At lunch, we packed everyone up to attend a birthday party at the Jump Zone. XYZ enjoyed themselves and had fun! Had a couple of photos but especially loved this one of Z. He’s a bit mesmerized by this funny mirror and he kept on looking at himself on it. One time, I caught him doing this!

I'm so cute!

And I don’t blame him. I kiss him everytime I see him too. He’s just soooo cute :)

Mangoes

These are not the popular Philippine mangoes. These are what’s closer to what’s called indian mangoes in the Philippines, but I think is really closer to Mexican mangoes here. The batch we got from the grocery this week was really good. Sweet and crunchy. And when we get them that way, EVERYONE wants one. These are normally for me, but I can’t eat one with X and Y wanting their share. If Z is still awake, he wants some too and when hubby is home, he steals some himself. The funny thing is no one else asks for them! They just want to eat them when they see me eating them. Isn’t that weird?

Tonight’s subject came from my end table lamp shade. I’ve actually seen this in the past and remembered tonight that I’ve been looking for a web to take pictures of. This one under one of the lamp shades looked interesting. What do you think?

Spider Web

I liked this one because of the detail on the web. It’s not silky and perfect, but feels like one of those halloween fake ones. LOL.

It was uneventful day. We brought Y and Z to the dermatologist for checkup and consultation. I tried to not read e-mail :), push off work until tomorrow, and sleep as much as I can in preparation for the busy week. In the evening, hubby had a reservation for us at the Morton Steakhouse in Schaumburg to celebrate both Valentines day and my birthday.

Dinner @ Morton Steakhouse

This photo was taken on the way home, as I was in the car. Snow was falling and I we were at a stop light when I looked back and saw the Morton sign and liked how it was framed amidst the melting snow flakes.

From my Valentine

I was just thinking about the flowers (he gives me flowers every year) and was gonna tell him to switch the roses this year with something else and it looks like he read my mind! :) The card was cute and funny. It reads:

And then inside, it continues… “and I didn’t have to pee.”

Bwah!

Curiosity killed the cat

It turns out that the handicap lift was used at the Winfield station, and when the conductor was attempting to retract it, it won’t budge. So, the conductor – with the help of a couple of passengers were banging on the lift to brute force it back to its slot! This took about 15 minutes and there was a big sigh of relief from everyone when the train started moving again. In the Philippines, this is called “Bayanihan“. From Wikipedia, The whole term bayanihan refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective. I tried to find what the corresponding English word is, and according to Google, “cooperativism” is the nearest word.

Last 2 minutes

I had a couple of photos of this clock actually. No flash, with flash – but for some reason, I liked the version with the flash (removed all shadows). I was in Photoshop cropping it when I started playing around with the Levels, and though, hey – this is interesting. So, yes, my photo of the day today is a bit processed.

Another close call… I’m still amazed I haven’t slipped and am still going strong. I keep thinking one of these days I will slip.

Because of the close call yesterday, I’ve decided to try and take pictures from the phone as well everyday, just in case. I took this photo with my iPhone as I was waiting for the train on the platform. The sky was a gorgeous blue, the morning light and the snow all together makes our little train station house very picturesque. Even though I have other photos today, I chose to make this photo my photo for the day.

West Chicago Train Station

The weather was very deceptive though. It was sunny but the temperature was veeeery chilly. I get cold just thinking about it. Brrr.

Snow Day

This was taken fromy my iPhone so the focus control was really bad and it is showing the mesh, instead of the scene outside. The accumulation wasn’t that bad, but the roads (and my driveway) are unplowed so I decided to stay and work from home. You’d think I’d have more time to steal and take photos since I am home, but I was tied up with work all day, and had to pick up the kids from school in the evening. Hubby also called to tell me to get the girls to bed early so I had them all bathed and sleeping around 10:00pm which was a record time for us. Unfortunately, that also meant, I slept early too.

When I woke up the next day, I actually thought that I FINALLY slipped and missed a photo! Then, I remembered the photo I took from the phone in the morning. Alas, that becomes the photo of the day.