Toms Again

I posted about TOMS shoes awhile ago and promptly got a response from TOMS themselves about my blog post! This afternoon I ripped open a package with a documentary about TOMS and the amazing work they've done in Argentina. There were a couple of times when my "ohhhhhh noooo's" brought my parents over to watch the children crowding around the boxes of shoes. At the end of the movie I knew I wanted to get a pair of shoes and, at some point, volunteer. Right now, I need to get a job which will in turn give me money which will also in turn fund a trip to help out. Turns out it takes monies to help people in need. As do rabbit rescues. Anyway, here are some
Things you can do:
Go on a shoe drop either in the US or in Argentina (heyo, I'm really considering doing this so if anyone wants to go in together... hint hint).
Style your Sole party (you can style a pair of TOMS shoes yourself and wear them whenever you feel like it!)

Join the TOMS team (college and high school internships).
Buy a pair!

I also just realized that Olio United, the same place that I bought my beloved rubbery Melissa shoes, carries TOMS! So does a surprising variety of shops in Portland, you can search for a place near you here.

And yes, I was referencing this youtube video in my first TOMS post.

21

Evan's 21! We threw a birthday party at Laser Fun Tag or something like that, over in Lacey. That was fun. Then I made him a cake (which was AMAZING! I love this recipe and I think we'll be seeing more of it crop up around birthdays) and Jessie helped me frost it. That too was fun. And then we had bunches of people over for twister, Strawberry drinkies and snacks. We wound up watching Live Free or Die Hard until 3 am. Then Jessie spent the night and this morning we got to clean up all the frosting, strawberry stickiness and empty bottles left in weird places. It was all soooo much fun!

Evan is a huge Mac fan so I think I chose a totally appropriate cake theme.
Jessie, helpin' me frost and dribble.

Thanks Ben... Happy Birthday Evan!

Gunther

If you have no idea who Gunther is, let alone listened to his music, I think you should probably take the time to go to his website (note: this page isn't safe for work, and this one is moderately safe). He parodies the 80's German pop bands, at least that's what people say he's doing. Really, I think he's just living the lifestyle in all seriousness. He has an array of music videos on youtube with songs like the Ding Dong Song or Tutti Fruity Summer Love. In any case we're big Gunther fans so Katherine and Peter decided to have a Tutti Fruity Summer Love/Gunther themed party last night. I made candy sushi, there was tons of Gunther dance music playing, Endless Summer was playing in Monty's room (he was upstairs in mine) and, somewhere in the middle there were a few fantastic games of Twister. We switched some of the lights to colored light bulbs and rigged bicycle lights on their strobe settings to the walls to make dance lighting. All in all I had a great time and I'm glad that, as the last real party of the year, everything went well. The only thing that got spilled was water and only one person was.... feeling sick. Everything's cleaned up and back to mostly normal!

Jessie, and Others in Her Pictures

I didn't take too many pictures (or any at all) during the party, just when we were in the garden so I decided to borrow the pictures from Jessie's camera. This is a good selection of what I found this morning...

Jessie and Kyle

Poppi and Jessie
Jessie and Chris
Olivia, Jessie and Emma
Jessie and I
Jessie and Chris

More Grad Fun

Jessie's graduation party was at McMenamins Edgefield tonight. There was food GA-lore! And Edgefield has these pretty little fairy gardens that I used to wander around in when I was little and watched my cousins ramble around in tonight.

Olivia showing me her flower treasure. I think there's a tiny bit of mint in there too.
From inside of some sort of weeping tree.
And then some Monty snuggle time when we got home.