I cannot believe it, but my “baby”, Bebé, is five years old!

Like good gringos, we had a party at McDonald’s to celebrate. They have a private area for birthday parties and they provide music and “party girls” (for lack of better words) to lead games. Bebé was thrilled to be the star of the show and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

In case you didn’t know, birthday parties have “themes” nowadays, and Bebé chose Captain America as his theme. (My “theme” was generally a homemade sheet cake and my grandparents coming over for dinner. I was actually going to make a sheet cake but I was terrified there wouldn’t be enough to go around.)

About 20 kids came, and believe it or not, the party was small and humble compared to what a lot of people in Cancun do. It is not uncommon for a middle class family to rent a “jardin”, an outdoor party facility that has a pool, and pay for catering, a bounce house, shows and entertainment, candy tables and if you’re lucky, beer for the parents.

Guests always receive a gift bag. In this case I gave away little toys instead of candy, which is the norm, because well, I figure they already get candy from the piñata.

Speaking of the piñata, this is what we put in it, the necklaces were a total rip-off but a real hit!

Bebé asked for black balloons (!!!???) but I told them multicolored would be great. I love balloons!

Doesn’t he look miserable?

In Mexico it is customary for the birthday boy or girl (or man or woman) to take a “mordida” or bite of the cake after “Las Mañanitas”, the local version of Happy Birthday is sung. Generally someone shoves their face into is as well but we got lucky and nobody did that to Bebé.

Of course Papi was there too. I think everyone enjoyed themselves, most importantly Bebé.

Until next year…