Last weekend was our Canada Day long weekend, and we were able to enjoy it with some fun times – and goodies! Whenever we have a special day to celebrate, I like to make some special things – and having daddy around helps me to have a bit extra time to actually get around to it, instead of just pinning all the great ideas :D

With our fresh-picked raspberries, we made raspberry scones for breakfast (watch for the recipe coming next Tuesday!).

We also made maple leaf sugar cookies, but the kids decorated and ate them so fast I didn’t get a picture of the finished product!

Saturday we were out in the heat of the day and desperate for cold drinks, but instead of getting our usual $1 iced coffee, we decided to make our own! I have had a method pinned from the Pioneer Woman for a LOOOOONG time, so I decided to finally just do it. It’s really easy too!

Pioneer Woman Iced Coffee

  • 1/2 pound of GOOD DARK ROAST coffee, ground
  • 4 quarts water
Grind the coffee and place in a large cooking pot or container with a lid. Let sit 8 hours – or more, the longer the better! Line a metal strainer with a couple layers of cheesecloth. Place over another pot or container and strain out the grounds.   Place container in fridge, covered, until cold.
Fill your cup with ice (we’ve been using small mason jars – perfect!). Pour coffee into cup until about 3/4 full. Add milk, cream, and sugar. Stir and enjoy!

Sunday after church we used up the rest of our raspberries for:

Raspberry Lemonade Slushies (serves about 5)

  • 2 1/2 trays of ice
  • 4-5 cups of lemonade (make sure you use the real stuff, it makes a difference in flavour!)
  • as many raspberries as you want
  • sugar

Blend the ice with the lemonade. Add in raspberries and blend. Add sugar or sweetener (if you want). CAREFULLY pour into tall glasses (we had a mishap and ended up with half the container on the counter as it slooped out :D). Serve and enjoy!

 Last year for our Canada day celebration I made Cherry Cola Cupcakes – my own variation of The Cupcake Project’s Cherry Coke cupcakes.

Steffani‘s has to be one of my favourite cupcake blogs of all times (she’s done everything from sweet to savory-type cupcakes, including spam cupcakes!). Last weekend I found out that I was chosen to be one of 50 test bakers to help Steffani find the Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake recipe. What an honour! We are testing out the recipe this week, everything’s a secret until the final decision is made. Hubby is on a mission right now to find me some good cocoa, since all of our stores seem to have only dutch processed!

Other than food, we enjoyed the 100 degree Fahrenheit plus weather with lots of time on the splash pad and slip n slide! In case I haven’t mentioned it before, best $14 I’ve ever spent. It’s already ripped, but a little duct tape will fix that!

Hope you’ve all been enjoying a great week! How do you live it up in the summertime for celebrations?

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