last week

was a busy one, but packed with fun!
ben attended vacation bible school...

his favorite thing was snack time - that's ben!
each day they were suppose to wear a specific color,
but i didn't realize this until tuesday morning when i dropped ben off and he was wearing blue on red day.
oh well, we got it right wed, thurs and friday.
and then it was pretty funny when he told me he needed to wear yellow to their program friday evening -
i hadn't heard this from anyone else,
but i found a yellow shirt for him to wear.
however, i was not surprised when we arrived and there were kids in many different colors of clothing!  :)
i was a bit concerned at the beginning of the week because he kept telling me he was nervous and didn't like me leaving him.
but by friday he said "mom, i had fun today!".
that made me super happy.

we also had friends over on wednesday for lunch and playtime while they were in town to get their pictures taken.
it was a lot of fun!

did i mention our dishwasher decided to retire?
yep, that means it's all on us now.
which is really okay - jake and i didn't have a dishwasher for a long time, so i've just gotten spoiled.
much rather have the dishwasher gone than my washing machine!  :)
it retired when ben was a little guy and sick with the stomach flu - talk about bad timing!
we've decided we have enough projects going on and we'll wait and shop around before replacing it.
and i entered the diy network ugly kitchen contest and feel like i have a good chance of winning the makeover - have you seen our kitchen???
it's functional, but not efficient or attractive.
but considering i don't remember winning anything - ever.
i doubt it will happen, but a girl can dream.

i am also excited that my dad will be returning back to kansas from three years of commuting out-of-state.
first he was on the west coast and then on the east coast.
either way - we've missed having him close by
safe travels dad!

and i'm sure you probably saw my previous post,
but my brother turned 30 this weekend!
that's a big deal in my book.
happy birthday again paul!

and while i was searching for a photo of paul,
i found these...

made me smile. 
i remember that trip to kansas city,
and that old camera.
who knew i would be taking pictures like crazy and blogging back then???

we've also had a good weekend and pretty productive.
jake finished some projects (my dishwasher might be broken, but the garage door works again!)
around the house and we enjoyed some good family time.
it was nice but HOT!

this week should be a bit quieter.
thank goodness - we've been going pretty fast around here lately.
hopefully we can spend some more time outside with the pool,
and a little time working on tidying up this house.
oh, and if i was close to one - i'd be eating at chick-fil-a on august 1!