Retirement Home Carnival

Our local retirement village has started hosting an annual carnival after the end of the school year. So we ate free hamburgers and hot dogs, played plenty of games, won cheesy prizes and had a great time for no money whatsoever. Ellsworth is an awesome town to live in!

Analeigh and Cailainn both loved riding the carousel:

There were also three different bouncy castles. Both of the girls enjoyed going in them, but David wanted nothing to do with such frivolity. Finally, Ben resorted to an old Love and Logic technique of giving David two choices: he could either go in the castle for 5 seconds or for ten seconds. David chose five seconds... which turned into about 15 minutes. For a kid that wasn't interested, he sure had a lot of fun.

Our Sand Ritual

It seems that nearly every year we have to buy sand for our sandbox. There isn't any clear indication of where the sand goes - we just know that it isn't there anymore when warm weather returns again the next year. So it is that we bought sand again today. The kids were appreciative (though probably not appreciative enough to keep the sand inside the sandbox).

The Car Buying Experience

Once upon a time (about five years ago) we were given a van (specifically a 1994 Ford E-150). Sure, it was a beast and a gas guzzler, but it was our beast and our gas guzzler. Sadly, our van has been nearing the end of its life. You could say it had a case of amnesia - in that it would sometimes forget that it needed to keep running when we were driving down the road. After a visit with three "doctors" (otherwise known as mechanics), none of which could identify a cure, we decided it was time to trade in our gas guzzling beast.

We searched online for a used minivan that might meet our needs. We found a couple far away in Topeka that were in our price range.

Since neither of us are mechanically-inclined, we then had to decide how to get inspections done. In consideration of our kids possibly becoming very whiny during a long day of car shopping, we decided to go with an online alternative. We paid Lemon Squad to inspect both vehicles and their mechanic sent us back a link to a detailed report with some pictures of the vehicles. If you're curious to see what the report looks like, here is the one for the Dodge Grand Caravan and for the Kia Sedona. If you're feeling extra inquisitive, Ben has found that you can find additional reports by changing the five digit code at the end of the web address. For example, "17631" and "17632" will show you an inspection of a Dodge Viper and a Porshe 911, respectively. You could also go down to "15798" and see a BMW M3. Go ahead, have some fun typing in random numbers. We'll wait.

Welcome back. Where were we? Oh, yes. Now armed with vehicle inspection reports, we decided to pray really hard while we drove to Topeka in our big van. Less than 30 minutes into the trip, the unthinkable happened - Cailainn threw up. This sickness persisted, resulting in us making two stops on the way to dealership.

We eventually decided on the Grand Caravan. Ben feels he failed in his efforts to negotiate "like a man," but Liz says she is happy with the price he got the dealer down to. Since it is technically her Mother's Day gift, she gets the final say in the matter. We then stopped at Golden Corral to celebrate the occasion. The kids were super-excited to see that there was cotton candy available. Cailainn, however, was relegated to rice, crackers, and Sprite due to her stomach problems.

Anyway, here is our new ride - hopefully it lasts us a long, long time (after all, the kids love hiding underneath the Stow-n-Go flooring).

Analeigh's Preschool Graduation

Analeigh's preschool graduation program/concert was this evening. Analeigh did a wonderful job participating in her various parts of the program. However, most all of the pictures came back too blurry. So we offer you instead a picture of the stage as well as a picture of Analeigh celebrating with her friends after the show.

David's Kindergarten Program

Tonight was David's end-of-the-year kindergarten concert. The singing, dancing, and drama of the night made us feel as though our free admission was robbing someone. David even played a starring role in the musical number, "7 Little Ducks," which became "5 Little Ducks" when two kids didn't show up for the concert. Part of David's face can be seen behind the duck on the far left.