thiessen's summer bbq

a sunny end of summer day and an 8 year old's birthday brought all the thiessens together for a little bbq. i ate a burger for the first time in i think 10 years (thank you, chef carlos!), and young and old alike had fun wearing glow stick eyeglasses.

the birthday girl's crown

mama and papa thiessen with hilarious little karissa

pauls and thiessen sisters
bandit and xuka get to know each other

the braun sisters
mike and moni in from edmonton
chris and danielle

celia and bina looking cute as ever

the cousins

even onkel helmud gets in on the fun :)

inspired by germany

august in winnipeg means the stereotype perpetuating 'cultural celebration' known as folklorama. off the german society i went with alana and adrian, my favourite german connection in winnipeg. we learned about the sorbians, a slavic ethnic minority in germany, and were also told that german dialects are so different from province to province (yes, germany apparently has provinces and not states!) that germans can't even understand each other. the three of us listened politely, then exchanged somewhat confused looks when we could finally make our getaway. even after finding out that adrian is german and alana and i have both lived in lovely deutschland, the woman telling us all about german provinces and dialects still seemed to think we were just a bunch of clueless canucks or something. keine ahnung!

this is the only thing about the pavilion that actually reminded me of germany

heimkehr

from my last meal in germany to my first one in winnipeg. maple barbequed salmon and wild rice. my favourite. no pics of the culinary delights, but got a couple of kleiner bruder chris, the adorable danielle, and their ankle-biting boxer, bandit.

update

SOO, now that i finally have my computer back, i guess i can update. been gone from germany two weeks today. feels much longer. been in winnipeg for about a week and a half. my two jobs are doing their best to keep me busy, and the car on the driveway is doing it's best to keep me lazy. i had a little boy with training wheels make fun of me while riding mama thiessen's vintage bike (which opa nicknamed 'die alte dame') to the post office. i live on the completely flat prairies, yet everyone here seems to think they need a mountain bike. apparently this is already ingrained into the minds of four year olds. funny. it's been good to see my girls and the wide open spaces all around this little town i both love and hate. i am enjoying ridiculous amounts of peanut butter and the new starbucks in the neighbourhood immensely. i am missing the sights, sounds, tastes and people of bamberg even more. *sigh* on that note, here are some pics of my last few days in the ever so lovely bamberg.

boys' night out + ang. the other girls joined later. and by later i mean after i went home to bed because i had to work the next day.







meisterkoch christoph cooks up my last german dinner:

selbstverstaendlich it was bratwurst, brezeln, and beer. feinschmecker, i know.