The trip also became a birthday vacation for Erika which was just what she needed mid semester. The Hellbusch family gave her a relaxing, laughter filled break from the stress of college and work. They did a mini family trip while everyone was together.
I adore these two people! They take life with a healthy dose of humor and are not afraid to be and show exactly who they are.
We could look back through Erika's baby album and a familiar theme would be her tongue hanging out. Silly girl!
When they got back from Colorado I planned to do a simple birthday dinner for Erika. When I asked her what she wanted for her special dinner she gave me a hug and said "but momma, I want a Krim-a-lee Jo party". Done! November needs a good party.
I can't figure out, and neither can Erika, why she is in love with llamas but they are her absolute favorite. She claims that she is a llama; she wants a pet llama; she squeals and makes Bret pull over if she sees a llama; her favorite zoo animal is the llama (which she wants to steal from the zoo to give it a bath and the love it deserves). The llama birthday was a must!
We started with coloring. I found enough llama color pages online to provide everyone with a booklet of llamas. Erika's only question, "you do have extras for me to take to church, right?".
Llamas are great but combined with coloring it's the perfect activity.
Dinner was everything she requested. Sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, lemon salad, sever layer salad.
She is so easy to please.
Once our tummies were full we were ready for some llama games.
She and Bret were ready to adopt the Bingo Llamas! Erika especially loved the signs "Warning! I'm a llama trapped in a human body", "Spit Happens", and "F.M.L. Fluff My Llama" but she was also giddy for each fluffy llama on her Bingo board. Bret was especially fond Bat Llama and the Obama Llama. It's a Bret thing.
Each time someone got a Bingo they would tell something they liked about Erika.
I wrote it all down and later printed out a copy for her to keep.
After Bingo we made balloon slingshots.
We used our slingshots to shoot dried marshmallows into the hungry llama's mouth.
Erika informed me that this llama was going to live with her.
Perfect! I wasn't sure what I would do with it after the party.
The prizes that went along with the games were llama leftovers (unwrapped Tootsie Rolls that resembled llama droppings, hehehe) and llama chow (muddy buddy Chex mix). After all, in Erika's world llamas eat and poop chocolate.
Gifts were next.
Fuzzy gloves, a singing book from Hyrum (that she immediately danced too but caused Bret to hide under the gift bag because he doesn't like singing Elmo), a Llama Llama book set from Nathan ("so she can read them to her kids"), a gift certificate to her favorite clothing store (Down East) and Bret gave her a shirt with her all-time favorite book as the logo (The Little Prince).
The cake was triple chocolate goodness with chunks of chocolate and a fluffy layer of white and milk chocolate frosting all over it. Did I mention that she loves chocolate almost as much as llamas?
The only problem was convincing her that we could eat the llama cake. She just wanted a photo shoot.
But the ears started to tempt her and soon she was blowing out the candles
and she and Bret ate llama ears together. They ate chicken nuggets rather than wedding cake at the back yard wedding party, why not llama ears for a birthday party? Again, I LOVE these two!
Oh, my sweet Erika Jo. I have adored you from the day you were born! My hopes and dreams were that we would grow to be best friends. There were early days that those hopes were coming true
but many hard years came between us. Now we both know that the those very difficult struggles only pushed those hopes and dreams to come to a full reality.
I am not only been blessed to have you as a daughter but my life is wonderfully blessed to have you as a very best friend.
I love you, my Eeka Jo!!
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