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. 

Berry College - Before Lunch

Even though we didn't get to the campus until after noon, we drove around for a little while and got the kids running around to blow off some energy after the long car ride.  Mean mommies.  We made them wait another 45 minutes to an hour before we had our picnic lunch.  The kids had fun running, exploring and finding sticks!

This big tree was a perpetual fascination for the kids.   They all hugged it and tried to climb it.  Repeatedly.

Chloe couldn't jump quite high enough to reach the branches or get a foothold in the fork.

The boys didn't tire of trying to climb up.

Owen didn't mind posing from his tall perch. (Notice the mohawk? after two years of asking, I finally relented. but only once school ended!)

We also had grumpy boredom, displayed through picking and throwing weeds in a huff.  We obviously were not doing what he wanted to be doing.

Chloe didn't want to let go of this stick that was bigger than her.

Although not in focus, I love the look on Alex's face.  He's about to deliver some Kung Fu Panda moves!

LOVE watching the Youngling stay close to his Momma!

The exposure was blown on this shot, which made the kids appear almost transparent.  They look like little running ghosts here to me.

They seemed to be contemplating their smallness in comparison to the grandness of this entryway.

We tried to get the kids to sit down and pose.  I think this was the closest we got with the majority looking towards the camera.

Then we had pretty mixed results as to who was looking at us.  I'm hoping Tabitha had better results than me. :)

And then they were gone....

The kids had fun running up and down these dark, stone steps.  I think they had fun scaring themselves. :)

I love this little cutie patootie!  He is a whirlwind of non-stop energy.

See?  They had fun scaring themselves.  And, well, um, er, I don't know why I was focused on the bricks and not this wonderful expression.  But you get the idea.

The lighting was absolutely awesome just inside this tall foyer.

note: their faces are fairly clean and not covered in cheese curl crumbs.  yet.

LOVE Chloe's expression!

Hey Chlo, where'd that bedhead suddenly come from? ;)  And get that look out of your system now because we're gonna have problems if I see that when your seventeen.  I'm just sayin.

She's totally basking in the light.

I wonder how long she will keep this golden blond hair.  It is growing fast this summer.  She asked that I not cut her bangs anymore so they can grow out to be as long as the rest of her hair.

I told you the kids had fun running, right?

Always running.

The kids took a little break in the shade under the bleachers around the baseball field.

Look at his cheek and you will see my boy is smiling.

At this point he was done smiling and just wanted to eat.  Can you tell?

If she's like her brother, this golden will darken in the next two years.  I think we have at least one more summer of her hair being so light.  At least after she comes home from one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes after spending a month up there.

This girl loves cheese curls almost as much as her mommy.  If she loved them as much as her mommy, she would have made sure not to waste those little crumbs on this rare occasion of eating them. :D

The boys kicked the ball around a little as the girls finished eating lunch.

And I was able to calmly photograph this strange looking bug once he was flung to the ground from my head and screaming.  What do you think of those tusks?  Yikes!