52 photos ... week 3

{The line in the sand}

We've been camping.  But it was camping in the hottest week of Summer so far!  Thank goodness we went to a large body of water... Wivenhoe Dam.  And the kids were incredibly eager to get in the water.  Most of them would have stayed in there all day long.  If allowed.  But like I mentioned... It was the hottest week of our Summer so far and that meant sun safety.

Swimming was encouraged.  Oh!  It was definitely encouraged.  On the first day of setting up in 40+ degree heat, I think we all got into the water with the clothes we were wearing!  We went through litres of sunscreen.  And the hats had a massive workout.  But... during the hours of 10.30am til 3pm, there was strictly no swimming allowed.  The sunlight reflecting and bouncing off the water would have had us severely sun burnt within the first five minutes.

So we drew a line in the sand... sort of!  LOL!  We set up a large shade area down by the waterline and used the shadow it cast, as the barrier to which the kids could sit along and wait, not so patiently, until 3 o'clock.

On this day, it was sweltering.  They were all lathered up with sunscreen ready to go and watching the water and the time closely.  In fact, I got so tired of somebody asking me what time it was (and they started at approximately 11.30am) I made a new rule.  Each time the question was asked, I add an extra five minutes of waiting time before they could enter the water.  The twist was, it was added to the group collectively.  Not individually!  LOL!! I think they made the wait time last an extra 40 minutes!! (But we didn't hold them to it!)...x