It seemed to Mika that her
dreams always started out the
same way.
She would be sitting in the
middle of an enormous room all
dressed up for her party.
Beside her was a key ring with
10 magic keys, each a different
color.
Around her would be doors, and
Mika knew that the keys were
there to open those matching,
colored doors.

The second door opened up to a
white room with lots and lots of
birthday cakes.
There were tiny cakes and gigantic cakes and cakes just big enough
for Mika to eat all by herself.
Some cakes were huge, but there
was one snowy white cake behind
the white door that had 7 huge
layers. It was a cake for Mika.
She wanted to show all these
beautiful cakes to Yuka, Shin
and Maki

When Mika opened the cherry red
door, she almost fell backward!
What a fun dream!
In front of her was a monstrous
mountain of melting ice cream.
There were cherries, nuts, whipped
cream and syrup running down the
sides. Mika thought it would be so
much fun to slide down this kind of mountain.
What a delightful, delicious time
she would have !

Mika giggled when she opened the
orange door to the clown room.
Inside she found forty funny clowns,
most of them with bright orange hair.
There were fat clowns and thin
clowns, short clowns and tall clowns, happy clowns and sad clowns.
Some clowns did tricks while other
silly clowns just clowned around.
In this orange room, Mika laughed
until she could laugh no more.

A pink door opened up into a candy
room. Mika was amazed at all the
candy.
She found suckers, gumdrops,
lollipops, peppermint sticks, hard
candies, soft candies and all kinds of
chocolate candies.
There was also the biggest, bubbliest bunch of pink bubble gum that she
had ever seen. Mika knew that she
would have to share this candy with
Yuka, Shin and Maki. or she
would have a big tummyache.

Behind the brown door were many,
many huggable animals.
Mika wanted to hold and squeeze
the soft, cuddly brown teddy bears,
as well as the cats, dogs, monkeys
and dinosaurs.
Some of the other animals, like the giraffe, were taller than Mika.
Others were so small they would
fit in her hand.
If she put all these animals in her
room, she might not be able to find
her bed.
Wow, that would be neat !

When Mika opened the yellow
door, she found a yellow room
filled with games fit for a king.
Mika saw pin the tail on the
donkey, a fishing pond, balloons
for water fights, jacks, musical
chairs, drop the clothespin in the
bottle, bobbing for yellow apples,
hopscotch and ring toss.
Mika knew exactly which games she
would play first in the yellow room.

Using the shiny silver key, Mika
opened the silver door and saw
colorful streamers decorating every
inch of the tenth room.
She also found everything else
she needed for her birthday party.
Here were the plates, cups, napkins,
forks and spoons.
For her guests, there were stacks
and stacks of silver whistles, silver
bells, horns, blowers, birthday hats
and other party favors.
She knew that she was ready for
her birthday party when she saw
the squirt guns !

Mika found herself in front of the
last door that had no key.
She leaned against the door to peek
through the keyhole and, as she did,
the door silently opened.
She looked inside.
The rainbow-colored room was
ready for a birthday party with
something from each of the other
ten rooms, but Mika was puzzled.
Something was missing! How could a
birthday party be fun if you were all
alone?
She became very sad.

Suddenly many voices sang out
''Surprise!'' and ''Happy Birthday!" at
the same time. Mika Saito blinked
her eyes and immediately stopped daydreaming.
She turned around and saw Yuka,
Shin and Maki
This was her best birthday surprise
of all !
Now she knew that having family
and friends was much more
important than all the presents and decorations or even the cake.
Oh, it was fun to be 6 and have a
birthday celebration !

Where I celebrated my birthday:
______________________________

My favorite gift:
______________________________

What I liked most about
this birthday:
______________________________

People who were with me to
celebrate my birthday:
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