Brad Castillino was so excited! His "big" day had finally arrived! For a long time, he had reminded everyone in Miami, FL about his birthday on October 21st. Brad had not wanted a single person to forget this special day. It's so much fun to have a birthday celebration!

For months now, Brad had been dreaming day and night about his party. He had asked his friends again and again, "Do you suppose it will ever be my birthday?" There were many names on his invitation list. Brad hoped that Tommy, Matt and Kev could come. He was really looking forward to a great time!

It seemed to Brad that his birthday dream was always the same. He would be sitting in the middle of an enormous room, and he would be all dressed up for his party. Beside him would be a key ring with 10 magic keys, and each would have a different color. Around him would be doors, and Brad knew that the keys would be there to open those matching colored doors.

In each dream, Brad would find many happy, wonderful surprises behind the locked doors... except for one. There were 11 doors, but only 10 keys. Brad wondered how he would get into that eleventh room. There wasn't even a knob on the door. Every time he would start to search for the missing key, he would wake up. Oh well. Maybe Tommy, Matt and Kev could help him.

In his dream, Brad liked to start with the blue key that unlocked the blue door. The blue room looked as if it held a billion bouncing balloons. There were balloons of different shapes, colors, and sizes, and Brad had fun walking through them. There was one balloon that was the biggest, bluest balloon he had ever seen. This was so much fun! Brad raced on to the next door.

The second door opened up to a white room with lots and lots of birthday cakes. There were tiny cakes, gigantic cakes, and cakes just big enough for Brad to eat all by himself. Some cakes were huge, but there was one snowy white cake that had 7 huge layers. It was a cake for Brad. He wanted to show all of these beautiful cakes to Tommy, Matt and Kev.

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

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

The green room had so many presents in it that Brad had trouble opening the door. He wondered if any of the gifts were from Tommy, Matt and Kev. He was hoping that one of those boxes would have something very nice in it that he could play with on his birthday. Maybe it was the gigantic, green gift box! Should he open it? No, he had to hurry to the next door.

Brad jumped up and down when he opened the glittering gold door and found a golden room full of rides for his birthday party. In the middle of the room was a beautiful gold merry-go-round. Brad could see the ponies with their golden saddles, a train ride, and a small ferris wheel!

A pink door opened up into a candy room. Brad was amazed at all of the candy. He 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 he had ever seen. Brad knew that he would have to share this candy with Tommy, Matt and Kev, or he would have a big tummyache.

Behind the brown door were many, many huggable animals. Brad 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 Brad. Others were so small that they would fit in his hand. If he put all of these animals in his room, he might not be able to find his bed. Wow, that would be neat!

When Brad opened the yellow door, he found a yellow room filled with games fit for a king. Brad 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. Brad knew exactly which of the games he would play first in the yellow room.

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

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

Suddenly, many voices sang out "Surprise!" and "Happy Birthday!" at the same time. Brad Castillino blinked his eyes and immediately stopped daydreaming. He turned around and saw Tommy, Matt and Kev. This was his best birthday surprise of all! Now he knew that having family and friends was much more important than all the presents and decorations or even the cake. It was fun to have a birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday!
Brad Castillino



Where I celebrated my birthday:

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My favorite gift:

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What I liked most about
this birthday:

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People who were with me to
celebrate my birthday:

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