Our 4th grandchild, Jackson Ryan was born on Wednesday evening. He was 9 lb. 2 oz. and 22 inches long. He is a big boy and so very sweet. This picture of him is when he is about 1 hour old.
Here he is the next morning, about 12 hours old with his mommy. He is dressed in his "little bro" shirt waiting to meet his "big bro." Below is the newly enlarged family.
Laura and Jessica and the kids were over this week for swimming and lunch. We let Jessica take a nap - hoping that baby Jackson would be born soon. He isn't due till Wednesday, but we are all ready to meet him! Especially mom! Anyway, here is Laura with Ben, Elizabeth, and Cooper - all on their "boats".
After swimming we had lunch and it was a special surprise for the kids - really big cookies.
They couldn't wait to eat them.
Everyone's cookie matched their plate, which really impressed Elizabeth. The boys could not have cared less.
They just wanted to eat them.
And so they did - and according to Laura and Jessica they weren't very tasty cookies - but the kids didn't care - they were cute!
Bob and I made a video for Laura and Jessica's birthday. I scanned 200 or so pictures and found the songs and did a nice video of their 30 years!! We thought a nice ending to the video would be the kids singing and saying some sweet things to their moms. So to that end, we had the 3 grandchildren over for dinner and sent the parents out for a quiet dinner of their own. We had the ever popular pizza and here is Elizabeth enjoying her pizza.
Ben and Cooper are waiting - patiently...
After the dinner and the attempt at filming the kids, we had movie night. Elizabeth handed out tickets to everyone - the boys loved having a ticket!
Cooper is ready.
Elizabeth also had the job of handing out refreshments. She is on her way to the movie room with popcorn with a surprise. (a few pieces of candy hiding in the popcorn)
We are ready for our show!!
The rest of the pictures of the party are pretty self explanatory. 
Now the fun begins - the gang on the patio.
Ryan, Elliott, and Cooper
Benjamin and Elizabeth
Jessica and Laura opening their gifts. Their friend Joanne and her baby Jill in the background.
First of all, I thought I was being so smart loading my pictures and I ended up with them in the opposite order of my plan. Oh well. 
Favors for the big girls were flip flops from Hobby Lobby. I just hot glued the flowers on different colored flip flops. Easy
The children got a family bag filled with "junk" from the dollar bins at Target. Lots of pool and outside toys.
Here's the dining room ready for the guests.
And of course the invitation - which should have been at the beginning of the post - you can see where I got the flip flop theme. 
Elizabeth was invited to The American Girl store for a little Bitty Baby tea with her friend Elliott. It was Elliott's 4th birthday and so the 2 moms and 2 little girls were going to have a fun day out. I invited myself along - not for the tea party (did it last year with E) but to shop for Christmas with no shipping charges! I got all the Christmas presents and a few for her birthday too. :-)
Inside the store with her baby and matching dress.
After the tea and shopping we were ready for some lunch so we headed to Nordstroms for lunch and some school shoes. It was a fun and successful day out!
Our good friends from Kansas , Robin and Jim, came to see us at the cabin. We have lived in Kansas 3 different times, and Robin was the first person I met - way back in 1983!! We have been good friends all these years and in the last few years, we have been traveling buddies. We have taken some wonderful trips together.
The first day of their visit we decided to drive to Bayfield, Wisconsin. The drive wasn't too bad, and it was a nice day. The town is small, but picturesque and I only got this one shot looking out to the Apostle Islands.
We took a ferry to the largest island, Madeline Island and had lunch at a good restaurant. Of course I didn't get a picture of it, and can't remember the name either! But as you get off the ferry you go to your right and walk quite a walk to the restaurant. It was small, we ate in the bar, but the food was good. We were entertained by watching some teenage girls run into the water (Lake Superior) right outside our window. The day was cool and the water was COLD.
Bob and I shivering outside the restaurant. Didn't get a pic of Robin and Jim.
But I did get a picture of the guys checking out just how cold the water really was - cold!