Celebrating Birthdays- While on the Road!!

 Just today marked our 8^th birthday celebrated while on the trip. We also have had a Christmas on the road. We have been lucky, and have actually only had 2 (now 3) birthdays in the actual caravan. I had my birthday in Cloncurry (see post here: Experience of a Lifetime), while Mum, Dad’s, Josh’s and Joel’s were in Kununurra, and these were all celebrated while we were staying in a house. Tahlia had hers also in Kununurra, but in the caravan. Chloe has had hers in Dubbo and Derby (two D’s!!). So how did we celebrate and pull off Chloe’s birthday?

Last night, Chloe's head kept on popping up and over the curtain. You would hear a “Lie Down” and Chloe would dive down onto her bed again. We were trying to wrap presents, and it doesn’t help when the most secret place on the caravan is sitting on the double bed. When we had finally finished (without Chloe getting a peek) Chloe had finally fallen asleep and all the presents were stacked on the lounge.

Chloe was very happy when she woke up. We chased people out of bed (cold water in the fridge) and we all lined up with big yawns. Chloe eagerly ripped in and was (in Joel's language), quite a haul. She got cds, Dvds, a barbie, twin baby dolls, rapunzel colouring book and a fishing rod (Joel and Josh's present).

This isn't the birthday girl, but as there
was twin babies, Chloe kindly gave
 Tahlia one so the girls could
enjoy playing together. 

For a cake, we made our famous ice-cream cake. We simply soften some ice-cream, and then add lollies, chocolate, and lots of other yummy things. We once put meringues in there, on the top of the ice-cream. We then add whipped cream (actually whipped, this cake we just made had un-whipped cream and it didn't set properly) and refreeze it. To correspond with the boy's jobs, we had it in the afternoon. We managed to catch everyone but Joel, who came out for dinner later anyway.

We had a lovely dinner out, and everyone but Josh managed to catch the dinner. We had photos, and as always we had the big family photo. As it was Chloe's birthday, she got to pick her favourite pizzas, and (yay!!) we got hers and my favourite- Hawaiian. When we got home, Chloe loved to watch Barbie as Rapunzel, and then it was bed time for our big 7 year old.

Here is some practical tips for celebrating birthdays on the road:

Keep the presents simple, travelling around is probably one of the best presents you can give your children. DVD's and books are great, and they both can always be left at a caravan park, or an op shop. Also ebooks (we have all kindles) if you can, as they don't take up a lot of space. Also, you can download movies off the internet, and give them a USB with the movies on them. The girls like The Magic School Bus, and you could get as many as you can, and put them on a USB for watching them.
Here is a quick way to download youtube:
In the address bar, simply put ss before the www. Here is an example: This is the URL- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4w-U9lGGS4
Simply put ss in before the www. and it will redirect you to a free download centre. (ss in bold).
http://sswww.youtube.com/watch?v=l4w-U9lGGS4
You don't always need heaps of presents, sometimes a few well thought about gifts are good.
What about experiences? Like rock climbing, horse riding, water-skiing e.t.c. What does your child like? What are the experiences around where you are? For Chloe's 6^th birthday, we went to the Western Plain Zoo in Dubbo and we all greatly enjoyed it.You can always buy a cake if making one is too hard. As it requires nothing more than a freezer, we like making an ice-cream cake ourselves.