Great Gates

For Easter, Todd's family came to town to celebrate and we took the opportunity to try a big family picture again.  I problem solved and planned for days to make sure this time we would be successful!  It worked.  We went to the Wildflower Center and back to the big area with all the swings.  It was great weather and I had high hopes!  We set up the camera on a tripod with a remote control shutter button and enlisted a friend (shout out to Kristin!) to come and act like a fool dance behind the camera with the hope the kids would look and maybe smile.  Well, she's really good at her job and we got a winner!

The shocking thing is that we actually had more than one to choose from, but this is my favorite.  We all felt accomplished with this photo and moved on with our plans to get a few more.  The kids quickly lost their patience and only a jellybean bribe made this one possible.

Not all the kids are smiling, but at least no one is crying!!!  And, we have eye contact from them all.  That's a victory by itself.

We tried one more pose with the kids on the bench and thought it would be so cute to have them face backwards on this big swing and look over the back.  In my head, I pictured 5 adorable kids smiling happily at the camera.  What we ended up with isn't that at all, but it may be even better.  :)

The girls were all jumping around and it was totally freaking Carter out since the swing was wobbling and shaking.  He was pretty ticked off that we weren't saving him from this experience.  But, the pictures were hilarious.

I love this picture.  Makes me crack up everytime I see it.

Silly Erin

After this, we let the kids roam free and play.  It was a major highlight of the whole weekend.  The kids had a total ball (as did the adults!) and we ended up with more wonderful pictures.

Halle and GG (yes, Halle has two ponies...  sorry!)

Carter was so impressive on the swings and held on for dear life.  Didn't manage to get a smile out of him, but I'm sure he was majorly concentrating!

YAY!!!  Smile from Cater!!!

Erin - so full of expressions, it kills me!

We saw a little patch of bluebonnets nearby and got the kids out to play in the flowers.

After a couple hours of playtime at the swings, we changed the kids clothes and headed out to enjoy the rest of the center's attractions.  We spent the whole day enjoying the sunny weather and watching the kids happily play and explore.  Love this place.  Love these pictures.  Love these people.  Love it all.