Mauritius - 17 March - MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

D day finally arrived, and I resigned myself to stop being a 30something. I am now officially 40 years old! :o
Upon waking up, Ana reminded Liam that today was Mami's birthday, and they both came over to wake me up and sing happy birthday to me. Stephen brought me my gift - a box of Amarula chocolates! Yum! Except that Liam looked at me with his big round eyes and said ever so sweetly 'Mami, are you going to share?' ... and we promptly had to abandon any idea of trying them out, as he would be hurt if I didn't! :D I also got for my birthday a lovely blue sarong and pretty flowery flip-flops from Nanny, which I had to fight the kids to wear. HA HA. Thank you Nanny, they are lovely! :)

As we were about to leave our room, we discovered it was raining and I had to laugh - I had been dreaming of pina coladas on my birthday for so long, that of course it had to rain! But it was still lovely and warm as we headed out to the restaurant, where we had a nice big breakfast again (Liam and Ana particularly enjoyed the biscuits).  By the time we'd finished our breakfast, however, the clouds had parted and the sun was shining, and the day promised to be awesome. 

I'd hoped to do some adult snorkeling again today, but naturally the kids didn't want to go to the mini-club so we decided to check out another section of the beach, beyond the boats. I decided this is my favourite section - it has the rocks and the fish and the shallow waters for the kids, but it also gets deep enough for me to do some proper swimming! Hurrah! Daddy and the kids made me a 'happy birthday Mami' sign on the sand with broken pieces of coral, and then the artists happily posed for a photo. :)

Birthday pina colada, new sarong and shoes!! Cheers! :)

At around 12:30 it was time to hide from the Sun for a bit. The kids got into some serious playing in the room with their toys and didn't want to go out to lunch (they claimed they weren't hungry), so Stephen went out to get some take-away... and came back with ham and cheese croissants and.... wait for it... my very own birthday pina colada!!!!! MY HERO!!!!! The pina colada was a little stronger than I expected but oh so yummy!!! This is what I call having a birthday in style... wooohoooo!!!! Can I turn 40 again tomorrow? :)

After a little bit of  skyping with family, we were too late to head for the glass-bottom boat, so we went to the pool instead. Ana and Liam had a blast marching up and down the edge of the kids' section of the pool (about 1/2 metre deep) and splashing about - and every so often "accidentally falling off the road" and having to help each other back up again. They were joined in the water by Oscar and Barnie and they all played together. Every so often a rainbow would appear behind the hotel building and a minute or so later, we'd get a drizzle of rain - but who cares when you're already wet from playing in the swimming-pool? We finally gave up when a bigger raincloud came over with bigger and colder drops of rain, but by then it was already time to get back to our room and get ready for dinner anyway! ;)
Dinner was yummy as usual, Liam really enjoyed the roast chicken and the stir-fry lamb while Ana had chicken with plain pasta - they both ate lots! For dessert, the kids were delighted to discover that the chocolate mousse was again available. But as we sat down to eat our goodies, our waitress and one of the waiters came along with a small birthday cake for me, with candles and everything! What a pity we didn't have our camera with us, it was so pretty!! After I blew the candles and they all sang happy birthday to me, the waiters left us to enjoy it. It was actually a delicious cake, decorated with a 'happy birthday' message and with two thin pieces of solid chocolate with "Victoria Hotel" written on it - which the kids ate on top of their chocolate mousse. And yes, they both finished all of that chocolate and despite our misgivings, neither got sick!!
We all talked about going for a walk after dinner again, but as soon as we got started, Ana decided she wanted to go to the room instead.  Daddy and Liam joined us shortly after, as Liam heard the waves and did not like them being awake again.
And so ended my awesome 40th birthday in Mauritius. Let's do this again!! :)