the video, let me know and I'll email it to you.