Queen's Day 2010

It was quite a bit colder compared to last year (and compared to yesterday ... ), but still Queen's Day was fun. Pieter and I spent most of last night decorating Emma and Janne's bikes, so they looked really nice. As the bikes are a couple of sizes bigger than last year, it took longer to decorate them ... We did feel a bit silly today, because we seemed to be the only ones who put so much effort in them. But then, the girls were very excited when they saw their rides this morning, and that's why we did it, right?

Despite the cold, many families showed up for the parade, together with the local marching band. The games at the community centre were fun as well and we had a good time.
Colorful rides, orange girls

Watching tv together

Emma's best friend (at the moment) is a boy in her class who lives on the same block as we do. His mom took the picture below, which is both cute and a bit startling. But mostly cute :-)
Best friends!

Emma's talk

Emma held her first talk in class today. She spoke about the animal shelter. Her teacher called her talk 'excellent', because she was so well organized and because she told her story instead of reading it. We were invited to sit in on her talk and were ever so proud of her performance.
In the middle of her talk

In preparation for her talk, she read a book about the animal shelter and visited a shelter in Eindhoven. Pieter took pictures, which Emma used to make a wall chart as illustration for her talk. Because she was quite nervous about it, we rehearsed her talk every day for the last week. And she did splendidly!
Explaining the pictures

As Janne was at home with an ear infection and Pieter and I both wanted to sit in on Emma's talk, Janne joined us. She was duly impressed with her sisters presentation :-) After a week of better and worse days and some bad nights, we started Janne on antibiotics today to treat her ear infection. Due to several other regular complaints in addition to the ear infection, we now have an appointment with the ENT doctor, for a total check-up of the ENT area.

Boelie up-date

Boelie is now 8 months old and a grown-up dog. She is still very active and loves to go out for walks and play. She had her first 'period' without problems and we enjoy the relative calm now, before she starts dog puberty at the age of 12 months ...

Our active little big dog

AJAX-VVV 7-0

Pieter is seasonal ticket holder for his favorite soccer club, VVV Venlo (his home town), which means he is present at every match played by VVV in Venlo. On April 11th, VVV played against AJAX, one of the best clubs in the Netherlands at the moment. Pieter, his brother and nephew travelled to Amsterdam to watch this game live. VVV lost 7 to 0 ... A bit embarrassing, but not too surprising. VVV got promoted to the eredivisie (major league) from the eerste divisie (minor league) this season and AJAX is candidate for the major league title. Still, the three men had a great afternoon :-)
Pieter cheering his club on from the 'box' for visiting supporters; too bad it has come to where visiting and home club fans have to be kept apart like this ...

Busy Easter

Sunday started out dry, so the girls could do their Easter egg hunt without raincoats.
Later on, it started raining, so we decided last minute to go to a theater performance. The musical Hans en Grietje was showing in Veldhoven and we went to see it. It was a very entertaining show, with great singing and lots of laughter. Especially the marshmallows JW and Veronica were very funny.
Emma and Janne's favorite character; marshmallow JW

Clear weather was forecasted for Easter Monday; we thought we'd risk it and drive to the beach in Zeeland. We had a wonderful time in Vlissingen, walking on the beach for almost two hours. On the way back, we paid Oma a visit in Hoogerheide.
Boelie joined us on the beach
Shell hunting