What Happens When the Kids Leave the Interior Car Lights On

So today I discovered that all the yelling I do at the kids about not messing with the interior car lights because they will drain the battery a)  is true and b) has apparently gone unheeded. I am fairly certain that Rebecca is the culprit. Yesterday when I picked her up from camp she informed me that some of the interior car lights were on, and offered to turn them off for me. But I was driving at the time so I told her to wait till we got home. (Although she brought them to my attention and offered to turn them off, I am pretty sure she is the one who turned them on to begin with). Anyway I promptly forgot about it once we got home (and so did she) until I tried to start the car this morning.

The fortunate part was that I did not really have anywhere to go, since it was Joel's half day he had taken Caroline to preschool and gone to the gym, and I was simply trying to go put gas in my car and pick up a bagel for (still sick but improving) Ben. When Joel got home from the gym we borrowed jumper cables from a neighbor and attempted to locate the battery on the Prius to do a jump start. Having realized that it is in the trunk, we backed his car into the garage next to mine and tried to do the jump start. It wouldn't work, though I am not sure if it's because Joel was doing it wrong or because the Prius battery is not adequate to jump start a mini van (it is awfully small). Eventually our neighbor brought his truck over, but it would not fit in the garage next to mine so we had to push my car out of the garage (rather, they pushed and I steered backwards). We finally managed to get my car started and I drove it over to Firestone where they tested the battery and proclaimed I needed a new one. Fun (and expensive) way to start my Tuesday :P