January 25, 2020
Once Olivia started pre-school in California we, like most parents, got into the kids birthday party circuit. Almost every other weekend had a kid’s birthday party we needed to go to. 25 kids in a class, throw in pre-existing friends and there will almost inevitably be some kid’s birthday almost every week. Go to half of them and you got a birthday party about every other week. Once we left on our trip, I thought we had gotten away from having to attend kids birthday parties.
Today, we went to our new friend Deya’s son’s birthday party. Olivia always has a good time a birthday parties and after a few month’s break from birthday parties it didn’t seem too bad to go to a kid’s birthday party. Deya said the birthday party started at 1:00 PM so we took our time getting up and we went to the nearby Mercado Sano for lunch. Every Saturday the Mercado Sano had an outdoor farmer’s market. The farmer’s market had a few vegetable vendors, some crafts vendors, live music and a number of food vendors. The customers were almost all foreigners and other than the Mexican food and music it almost seemed like being back in the US.
After lunch we took an Uber up the hill to Deya’s apartment complex. It was only a 25 minute walk but it would have been all uphill so it was easier to just take the Uber. The apartment complex seemed very modern and nice and had a security guard at the gate. The birthday party was in the community room of the apartment complex. We arrived around 1:30pm and were the first ones there. I joked with Deya that we were still getting used to Mexico time. About 45 minutes later other guests started arriving and eventually there were a number of kids and Deya started leading some games including marbles, musical chairs and an interesting game where each kid had two balloons tied to each foot and they all tried to step on each other’s balloons. The last kid with a balloon left was the winner.
Generally the birthday party for Ramses Jr. was similar to any other kid’s birthday party. One cool thing was that the community room had a side area with a Jacuzzi pool that all the kids were able to pile into and Deya threw some balls in for the to play with. Also the birthday song was a Mexican version that we had never heard before. Surprisingly there was no piñata. Also they eat lunch late in Mexico so the food did not arrive until almost 4. Interestingly the catered food was cheesesteak sandwiches, fries and corn dogs, not Mexican food.
We left the party as it got dark and walked down the hill, passing the main square where there was some sort of music concert going on. San Miguel has a lot of events. However Olivia was tired from the playing at the birthday party all day so we did not linger and instead went back to the RV park to shower and go to bed.
