On Sunday, the penultimate day of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations honoring her seventieth year of the reign, Queen Elizabeth surprised the demanding crowd below with a visit to the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

The 96-year-old monarch, dressed in green and her signature pearls, joined her son Prince Charles, his wife Camilla Parker Bowles, the queen's grandson William, his wife Kate, and their children as they waved to their adoring admirers on the Mall.

"There is no guideline for commemorating your queen's seventieth year as monarch, and it is truly a first. She declared as much in a statement issued by Buckingham Palace on Sunday.

"While I may not have attended every event in person, my heart has been with you all, and my family and I remain committed to serving you to the best of our abilities. I am impressed by the generosity, happiness, and kinship that have been so visible in recent days, and I hope that this revitalized sense of community will endure for many years."

According to the palace, Elizabeth had missed the last two days of festivities due to "discomfort" caused by her chronic "periodic mobility issues."

On Thursday, the queen greeted well-wishers with her family after the Queen's Birthday Parade, then participated in a national beacon lighting ceremony at Windsor Castle. However, she skipped a church service at St. Paul's Cathedral on Friday and the Epsom Derby horse race on Saturday.

She did, however, appear in a taped video with Paddington Bear promoting tea and marmalade sandwiches on Saturday.

Sunday's military parade from the Mall to Buckingham Palace featured 200 horses around the gold state vehicle that brought Elizabeth to her 1953 coronation. The windows displayed archival footage of the young monarch waving to her adoring subjects.

More than 6,000 artists followed the horses, including Bollywood dancers and drag queens.

People revealed on Sunday that Pippa Middleton, Kate's sister, made a surprise announcement that she is expecting her third child with husband James Matthews.