Sint at Voorwaarts

On Saturday, Sint and his Zwarte Pieten visited gymnastics club Voorwaarts. Emma's group did a trampoline demonstration and Janne's group danced for Sinterklaas. Great fun and lots of candy.
Zwarte Pieten acting silly

Dance performance with Zwarte Pieten

Trampoline act

Sinterklaas is here again!

Again, it's that time of the year. Sinterklaas arrived in the Netherlands two weeks ago, to celebrate his birthday here on December 6th. Very exciting times indeed, for kids up to the age of about 8 or 9. Today, Janne's class, together with a few more from their school, was fortunate enough to be invited to visit Sinterklaas' castle in Helmond.

During the Sinterklaas period, Helmond Castle is transformed into the Castle of Sinterklaas. When visiting as a private person, you have to wait in line for at least one and a half to two hours. Now, as a school group, we could go right in. For the children, it was a wonderful, almost magical, visit. There were many, many Zwarte Pieten (black helpers) to entertain the kids and explain things, Amerigo, Sinterklaas' white horse was there and there were hundreds of presents everywhere.

Visiting the washroom of the Zwarte Pieten

The most exciting room of the castle, the Pakjeskamer (gifts room)!

Sinterklaas himself invited us into his office and ... bedroom

A, C and Lang Lang

Yesterday, we spent the whole morning at the swimming pool. Janne had to swim at 9 am to receive her swimming certificate A and at 11 am it was Emma's turn for certificate C. As before, Oma came over for the occasion, to cheer the girls on. I took many pictures of Janne, after which my battery ran out. So, Emma's pics are here by courtesy of the club photographer ...

Nervous and ready to start

A little dance to loosen up

Janne's turn to swim under water

Floating like Patrick (from the Sponge Bob cartoon)

She did it!

Emma's group, ready to start

Waiting in line, all wet

Great dive!

Oma was also kind enough to travel to Veldhoven a day aerly, giving us the opportunity to go out on Friday, to a piano concert. Lang Lang played in Eindhoven and we were able to get two tickets to listen to his magnificent performance. It's truly amazing how one person can spellbind a theater full of people, by 'only' playing on a piano. Wonderful music and a great night out.

Prix Dominique

Last Sunday, Pieter participated in a musical contest (concours) in Venlo, Prix Dominique. He did very well and received very positive feedback, some suggestions for improvement and a score of 39 (out of 50). The jurors commented on his great technical skills and personal interpretation of the pieces. Even though he was (as always) very nervous, he enjoyed playing for an audience and is looking forward to his next concours.

One second after playing; I was afraid that he would be distracted if I took a pic during the recital ...