Pentecost Sunday the train brings us to Maud's mom. Her one-hectare plot in Vierhouten offers ample opportunities for gardening, especially since a tornado hit it last summer, so it's a huge playground for Maud. Tornados by the way are not supposed to happen in the Netherlands...
There's ample space to make it a playground for others also. The youngest additions are a trampoline, a soccer goal and an outside 'snack' table. After Maud's brother Nils and Bram assembled those, the quality is heavily tested by nephew Marijn and his mother Arna.
To complete this triple festive day - Mother's day, Pentecost, welcome back - Nils produces a stack of special pancakes. One might say we honour our mom's maiden name, Koekebakker; Maud does her share of 'pannenkoeken bakken' in Botswana.
Bacon, ginger & apple, onion & garlic, pepper & cheese - Nils proves you can bake virtually everything into a pancake. After dinner Marijn's party goes on: he'll camp on the lawn with ouma.
Pentecost Monday we are supposed to go to Bram's parents in Wilsum, together with Bram's brothers & sister, and their partners & offspring. Unfortunately the flu hit Ivan & Tineke heavily, so we move the party to Vierhouten. It's another beautiful spring day, perfect weather to enjoy our very Dutch meal of soup & bread & cheeses outside.
A flock of nephews and nieces means more heavy duty testing of the new equipment. Once again the boys have to cope with the fact that Jolin is the best soccer player - how many generations will it take for Dutch males to accept girls can excel in soccer?
At least they recognize Little Linde bossing everyone around as the natural state of things. When asked 'who's the boss' they'll always pick the woman of the household - with a special position for oupa Ivan. Ouma Tineke is of course the boss in general, but 'oupa is his own boss'.
The family bravely endures the usual bombardment with pictures & video out of Africa, and meekly rounds up for the unavoidable group photograph (Maarten, Sandra, bro Henk-i, Maud, Jolin, Harriet, David, Jelle, Marijke, Dick, bro Wanja, sis Christine, Linde).
Beware: there'll be more scary pictures of other bros & sister and etcetera soon...
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