a spa mocktail pop up at Amazon for Amazon prime Day with Clarisonic
The Happy Camper Cocktail Company team served groups of 50 friends to corporate groups of 1500, and everywhere in between. We won TWO categories of the best of 2017 awards by Seattle Bride Mag (best new vendor and best bar service.) I was incredibly honored and humbled to be brought into some of the biggest moments in my clients' lives, to celebrate with them.
I'd savor the work-free days of the week as well as I could, taking the boys on many Costco trips, making cocktails to take photos of at our long and wonderful playdates with our friends, and trying to cuddle with the new baby as long as possible while trying to also keep a toddler entertained and involved. Then Thursday would come around again. Most nights before an event I would toss and turn while going over and over my packing check list in my head, worrying that I might forget something. I'd get up to nurse Hayes every two to three hours and struggle to get back to sleep in between, anticipating the excitement of the busy day ahead. I'd wake up so tired, pour a large cup of coffee, and tear forward. I remember having the distinct thought that in the near future, say 9 months or so from now (as it is currently) I would remember these days in a haze, possibly even begin to romanticize them. I hoped like Hell that I would not regret them. The stress of the summer got to my husband and I sometimes. We drank chilled white wine from our stockpile that had been delivered tauntingly all winter by our wine club (finally, I was allowed again to consume this heavenly elixir!) on our porch and talked about how crazy we felt, how maybe we should quit, how it was too late to quit, and how we'd better just suck it up. We promised each other to do our best, because what else can we do?
This is a photo of Keri, but summarizes well how we felt at times this summer.
Don't worry, we weren't serving any alcohol at this event
Kate hasn’t been around on this blog much lately, despite being one of its founders. Way back when, Simple Goodness blog was created as the Dairy Queens, meant to detail the adventures of our little sister Kate in 4H. She began the adventure by showing and caring for Venise’s first couple of goats, EB and Dozer. She’s been showing in 4H ever since and even rose through the ranks recently to be the president of her club. She’s won plenty of ribbons, shaved and washed plenty of goats and welcomed many new kids to the herd. Through this passing of time, she has also grown into a super pretty, delightfully clever and fantastic baby-watching 15 year old.
Her birthday is today, May 17th. I won’t wax on sentimentally for too long about her birth when I was 13 and Venise was 17, how at first it seemed her tongue was too big for her mouth because it was permanently tasting the air, how her vocabulary grew faster than her pretty brown curls, or how her delight for life and “only child” independence made her so fun to raise alongside our mother. But I must tell you about how cool the 15 year old Kate Jacqueline Adair is. With 4 older half-siblings and big age gaps, Kate has had the best of both worlds growing up- a big family to teach her about scarcity, competition, and chaos; and the peace and pleasure of her parents’ sole attention for most of the week. She is thoughtful and introspective, but welcoming of new adventures and friends. She is smart, not as smart as me, but smarter than your average bear. Moreover, she is wise. For all of trials and experiences she has had in her young life, she has emerged a more open, loving, and strong person.
She is the Friday night babysitter behind our sanity and our business errands. She is a voice of constant encouragement and ironic jokes. She is a pretty bad cook but persistence has paid off and she makes a decent egg scramble after sister sleepovers. She is the best person to watch the Office with. She is Henry and Deyton’s favorite. She has an excellent taste in music, encouraged by all of us but definitely curated on her own. She has the best hair. She has been conquering her fears one by one as she has grown, from sledding hills to roller coasters to utter embarrassment at our hands in public places. We pushed her down several sledding hills and berated her into trying new things and she has not held it against us permanently. She is certainly better for having had our influence, but really we are the thankful ones. We are so thankful and proud to call this quirky and relatable girl our sister and aunt to our babies, who adore her more than all other humans on earth.
Kate hasn’t been on the blog a lot lately but she deserves the spotlight more than any of us. She is so worth celebrating, so please join us in celebrating this human today!
