A Very Special Announcement

“Our house, is a very, very, very fine house.
With two cats in the yard,
Life used to be so hard,
Now everything is easy 'cause of you.

Come to me now, and rest your head for just five minutes,
Everything is done.
Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated
By the evening sunshine through them,
Fiery gems for you, only for you…”

Our house is now for sale!

1105 Monroe Avenue

Wauconda IL 60084





Visit our property detail page for more info!  Or you can see more pictures here

Yup we have decided to move... a big family decision so that we can be closer to family!
We are headed Southward towards Northwestern Arkansas or the Kansas City area.  As of right now we've packed up tons of stuff, gotten rid of even more (nothing like the thought of moving it to incite purging), and living in an almost empty shell so we can SELL THIS HOUSE!!  ;)  Know anybody who would want a great house! 

We'll keep you posted on our progress - wish us luck!!

Happy 4th of July

Wishing you the best on this day of celebration for our freedom

and remember those who have fought for that right!

Enjoy your day with family and friends, stay safe and free of bug bites!

The Prince and Thornton Family 

May Field Trip

In May the girls and I headed to The Field for a field trip for school. We had a great time and looked at what we'd seen before through different eyes this time. We focused on the dinos and new Mammoth display. The Mammoth display was really neat but of course, I couldn't take pictures...

Here are a few pictures from the day.


Yes, the Blackhawks were at it again. Some of you may recognize this pair from another photo of mine that I entered in the "Capture Chicago" contest and had chosen to be in the book. Just a different angle this time...


Here is where we spent most of our time as this is what we were studying. We've been through this exhibits before but rally looked and read everything this time and came away with lots of great information!



The girls being silly standing in a dino footprint


It did, didn't it...


Rhianna was exploring some of the footprints a little closer


Isabela imitating a dino "ROAAAAAR"! Too funny.


We also explored the African exhibit for the first time. Lots of neat stuff here!


Of course I took pictures of the fish! They are Cichlids and look just like the ones we have.


More fishies.... Sarah would love to chase these!




This was a beautiful wall that I would love to some how incorporate into my home. Well, maybe not the one we are in now...

Grandma's Big Birthday

The beginning of 2010 my Mother, Carol, officially retired from her job with GE ReInsurance. She's been enjoying the time off by catching up on some projects around the house, creating more of her beautiful art work and portraits and I'm sure driving Ray insane...

Last week Mom had that big birthday, 65 years young. We had planned to originally visit them the end of March during our school districts Spring Break but since we started homeschooling we decided we could go anytime we wanted. So we headed down to Kansas for Mom's birthday party on March 20th. Turns out we surprised her by having it the night before with close friends and family. With the big KU game being on the 20th we just couldn't do both of course! Turns out we probably could have...

The day before we left Mom got a phone call from my Sister, Kris, in Washington state that she was surprising Mom by coming in for her birthday. Kris brought her two youngest children, Anna and Mimi, with her and they stayed for 4 days. Anna is 8 years old and Mimi is turning 1 year soon. Boy was Mom's house full! Mimi had a lot of fun playing with Audrey (my Step-Sister's daughter), who is also almost 1 year old. Watching all these little one play sure brought back memories...

So below are some of my favorite pictures from our short trip. I didn't get the camera out much but did capture an afternoon playdate with the little ones... too cute! You can find more of the trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/princesrealm/triptokansas


Mimi, Kris' youngest daughter

Anna, Kris' oldest daughter

Mom early in the morning. She doesn't like having her picture taken either...

Kris moving fast

Anna enjoying the warm sun

Isabela actually posing for me

Mimi crawling around the family room

Legos a favorite toy of every kiddo!

This is Audrey, Rachel (my Step-sister) and Justin's daughter.

The babies playing

The dancing bunny was a real hit

See legos are favorites!

Audrey and Mom

Then someone let the babies play with cards... they were everywhere!


Audrey reads the newspaper

Then no one else can...

Mimi liked the rings

It snowed 8" or so while we were there. Poor birds didn't know what to do. Robins were all puffed up the size of softballs.

On the drive home we stopped at our usual rest stop for a break and to move around a bit. The girls just had to play on the playground equipment.

Even managed to get a couple of posed shots. No they didn't consult each other before they got dressed that morning. They just happen to were the same shirt...

Rather pleased with this shot!

Action shot...

The girls decided to race each other to the tree and back

Guess who won...

Then they raced to the car.

Isabela decided to watch a movie on her netbook. For some reason Nick loaded 'The Butterfly Effect' when he loaded some movies for her. She was watching that and the squeaks and intakes of breathe were amazing. I thought she was gonna pop off that poor sock monkey's head at one point. After awhile she decided to watch something else. I think it was Pixar animation...

Rhianna was typing her report on the Greek God Poseidon and comparison from book to movie (Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief). She typed the whole thing while I was driving.