May Holidays

This week is the week of May Holidays for me. The holidays started very odd, since last Saturday night the boyfriend of my mother in law died. He had Kahler's disease. It was diagnosed three years ago, got under control with chemotherapy, but the last six months the Kahler came back.
What can you do? It feels very weird that he is not here anymore, but that life goes on. The clock keeps on ticking, the days go on. The kids do not know (sort of) and they do not act as if something happened. Their routine really helps me. Sometimes I ponder, how is life going to be for my mother in law? How is she going to cope? How does it feel to lose somebody that close to you?

So, last few days are a bit emotional and weird, but there were things to do and to work on.
Last Monday it was Queens Day. We celebrate the birthday of our Queen Beatrix, with lots of festivities and lots of orange clothing/weird outfits.
On this day, there is always a flea market for kids to clear out their old stuff and earn a bit of pocket money. I went to the flea market near the city hall with Little Man and Little Lady and we got some nice stuff.

I don't know if it is really antique, but it feels like it. It is a very sturdy doll bassinet. I am going to strip all the ugly lilac fabric off and give it a more homespun feeling!

Some books, always fun!

This year, I gave Little Man a budget. He got 1,50 euro and he had the choice how to spend it. He bought this train, a wooden airplane, a small airplane and a little car. He did great with this amount of money and he understood it when it was all spend. Smart boy.

I really had the urge to do SOMETHING for my mother in law. So I am designing a prayer shawl. In the picture above I tested something I am going to use for the border. I had to rip the whole thing out once, since my triangle shape for the body of the shawl did not work out right, but I am right on track.

Here it is right now. I am using Lang sock yarn. Marvelous colour and soft feeling. The pattern will be posted here when it is done.

Today, we went to 't Geertje, a petting zoo nearby. The weather was beautiful, so off we went on the bike. Little Lady had rain boots on for the first time. A little big too big, but with an extra pair of socks they did not fall off her feet! This was the first time she really started to walk around and look at all the animals. At this petting zoo, the most important animal is the goat. It was the first time she went to them by herself and petting them. She loved to point at the chickens and roosters. Little Man only wanted to play on the playground so he climbed and rolled and ran all over the place. Keeping track of two kids running in the opposite directions is tough!
We had fun.