Morris Family in Mexico: Seth and Sam's 10th Birthday!

The twin's birthday has become a bit of a benchmark of cultural adjustment for us here in Mexico.

Our first year celebrating their birthday, a little over a month after moving here, we ate a home-cooked dinner and swam alone. We had invited the only other family that we knew to swim, and only the dad (not the children) showed up. It was lonely.

The second year that we celebrated Seth and Sam's birthday in Mexico, we had a wonderful swim party with two other families...both Americans and all in English. It was fun and festive and filled with people that had become great friends to us. We ordered out from our favorite taco place and I even found a place to buy some decorations.

This year, their third (!) birthday here in Monterrey, and their tenth birthday none-the-less, Sam and Seth had a friend birthday party with all Mexican kids from their school. They each invited three friends from their class, they spoke in Spanish for a lot of the party, and they ate Mexican snacks like Taki's and tajin. Their party was an absolute blast and Ben and I spent the day marveling at how far we have come in our cultural adjustments. (And in denial that our twins are ten!)

I wanted the boys to remember their tenth birthday. It felt like a big milestone to hit double digits. This was their first "friend" birthday party and we even planned some water games. It was super fun. Thank goodness for Ben and his Spanish speaking and boy corralling skills; I may have been the brains behind the games, but he definitely was the key executioner. Overall, the boys said that it was "their best birthday ever!"

Dario, Seth, Sam, Mateo, Marcelo, Juan Andres, Marco, Nico and Josh

We started out the party with some tacos

And snacks like jicama and takis

The kids jumped in the pool for a bit while everyone finished up eating.

So much fun!

We then split them into team "Seth "

And team "Sam"

First game

Use a beach towel

To throw a water balloon

Into a laundry basket of your teammate

Second game: unwrap a t-shirt frozen stiff into a ball (I soaked the shirt before putting it into the freezer)

By any means possible

And once unwrapped

Put the frozen shirt on the birthday boy

Maybe Seth was lucky they didn't get his unwrapped...it was cold!

Game 3: water balloon toss into a colander on your teammates head

Sammy caught his!

Good effort, Seth

Last organized game

Use a squirt gun to direct a toy car to the finish line

Before the other team does! It was a close race.

Thank goodness for Ben and his skills rounding up the boys

Then it was time for an all out water balloon fight!

Josh was so thrilled to be a part of it all

It was wonderful chaos

Marco is hilarious

Final act of game time: pouring a tub of water on the birthday boys' heads (Seth)

Sam

Then, of course, more food. This is a "taki taco"

Then the boys just played, played, played

Nico gave friends "roller coaster rides" in tubs

Straight into the water

And then the boys started a "hot tub game" using tubes and hoses and buckets

Who needs a pool when you can construct something on the dirty edge of the pool?

This was my favorite time of the party. Boys crack me up! They were like little ants with their game; each boy had his own unspoken job. And it was hilarious to me that they were doing this instead of swimming in the beautiful pool next to them...

Next was cake time. The twins requested an ice cream cake this year.

We sang both the American and Mexican birthday songs

That was their friend party, which was actually on May 25 (a Saturday). They also had a soccer game that morning in which we brought popsicles for the team and sang Happy Birthday to them as well there. Then, on Sunday, their actual birthday, we just kept on celebrating.