Birthday parties these days aren’t too much different than the ones I used to go to as a kid. Now parents go all out with jumpers, petting zoos with pony rides (well, my cousin Juan and his wife Millie are probably exceptions). However, you can’t go wrong with classics like the piñata.

The beating. Here you have Martin (my cousin Martin’s son) trying his best to hit the piñata. Lined up behind him are his cousins, Reese and Sarah. In a wider frame, you’d notice the parents and adults keeping a close watch so that no over eager kid runs in for fallen candy while the other kid is still swinging. Up on the roof behind Martin, my cousin Victor holds one end of the rope while another cousin’s boyfriend holds the other end.

I didn’t get any photos of Reese who came right after Martin. Reese hit the piñata pretty hard and knocked off one of the horse’s legs. It came flying at me as a I tried to take a picture and grazed my finger. Reese finished off the piñata, one of the adults shook out the rest of the candy, and the kids rushed in.

The melee. The whole point of beating the crap out of the piñata is to get some candy. I like candy. So do the kids, as you can see. The cool thing about this melee is that the kids missed a lot of candy and I picked up a few Twix bars, some M&M’s and Skittles. I shared of course.

The negotiations. Once everything is cleaned up, the kids need to show off their goodies to someone. Here Alejandro (the birthday boy) and his big sister, Sarah, show their candy to their grandma. I remember doing this with my mom too, and hating it when she’d take some candy as if it was her fee for taking me to the birthday party.

The lineup, I. Millie, mother of the birthday boy, tried her best to get all the kids together in an orderly fashion for a group picture. As you can see, some weren’t into the idea. I like this photo because Martin, Reese, Sarah and Melissa (my cousins’ kids) are standing next to each other. It reminds me of the times when I used to be running around at birthday parties with their dads, Robert, Juan and Martin.

The lineup, II. Reese really liked that horse’s leg. Martin and Reese are barefoot because they were going in and out of the jumper/bouncy castle. Soon after this, everyone got their pictures and Millie passed out their goodie boxes.

The lineup, III. Can you guess which kid had too much sugar already?