Really, what is more fun that taking three little girls to the shower house at camp? They are tired, dirty, wet, and sandy from swimming at the "beach," and it has been days since their last sanitizing. Maybe I could have pulled off another day of leaving the kids in their swimsuits until bedtime, but that yellow diamond shaped sign at the lake is the tipping point. The sign reads, in layman's terms, "Shower immediately after swimming at this public beach. Oh, and don't open your mouth while under water."
So, off to the showers with my 4 and 5 year old daughters and their 4 year old cousin. My kids, when tired, do better in situations where they do not have to share anything: soap, water, physical space. So, I separate them, one kid per shower. I turn on all the showers, make stall assignments (based solely on the whim of one crabby four year old), and adjust the temperatures individually based on stated preferences (whining). Then, with all three kids under separate streams of lukewarm water, I discover that sharing one giant bottle of Johnson's baby shampoo will never work.
Luckily, since I have been reading Travelbloggity a lot lately, I have some plastic cups in the beach bag (see Family Road Trips. Bring Cups.). So, I rinse out the cheese popcorn crumbs from the snack cups, and pour a little shampoo into each. This solves the sharing issue and has a bonus of controlling how much shampoo the kids go through. (Hand Madeleine a bottle of shampoo, and she will use the bottle of shampoo.) With the showers under control and the shampoo issue solved, I have the easy task of standing outside the stalls shouting occasional directions like, "Don't forget to wash your hair!" and, "Make sure you rinse the sand out of ALL of your cracks."
It goes pretty well until its time to get out and get dressed. I could use about four more arms for that challenge.
