Today marks the second day of Pentacost (Pinksteren), otherwise known as tweede pinksterdag (second pinksterdag) in the Netherlands or also commonly known as Whit Monday in a typical English expression. The whit there is not a typo; it’s just what it’s called.

Whit as in White. A carry-over from a White Sunday which had turned to Whit Sunday and then to Whit Monday. Why it’s not called Wit (white) Mandaag which should be a reflection of how it’s translated to Dutch from White Monday, I can’t seem to find an answer to that. Yet. 

In the Netherlands, tweede pinksterdag is essentially a Monday seven weeks after Easter Monday  (I never knew!) which falls on the day after Pentecost. It so happens that the second day of Pentecost does not carry any special religious significance apart from the fact that it is usually declared a public holiday. 

That means, we have had a long weekend over here, making me pretty bummed at the thought of having to go back to work tomorrow. To further dampen the mood, today would be the last of public holidays accorded to all employees of the Netherlands; the next one occurring only in November December.

I know. It’s depressing. 

We did have a good weekend, though! It was busy, but it was good-busy as we started the weekend with some serious prep-work for Squirt’s belated birthday celebration.  From cooking to baking, the boy has been extremely excited at the prospect of scoring more presents.

Squirt has also specifically requested for his cake to be home-made. He wants his cake to be in the colours of  blue, purple and green, covered in blue frosting and in his flavour of choice (lychee). Like his sister, he too wanted to decorate his own cake as it was something he has not done before.

As the mother who just cannot say no when her kids ask her for food to be made or baked, I willingly complied. How can I not? 

Besides,  it’s fun just to watch the kids decorate their cakes as to how they want to be. Mess and all! 

 

Who cares if it looks perfect because as far as Squirt is concerned, it was a work of art in which he really was very proud of. The cake is as perfect as it can be! 

The cake is typical of my Chiffon cake recipe and the only thing I added here is filled it up with M&Ms in the middle. It went pretty quick. So much so that I did not have the chance to take a picture of it after the first slice and then realising later that there was not very much of it left at the end of the day. 

We were lucky with the weather too. It has been kind all week long with mostly sunny days all around. That means Squirt is only too happy to be able to play outside, riding his bike and running around like any 5 year old kid should for most part of the day in between the presents he was getting. 

All in all, a great weekend of family time. 

Did I mention that it’s Pinksterdag today? And did I also mention that it’s the day when pink is the colour of the day because, you know, it’s PINKsterdag? That means, we would have to wear pink the whole day, top to bottom! Yes, really. Boys AND girls. Only pink today.

It’s one of the silly, cannot-be-explained Dutch rules.

At least that was the story I tried to spin off to the kids this morning when we were getting out of bed. They didn’t like it, not even Spud who does not mind pink. With Squirt, he got pretty upset as pink is one colour he refuses to wear.

No matter how much I tried to convince them , they wouldn’t believe me.They both were very skeptical. I could not convince them and Squirt tried to wriggle out of this pink day by insisting that he has got nothing in pink. To which I said, we’ll have to go buy something pink pronto.

Because you know, rules are rules.

Oh boy! You should have seen the looks on their faces, then the whines that followed. Hilarious! 

Of course I was just messing with their heads. It was kind of fun. 😉