Celebrating Summer

In our house summer time is about Popsicles and after dinner trips to the park, festivals on weekends, family and pool time and everyone enjoying a little less schedule and a little more time…

As we come up to Canada Day long weekend and one of the most celebrated bbq holidays of the year I couldn’t help but wonder what most people look forward to this holiday.  Is it the mayhem of the Canada day events and hope of a free tattoo or face painting?  The fireworks?  Hiding out at a friend’s house with a beer in hand and a steak on the bbq? I don’t want to hear from those who enjoy working (and earning double time) on this day – Canada day grinches aren’t my thing 😉

I feel like there is so much to see and do in the summer in Vancouver.  I download all the events onto our family calendar and we decide a couple of days before the weekend which of the events we’ll head to each weekend.  For those of you in Vancouver – we’ll be checking out Carnaval del sol on Saturday on Granville street with the kids, and will try to catch one last act of the Jazz festival at some point.  On Sunday we’ll attempt one of the crazy Canada Day events – likely we’ll retreat to our favorite hang out – Granville Island – where our son enjoys traipsing from one singing location to another with a donut in hand and we happily follow tapping our toes to the beat of the banjo or the great french musican Josh Minsky.  Our Granville island mornings are definitely some of our favorite family moments.  For other ideas this weekend (or any weekend) I always find our friends at yoyomama have a fabulous round up of all the events.

This is also a big backyard weekend for us traditionally with the celebration of birthdays and summer with close friends.  One of my favorite things on an almost hot July 01 is a homemade frozen lemonade – virgin or alcoholic these thirst quenchers elicit feelings of relaxation and soaking up the moment like nothing else.  ahhh where’s my lawn chair?

This is a great weekend to stop – take a moment with your close friends and family and just enjoy the people we love – we’ll hope to see some of you out and about – we’ll be the ones all in our Canada gear (mostly circa 2010 olympics with a few new purchases for the smallest Buschels).

Frozen Lemonade:

• 2 cups ice cubes
• 1 can white lemonade concentrate still frozen
• 1/2 cup sparkling water or soda water
• 1/2 cup vodka or white rum (optional :))
• add strawberries for a great variety
• Blend in a blender (sepparate in two parts if needed) and serve with a straw and a lemon wedge

If you’re a purist you can make your own lemonade instead of using a can by boiling the juice of 5 lemons with 3 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar and letting it cool before adding ice, soda water, liquor and blending …