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I once showed up for an out of town photo shoot for a commission portrait of a grandmother and her two year old granddaughter. I had never been to the site.
When we finally got started I realized that the two year old would not "touch" her grandmother! All she wanted to do was cling to the baby sitter. After a few minutes of this nonsense I suggested that the baby sitter go downtown for a latte. This was essential to even getting started.
You have bitten off a mouth full. You must summon your most General (as in military) like demenor and be prepaired for anything.
I have found that your only hope is to have your game plan worked out very well in your mind. Which means, as Chris says, having a good handle on the landscape. If you do your homework well you will find that your best photos will come in the first five minutes of the shoot.
I would suggest that you have equipment and scene set up before the subjects ever get into the room.
If there is anything that is working in your favor (and it's a stretch to find something), it's that, in my opinion, there isn't much expectation to have all the kids in some kind of perfect pose. In fact, one crawling out of the scene is not that bad. Maybe one tugging the hair of the other. What I'm getting at is - worry more about their relative position in the composition, and not so much about micro managing their every movement. The cat herding analogy keeps coming to mind.
Get there as quick as you can and stay as long as you can before the pablum hits the fan.
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Mike McCarty
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