Charlie’s Birthday Party

It was Charlie’s birthday today! He was four years old! Charlie’s Mummy, Mrs. Cat had decided to make a birthday party for Charlie. He was doing well at school, although he sometimes misbehaved, but if Charlie did not misbehave he wouldn't be a cute little pussycat! Anyway, Mrs. Cat thought that Charlie deserved a party for his birthday so she sent out invitations to all of Charlie’s school friends. She baked him a huge birthday cake in the shape of a butterfly. Charlie seemed to be very fond of butterflies! She decorated the butterfly cake with different coloured icing, pink, yellow and blue and placed four candles on the cake as well. Mrs. Cat also baked lots of good things for all the children to eat: cup-cakes topped with different coloured icing and hundreds and thousands and also cherries; and green jelly, red jelly and yellow jelly; gingerbread men and sandwiches, carrot sticks and toffee apples and nuts and berries so that each and every animal had a choice of their favourite food. She also made delicious chocolate ice cream which was Charlie’s favourite! 

Charlie was so excited! He could hardly wait for his friends to arrive at three o clock! “Be patient!” Exclaimed Charlie’s Mummy as she rushed around the kitchen trying to make ends meet, but Charlie kept on getting in her way.

“Why don’t you play with your ball outside, that way you will be able to see your friends coming down the path to your party!”

“That’s a good idea!” purred Charlie,

And off he went leaving his Mummy in peace and quiet to her blow up the balloons and put up the colourful streamers. 

Finally, it was three o’clock and the children started arriving; one by one or in twos and threes. Tickles his best friend arrived first with a ball as a present for Charlie, Sammy the squirrel came next with a blue ribbon to tie around Charlie’s neck, Lucy the duck and Gilly the gander came with a bag of feathers for his bed! Penny the mouse and her little brother came and brought Charlie some cheese, but Charlie said that they could eat it as he was not fond of cheese. Penny and her brother were delighted and ate the cheese up before they entered the house! Harry the hamster brought Charlie a lovely red and green kite. The kite had a very long tail at the end of it and the tail was full of brightly coloured bows. Charlie was delighted with the kite and all his other presents as well. 

Charlie’s Mummy invited them all inside for sandwiches and cakes and jellies. The animals were amazed at the lovely display of goodies on the table for them to eat. They gathered round the table and ate and ate till they were so full their little tummies nearly burst!

Charlie had three helpings of his favourite ice cream.  His Mummy said that he should have been born a pig and not a cat!  Everyone laughed! They were having so much fun! When the children had had enough to eat they played a game of pass the parcel, Penny the mouse won the present.  It was a lovely pink ribbon to tie around her tail.  Tickles said it was just as well that a girl won the present; he wasn’t very keen on pink ribbons!  They also played musical chairs and sang some songs together, and then Mrs. Cat suggested that they go outside and play in the sunshine.  So off they went outside in Charlie’s front garden.

Tickles, who was one of the eldest was asked to invent a game for them to play, he thought of “hide-and-seek” and everyone said that it was a smashing idea.  Tickles said “I will count to twenty, you all must go and hide, but hide outside and not inside the house!”  All the animals scampered off as quickly as they could to find a good  hiding place whilst Tickles counted to twenty.  Sammy squirrel climbed up a tree and hid behind the leafy branches.  Penny and her brother hid behind a flowerbed.  Lucy the duck waded in the pond and hid behind a lily pad and Gilly gander kept ducking his head under the water hoping that Tickles would not recognize the rest of his body! Silly Gilly!  The rest of the animals found suitable hiding places.

Now we all know what a sweet pussycat Charlie was, but we also know that he was a bit naughty as well, so what did charlie do? Instead of hiding in the garden like the rest of his friends, he decided to hide in the house.  “Tickles will never find me in here!” he said to himself as he hid in his mother’s kitchen cupboard full of pots and pans.

Meanwhile Tickles had stopped counting and went in search of all of the animals.  He found Sammy the squirrel in the tree, Lucy the duck behind the lily pads and of course Gilly the gander who still had his head under water!  He found the rest of the animals, except for Charlie the cat.  All the other animals helped Tickles to find Charlie.  They looked in the trees, behind the bushes and the flowerbeds; they looked under the front stairs and behind the shed and the gate and everywhere else!  Except in the pond, because Charlie hated water!

Whilst the animals were busy outside looking for Charlie. Charlie was in the cupboard hiding.  After ten minutes, Charlie started feeling sleepy and decided to have a quick nap! Finally, his friends gave up looking for the naughty cat and went inside to tell Charlie’s Mummy that her son was missing.  It never occurred to the animals that Charlie would be hiding inside the house! “I saw him pass through here but a while ago, maybe he has gone upstairs?” said Mrs. Cat. She started calling his name “Charlie! Charlie!! Where are you?”.  Soon all the animals started calling for the naughty pussycat!  “CHARLIE CHARLIE WHERE ARE YOU!!!”

Charlie suddenly woke up with a start, and he could not remember where he was.  It was quite dark in the cupboard and he could not see a thing He started to panic and move around and all the pots and pans started clanging and banging and falling over on top of Charlie! What a noise he was making inside the cupboard! He was making such a clatter that all the animals and Mrs. Cat stopped calling his name and listened to the banging and clanging.  “What’s that noise?” asked Penny the mouse, a little frightened.  “It’s coming from the kitchen! Let’s all go and have

a look!” said Tickles trying to be brave.  They all rushed into the kitchen to see what was causing the racket and as soon as they entered, the cupboard door flung open and out rushed charlie, pots and all! Charlie leaped onto the floor with a pot stuck on to his head and a milk jug stuck on his foot! Bang Bang!  He clattered and banged and jumped up and down and hit his head on the wall as he could not see where he was going!  All the children laughed and laughed! They thought he looked very silly indeed!  Mrs. Cat wasn't very amused though!

Mrs. Cat finally got hold of Charlie and rescued him from the pots and pans stuck on his body!  She then told him that he was a naughty pussycat and he must behave himself for the rest of the party.  Charlie was very sorry and hoped that his friends would still play with him, even though he had cheated at hide-and-seek.  The animals all forgave him; after all it was his birthday!

It was time to cut the birthday cake!  When the animals had settled down Mrs. Cat lit the four candles and they all sang ‘Happy Birthday to Charlie!”  Charlie made a wish and blew out the candles.  Mrs. Cat made a wish too: that her little Charlie would behave himself in the future.  We hope her wish comes true!

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