Seth and Sam: Eight Years Old

When we decided to move to Mexico, Seth and Sam specifically asked if they could come back home for their birthday. Knowing that it would be close to Levi's graduation, and that it was important to them, we told them that we would make an effort to make that happen. Unfortunately, plane tickets were much cheaper to fly into Portland on May 27, so we made it home for their birthday a day late. They had a good attitude about it, however, and we made our best effort to have lots of fun on their actual birthday here in Mexico.

Before we moved here, one of the places Ben had researched that might be fun for the kids is a place called "Kidzania." In short, it is a "city" for kids, in which they work the jobs of the city and earn "kidbucks" that they can redeem at a store (ran by kids of, course). For example, there are McDonald's and Domino's in the city, and kids actually help to make the food for those restaurants. There are also cell phone stores, department stores, fire stations, travel agents, pilots, etc. It is a very cool concept that I'm sure is totally magical...if you know the language. Kidzania is what Seth and Sam really wanted to do for their birthday, and wanting to make the day special, I complied (Ben had to work); however, I was pretty unsure of how well it was going to work with our very limited Spanish skills. Let's just say that I'm grateful that the twins' memories of the afternoon were that it was an awesome place, because my memory is being on the verge of tears many times because of the language barrier. Two workers, out of the probably 30 we encountered, spoke some English. That meant whenever Seth and Sam showed up to work a job, I was listening to the instructions of how that job was to be carried out and then interpreting the directions back to the kids...sketchily at best. We were very limited in what the kids could do, because I needed to be there to help them understand what was said...and truth be told I understood very little. It was just hard and stressful. But as I said, the boys thought it was great and we've all made it our goal to know enough Spanish in a year to return and have much more fun!

The entrance of Kidzania is just like an airport check in counter and they print plane tickets as your entrance pass. It's very cool. 

 The twins being DHL delivery men

 In this job, they decorated the cover of a notebook (that they got to keep)

 We had to wait in line for a quite awhile for Seth and Sam to do the firefighters job, but it was well worth it.

 They got to go down a fireman's slide into a room to change into their firefighters outfits

 Then they rode in the back of the truck through the Kidzania city chanting something in Spanish

  The truck was complete with lights and sirens

 Then they arrived at a "burning" building (lights in the windows) and got to spray water for quite some time. A kids dream, really.

 It was pretty neat! (Sam, Seth)

 Construction workers

 Rebuilding the brick wall

 This is them working at a veterinarian clinic

 Poor boys, the whole thing was in Spanish and I couldn't be in there with them. And to make matters worse, the instructor stopped the whole class to call me to the door to tell me something that I totally couldn't understand. I did my best to tell them that Seth and Sam could just watch what the other kids were doing and follow their actions. It was embarrassing.

 Both boys got to pet and feed a dog. (Seth)

 Sam's turn

The boys requested beef stir fry for dinner. We all ate together and recounted Kidzania stories to Ben, then it was time for presents. I had really wanted to get the boys some fun pool toys for their birthday, but for some reason there are not many pool toys in the stores here, so I passed that idea along to the grandparents (we could just fly back with them). Instead, we got the boys Tigris jerseys. The Tigris are the local soccer team here that they've decided to support and while I had major sticker shock for the price of the jerseys, Ben convinced me that it would be really nice for them to have something to wear to help them fit in around here. The looks on the boys faces when they opened the Tigris jerseys was well worth the money. It was so sweet to see their pure joy.

 I did manage to order one pool toy off Amazon Mexico: a treasure chest with sinkable coins. It was a big hit with everyone as Josh could throw the coins and the boys dive for them.

 Seth, Sam

 So excited!!

 This is the best picture. (Seth, Sam)

 Ben even had our last name put on the back and chose the numbers of their favorite players (don't ask me who). They were so proud!

Dessert was ice cream and then it was off to the pool to swim. It was a beautiful night for swimming and we stayed in the pool until after dark. It was a great day and very exciting to know that we'd be returning home to Scappoose the next day! What a great present that was!

 Seth

 Sam

FYI, "sparkle" candle are real tough to blow out.