Berry College - After Lunch

After lunch, the kids played with the soccer ball in the field a little while before we started walking toward a different part of the campus toward a cool swing.  I'm glad Owen doesn't think he is too cool to play with younger kids.  He's just so happy to have someone to play ball with him. :)

I wonder if/when she will stop nibbling on her finger nails.

This time we were able to get all of the kids to sit down and almost all pay attention at the same time. :)

Berry has the coolest doors.

Sometimes.  Just sometimes.  They really like each other.

And then they don't.

And one will be sweet and the other won't.

And then they decide they need more distance.

And then they can like each other again and be happy.

The kids really liked this big fountain.  They had fun running around it.

Then someone got in trouble for picking grass, weeds and flowers and dropping them in the fountain.

Wonder who did that?

Back to another entryway for more posing.  My kids were restless, so I stopped trying.  But Tabitha's kids were still listening to her.  Lucky her. :)

Then we tried over in the arched walkway.  I don't have many pics of me with the kids, so I was thankful that Tabitha took a few pictures of us together.  I LOVE this shot!

I LOVE Ben's expressions!  He makes the best faces :)

While Tabitha worked with her kids, mine went to work searching for four leaf clovers.  I hummed the song to myself about looking over a four leaf clover that I overlooked before.  Because I'm cheesy like that.

Yay!  Another tree to climb!  And this one was Chloe sized!!!

By this point, I had heard enough complaining and whining from my kids.  I had seen enough grumpy faces.  The girl child was beyond due for a nap and I'm not sure what Owen's deal was, but the next hour was spent separating my two kids from each other and listening to tattling.  Sigh.

There was fighting over the swing and who would get on it first.

There was more complaining about not wanting to be pushed by the other and "Momma, he's being mean and won't let me push him!"  It was fun.

At least Tabitha's kids were still a joy to be around. :)

I separated my two and then walked away to pretend they weren't mine for a little while.  I had fun taking pics of happy people. :)

Our timeouts ended and we tried the swing again with mixed results.

Notice the folded arms in the background?

We still weren't over our snit.

Even though she was never able to break a true smile or gave the impression of having much fun on the swing for bossing her brother around or complaining that he was pushing her, Chloe told me at the end of the day that the swing was her favorite part of the entire trip.  Go figure.

It didn't take but fifteen minutes in the car before Chloe was passed out.  And Alex.  And another five minutes after that, Owen was passed out in the way back.  Ben might have nodded off once or twice, but he stayed quiet.

The roadtrip WAS fun.  The picnic WAS fun.  Taking hundreds of pics WAS fun.  I had a great time with my friend and our kids.  I had fun spending the afternoon taking pics with my friend and playing with my camera.  I am still learning how to adjust some of the manual settings better, but know I need to learn how to read the histogram better so I don't blow the exposure when I can't see the LCD screen in sunlight.  In spite of the second half filled with sibling rivalry and complaining, I would do this again.  In a heartbeat.