Holland Day 26:

We stopped by the cemetery to say hi to my oma.  It's a beautiful cemetery so we walked around a little bit and then headed into town.

Tuesdays are and have always been "open market" days and I wanted to go for one last time before we left.  We parked in Welten because I wanted to walk the way we used to walk into "big town".  We parked at my Oma's house, walked down the little path into "little town", stopped at the bank by "the tree" and headed into Heerlen.  The kids had fun and the weather was cooler today so it made for a nice walk.

Once we were in town, we hit up McDonald's for the kids, loempia's for mommy and Sanja, the candy store, the Hema (to buy little gifts for our friends at home) and played at the little area the kids have found and love next to the waffle guy.

I made Sanja take a picture of Oma's old house through the trees since I could not reach the top of the gate.

It looks different of course but the same too.  :(  A lot of good times and memories were made at this house that will last my whole life.  We had a really good time in Holland but I have to say it was hard at times that my kids were not really experiencing what I did.  We got hand me down bikes every summer and we had the freedom to go where ever we wanted with our friends.  We got to wake up and find our Oma on the couch having her coffee every single morning.  She used to secretly call us closer to her to give us money so we could go get candy in town.  We would eat the pancakes she would make and then it was time for our mom to do Oma's hair and she used to make these funny faces the whole time.  She would say "ouch Paulette." People would stop by for visits on a daily basis and there would be pie, coffee, drinks and cigs.  There were family pics that took forever because Oma and her siblings would not stop talk or sit still long enough for a good picture.  But, it was fun to see the kids do their own things. They had Dutch friends to play with because their Dutch friend's parents were my friends.  Jeremy doesn't want to go home.  Amelia is ready and Mabel is not feeling one or the other.  

Wrapping up the goods for her friends.