Our Erev Shabbos "Bath"

This past Erev Shabbos was a HOT day. And with such a long afternoon ahead of us, we were trying to come up with ideas to keep the kids busy, without creating a huge mess in the house.

The Solution: A pool/bath! We filled up the pool in our front yard (which is shady in the afternoon) and gave everyone a bath in the pool. They had a real blast- we can't fit all five in at the same time in our bathtub, and I let them splash as much as they wanted because it wasn't going to make a mess all over our bathroom! After letting the kids splash and "swim" for a while, we started washing them all down with soap and shampoo (the bubbles from the shampoo caused lots of excitement).

 

Once everyone was finally washed, dried, and brought inside to get dressed, they had let out lots of their energy, and they were happy to sit on the couch and read books- a real win/win situation!

We'll have to try this tactic more often!