Saturday, October 27, 2007

Five Little Pumpkins

We were at the craft store the other day and all of the fall decorations were 50% off. Shopping in Texas is great because by the time the weather catches up to the retail seasons, everything is on sale!!!

So we saw these cute little pumpkins (which are probably just styrofoam balls with strips of orange raffia wrapped around them that you could make in 5 minutes, but hey... 50% off!!!) and the kids said, "Oh mommy! Can we please get some?" I said sure and even insisted that we should get five just like the song. It was at this point in our happy shopping experience that I realized I was the worst mother in the world.

"What song?"

"Oh you know... the 5 little pumpkins song."

Silence. Nothing but confused looks staring back at me from the faces of my four little pumpkins.

"Didn't I... teach... you... that song?" No. Oh, that's right...BECAUSE I AM THE WORST MOTHER IN THE WORLD!

So here it is and if the tune was a familiar one I would tell you what it is, but I have never heard it before except when my mom sang this little ditty.
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh my its getting late!"
The second one said, "There's a chill in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care!"
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"

"Woo" went the wind and out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that in the original lyrics I learned the second pumpkin says, "There are witches in the air". Since witches are definitely considered "spooky" in my house and we stay away from all things spooky (see below), we changed it. Sorry Mom.

5 comments:

  1. Well, I've never even heard of that song, so I guess I am a bad mother too. Don't beat yourself up over it: the worst mother in the world would not have bought her children fake pumpkins if they asked for them and she wouldn't have changed the lyrics in the song to avoid something that scares her children. She would have told them to deal with it.

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  2. Oh, Matilda, we love this one, too! I posted on it and couldn't for the life of me find a picture of five pumpkins on a fence! Yours is perfect! And you are obviously a wonderful mother because as soon as you thought of it, you taught it! And then you passed it on. &:o)

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  3. (sigh)

    There are SO MANY of those "circle time" songs I have not passed on to the kids.

    Maybe someone should come up with a list for all of us home school moms?

    Thanks for reminding me of this one... My little ones will really like it!

    :)

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  4. Matilda! This is one of my favorites! We changed that "witchy" line to "bats in the air"...doesn't seem to bother us as much. I like the "chill". I'll have to remember that one!

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  5. FYI: Raffi sings this song...if you're looking for the tune. He sings "witches".

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