Beards, snow, and other randomness from the Machak home

This is just a collection of random shots from daily life, some downloaded from the iphone.  David spent about three months this fall growing out his beard, which he shaved shortly after Christmas with a gift certificate to The Art of Shaving.  But, he misses it so don't be surprised to see a redux sometime soon....

Homage to the beard:

Hanging out at home:

Claire has been getting out and about--the library, the Community Center, and her new Music class are weekly favorites.

This shot is from the Farm that I blogged about a few posts ago (Everyday Fun)

This was a trip to Eastern Market.  We hadn't been in years but it was very productive--Christy got a necklace and wrap for the Inaugural Ball, a birthday present for sister Katie, and the family got gnocchi, fig and gorganzola ravioli, and pinenut-basil pesto.  We did not get the glasses but Nicholas had fun :-)

                                     We found an indoor play place called Mobu Kids; both kids had a great time.

We find going out to breakfast a lot easier than going out to dinner now that we have kids.  Cheaper, informal, less rushed, more family-oriented, not interrupting other couples' date nights....With waffles, pancakes, french toast, eggs, fresh fruit, and more, the kids are always able to fill up.  Here's our cool dude filling up on some waffles!

We actually got snow in Virginia this year!  Nicholas woke up, saw the snow, and thought it was Christmas, since that's the only other time he remembers having snow.  He wasn't disappointed for long, though--since school was delayed for 2 hours, Mommy and Nicholas got to have a snow play date, and hopes of Santa coming back for a second visit were soon forgotten.

Nicholas enjoyed warming up with hot chocolate.

We've been looking for things for the kids to do inside since it's been so cold and yucky outside.  Gotta love technology--learned from a Foreign Service spouse on a group Facebook page about another FS spouse who blogs and writes about stuff to do in DC for Huffington Post, and she featured an article about the Playseum. So, last Saturday after Nicholas' Tai Kwon Do class we made another trip back to the Eastern Market neighborhood, and enjoyed some indoor fun:

I think the fire truck was Nicholas' favorite.  Mom liked the wall mural.

The musical instruments were a big hit too.  Claire played supporting drums while Nicholas rocked out to Queen's "We will rock you".

One of our Christmas presents to each other was to finally get a nice duvet cover for our bed, to go with our bedroom set (ordered President's Day 2012 and received, oh, July 2012... but that's another story)