Queen's Day 2009

As many of you may have heard by now, our Queen's Day 2009 was not as festive as it should have been. The weather was glorious (quite different from last year) and the day started great. Then some nut-case raced his car through the spectators of the royal holiday parade, crashing it into a stone monument. He didn't hit the bus carrying the royal family, but killed five bystanders.

In Veldhoven, as in most cities and towns, Queen's Day celebrations for the children were scheduled in the morning. As the accident happened around noon, our activities were pretty much over by the time the news came through. Which means that we actually had a very fun Queen’s Day morning.
Ready to go and celebrate Queen's Day; check out Pieter's red-white-blue-and-orange shirt!

Emma and Janne joined the traditional decorated bike parade for the first time and they thought it was great fun. They also enjoyed participating in the games fair, which included things like face painting, ball throwing games, ring throwing and (of course) plenty of candy.
Despite the fact that many were on holiday, there were still about 100 kids in the parade

At the end of the morning, all kids released their gas balloons, hoping theirs would get the furthest. So, iff any of you happens to find an orange balloon with a little Dutch card attached to it, please return it as requested. (Especially if it has Emma or Janne's name on it ... )
99 air balloons, ready to go up

In the afternoon, we visited with Monique, Jeroen and their two girls (motorcycle and Asia friends) in Megen. Emma and Janne had a great time playing with Lize.