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Oma Bep arrived on Sunday evening 17 April. Juliana was delighted to do some drawing with her, while Piet and Emma played a Dutch boardgame with oma.
Oma's arrival was timed to coincide with dad's birthday. He got breakfast in bed (pancakes), followed by presents at the breakfast table. While dad was at work, Piet and Emma helped mum baking the cake. After dinner, we sang dad happy birthday and helped him blow the candles. As he was the birthday boy, he was exempt from tidying up.
On Sunday, Juultje was baptised in Paddington Uniting Church. Oma had bought her a lovely white dress. She seemed to understand she was the center of attention as she was much better behaved than normal. The kids were involved in filling the baptismal font and handing the oil, soil and candle. We did not take pictures in this beautiful service, but some videos are available on the video page. A liturgy may be uploaded later.
Monday was ANZAC day. Piet participated in the 200m march with the cub scouts and sat through the service which lasted over an hour. The minister spoke about not glorifying the ANZAC suffering, followed by someone from the military who discussed the bravery displayed by soldiers who had recently been decorated. Two dozen wreaths (kransen) were laid at the Manly war memorial, which dates from 1916.
On Friday, we drove with oma Bep to Durras North to see Sarah's parents, auntie Bell and Glenn. While we had intended to camp with the kids, a large branch fell on our car, so we switched to a cabin. A key attraction of the campsite were the numerous kangaroos, which were counted in the morming and during the day. During the day, we went to the nearby lagoon, where we canoed with auntie Bell, did some boogie boarding, rowing in opa's dinghy (for lack of wind), fishing (whack them with a paddle), bathing and more canoeing, all closely supervised from shore. Piet and Emma also had a quick dip in the ocean. In the evening, we lit a fire for the barbecue and marshmallows.
As our car was wrecked, the return to Sydney on Sunday was complicated. Dad, oma, Piet and Emma drove a hire car to Sydney, where oma did the school runs the next day and cooked dinner. Mum and Juliana went to Bendoc with grannybunts and opa, to pick up a temporary car, which mum drove to Sydney on Monday. Juliana coped surprisingly well with two days of driving.
