was created especially for

Michael Jeremy Smith

With love from

Mom and Dad

November 9, 2001

3

Mike Smith was so excited! His

"big" day had finally arrived! For

a long time, he had reminded

everyone in Fort Wayne about his

birthday on November 9th. Mike had

not wanted a single person to

forget this special day. It's so

much fun to be 8 and have a

birthday celebration.

Page 4

For months now, Mike 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. Mike hoped that Larry, Wayne

and Bob could come. He was really

looking forward to a great time!

Page 7

It seemed to Mike 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, each would have a

different color. Around him would

be doors, and Mike knew that the

keys would be there to open those

matching colored doors.

Page 8

In each dream, Mike would find many

happy, wonderful surprises behind

the locked doors... except for one.

There were 11 doors, but only 10

keys. Mike wondered how he would

get into the 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 Larry, Wayne

and Bob could help him.

Page 11

In his dream, Mike 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 Mike had fun walking through

them. There was one balloon that

was the biggest, bluest balloon he

had ever seen. This was so much

fun! Mike raced on to the next door.

Page 12

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 Mike 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 Mike. He wanted to show all of

these beautiful cakes to Larry, Wayne and Bob.

Page 15

When Mike 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. Mike

thought it would be so much fun to

slide down this kind of mountain.

What a delightful, delicious time he would have!

Page 16

Mike 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 this orange room,

Mike laughed until he could laugh no more.

Page 19

The green room had so many presents

in it that Mike had trouble opening

the door. He wondered if any of

the gifts were from Larry, Wayne

and Bob. 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.

Page 20

Mike 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. Mike could

see the ponies with their golden

saddles, a train ride, and even a

small ferris wheel surrounding the

merry-go-round!

Page 23

A pink door opened up into a candy

room. Mike 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. Mike knew

that he would have to share this candy

with Larry, Wayne and Bob, or he would

have a big tummy ache.

Page 24

Behind the brown door were many,

many huggable animals. Mike 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 Mike.

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!

Page 27

When Mike opened the yellow door,

he found a yellow room filled with

games fit for a king. Mike 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. Mike knew exactly which

of the games he would play first in

the yellow room.

Page 28

Using the shiny silver key, Mike

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!

Page 31

Mike 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

Mike was puzzled. Something was

missing! How could a birthday party

be fun if he were all alone? He

became very sad.

Page 32

Suddenly, many voices sang out

"Surprise!" and "Happy Birthday!" at

the same time. Mike Smith blinked

his eyes and immediately stopped

daydreaming. He turned around and

saw Larry, Wayne and Bob. This was

his best birthday surprise of all!

Now he knew that having family and

friends was much more important than

all of the presents and decorations,

or even the cake. It was so much

fun to be 8 and have a birthday celebration!

Page 35

Happy Birthday!

Mike Smith

Where I celebrated my birthday:

______________________________

My favorite gift:

______________________________

What I liked most about

this birthday:

______________________________

People who were with me to

celebrate my birthday:

______________________________

Page 36