Sherman Park (aka Shertoma)

Is it any surprise that the birthday celebration for a guy named "GooF" involved lots of kids and lots of fun?! Between the four families that were out to celebrate on Saturday, there were 8 adults and 12 children.

We started out at Pizza Ranch. Is there really any place else when we're talking about those kinds of numbers? When it was clear that it was time to move our posse outdoors, we considered visiting Sertoma Park. That idea was quickly pushed aside, however, when the mothers of the group began imagining what it would be like to keep track of that many children at such a huge park. Not all the dads got the memo, though, so when one of them pulled in at Sertoma, his wife asked why they weren't at Sherman Park. He quickly replied that they were at, "Sh-sh-shertoma." Luckily, they were the first ones to leave the ranch, so the kids in that vehicle didn't miss out on any of the fun.

For this visit, we just played in the upper part of the park. There was some kind of wedding or family reunion going on in the lower part of the park, and technically, we've been to that part of the park about a million times anyway. Maybe we'll try to make it back for Tot Lot sometime.

Any guesses on the ages of these girls, based on the smiles? I know other people will look at the pictures of the babies and "oooh" and "ahhh" over how cute they are, but really, there is just something so precious about the gappy, goofy grins of our "big" girls.

They were determined that they should have a sleepover and they even had a "divide and conquer" strategy that they tried. First, they asked me about it, when I was watching Bo slide down the fire pole and I was separated from the other moms. Next, they rushed us all at once. And finally, they descended upon Michelle, the one whose home they had decided would be the location of their sleepover. It was already bedtime, though. Sleepover denied.




Here is Grier with her potential future husband and future mother-in-law. I was trying to get a really great picture of Emily and Grier smiling together so we could have that as proof that her mother-in-law used to be able to make her smile. : ) With the baby boom that took place within our circle of friends last August through March, we don't think we're being unreasonable to hope she'll marry the son of one of our friends.


Somehow, the dads managed to evade the camera for most of the evening. GooF wasn't shy, though, and was more than willing to be in the sign picture. There were so many people, it's a little difficult to even see the name of the park, but I promise, it was Sherman. The big trees and scenic view make this a great park, but those great features may have been overshadowed just a bit by the great company!

Happy Birthday GooF!