A Reminder...

That sleep-away camp is not too far away!

Warm Weekend

Wandering around in her diaper..

Trying out his new wide receiver gloves

Kid Free Weekend

Joel and I arranged a kid-free weekend with babysitter extraordinaire Sharon this weekend. Joel and I turned in his leased Prius (has it really been three years already???) and bought a new Honda Accord hybrid. This is the first year Honda has made them and they did not make very many. Consequently it took us a while to track one down that was the EXL model (leather, moon roof, upgraded stereo but no navigation) that Joel wanted. We ended up driving to Hickory to get it. Joel was not able to negotiate as well as he has for previous car purchases because of the car being in such high demand. But he did manage to get it for a thousand or so below sticker price. The cool thing about the Accord hybrid is that it is much bigger than the Prius but still gets 50 mpg same as the Prius. We wanted a bigger yet still fuel efficient car so this fits the bill nicely. 

After all the car buying business was out of the way Joel and I had a fun weekend. The weather was beautiful Saturday and we went to the whitewater center for the day. We went whitewater rafting -- everyone managed to stay in the raft except for our guide who ironically was the only one to fall overboard. That was one thing not mentioned in the safety talk-- what to do if your guide falls out. We steered the raft to calm waters and "parked" so he could swim over to us. I did the Mega Zip zip line which was very fun -- although Joel was too much of a chicken to go on it with me! After the white water center, we met friends for a fun and delicious dinner at Cow Fish. 

The kids had a good weekend as well. Ben and Rebecca got to go to Carowinds with Papa and Mary, so Caroline got a lot of undivided attention from Sharon!

Here is a picture of the new car:

It's Official!

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Although Ben and Rebecca went back to school Monday after spring break, Caroline's preschool was closed Monday and Tuesday for the final two days of Passover. Finally today everyone is back at school and on their regular schedules! Caroline is much easier to have home with me when I am trying to work than either Ben or Rebecca was at the same age. She is maybe a little TOO content to sit in front of the TV. But when I have work to get done, I can't complain about this. (Feel guilty, yes; complain, no). Yesterday I moved my laptop to the kitchen table and worked there while keeping an eye on Caroline, who sat through two showings of Walking with Dinosaurs and two showings of Super Buddies all before lunch time. I did feel kind of bad about that but then again I did get a lot of work done yesterday! This morning when I got her up I told her it was a school day again today, and she said, "Noooooo! I don't want to go to school! I want to watch Walking with Dinosaurs!" At least one of us is glad to have her back at school and not sitting in front of the TV any more :)

Car Shopping

Next weekend Joel and I will be going car shopping without the kids, since Joel's lease will be up in June and we don't want to wait till the last minute to buy a car. This time we are buying and not leasing so it is even more important to shop around and make a good choice :) On Saturday with Ben and Rebecca off at the zoo, we did some preliminary looking around. Here is Caroline "test driving" a Ford Fusion hybrid. (We subsequently removed this car from the list of contenders, but the Honda Accord hybrid remains on the short list, as well as a few small cross-over SUVs). 

Spring Flowers

Our tulips are blooming and a check of the 10 day forecast reveals temps in the 70s at least every day, with only two days of rain forecast... Yay!! We had quite a few rainy/cloudy days last week including Saturday, though that didn't stop Ben and Rebecca from enjoying a trip to the NC zoo in Asheboro with Papa and Mary. Yesterday we had friends over for a barbecue, and today the kids are back at school except for Caroline who is off for Passover until Wednesday.