The Best Birthday Ever

Lou-Anne was very excited. She knew that the next day was her birthday. In fact, it was all she could think about and she decided to look for M’Pofo and tell him all about it. She soon found him relaxing under his Mopani tree.

“M’Pofo, you know that tomorrow it’s my birthday?” Lou-Anne asked her elephant friend whilst jumping up and down excitedly.

“Well yes, Lou-Anne, I do! Are we doing anything special to celebrate?“

“Oh, I would love to! I want to bake a cake for all my friends. We can sing, play games and of course I hope to get nice presents,” Lou-Anne said happily.

“Well, we need to make a list of all the ingredients for the birthday cake,” said M’Pofo.

Just then Vakawu, the very clever vervet monkey, happened to be swinging by. “Well hello there! That’s a very big list you have there Lou-Anne, what is it for?”

“Oh, you know it’s my birthday tomorrow and we need all kinds of ingredients to make lovely cakes. Maybe you can help me get them?” asked Lou-Anne.

“Why yes, I’d be more than happy to help. Just give me the list and I’ll organise everything,” said the helpful vervet monkey, “but have you given any thought to who you want to invite to your party?”

Lou-Anne and M’Pofo looked at each other, and in unison they answered, “All of our friends should come!”

Vakawu and some other vervet monkeys took a big basket from M’Pofo and went to look in the jungle for all the different ingredients for the cake. In no time, they were back, “Lou-Anne, we found everything you need, except for the chocolate chips.”

“Oh Vakawu, thank you so much for your help, I bet my Daddy has some chocolate chips for the cakes, I’ll go and ask him.”

The three friends soon got the chocolate chips and set about baking some tasty cakes. Everyone had their own favourites, Lou-Anne wanted a chocolate cake, Vakawu thought a banana cake would be the best, while M’Pofo assured everyone that a Marula berry cake would be the tastiest.

“I have a good idea,” said Lou-Anne, “let’s bake a chocolate-banana-marula cake.”

“Now, are you sure that’ll taste nice?” asked M’Pofo and Vakawu at the same time.

Lou-Anne grinned and said, “well, there is just one way to find out, isn’t there?”

Soon the three friends were covered in flour and chocolate, busy making the cake. Lou-Anne said, “That’s wonderful, thank you so much. Now if you could just give me the spatula, Vakawu you can hold the bowl and I’ll scrape the last bits of chocolate into the cake tin, then we’ll pop the cake in the oven.”

A short time later the wonderful aroma of freshly baked cake filled the kitchen, but as tempting as it was to try the cake once it was out of the oven, the friends resisted and instead went to finish decorating M’Pofo’s home in preparation for the birthday party the next day.

Lou-Anne’s Daddy woke her up and wished her a very happy birthday. As soon as she could, Lou-Anne rushed to the dining table, because that is where her Daddy always put the presents, each of them beautifully wrapped.

“Daddy, I’m going to open just one now and then we can take the rest to M’Pofo, where we can then wait for all my friends to arrive. We’ll have to take the cake too of course!”

Her father agreed and Lou-Anne changed into a lovely dress, whilst Vakawu made a nice hairstyle for her. When they were ready, the friends and Daddy set off to M’Pofo’s tree.

“Good morning, Lou-Anne, I wish you a very happy birthday,” said M’Pofo, lifting Lou-Anne with his trunk and giving her a kiss on the cheek before putting her down gently, so as not to make her nice dress dirty. Just after the presents and cake had been put out for the guests to admire, the first of the invited guests started to arrive.

Each of them greeting Lou-Anne very warmly, with best wishes for her birthday and handing her their gifts. Everyone brought a present, the giraffes had some very interesting puzzles, the zebras brought paper and pencils for drawing, grumpy old Ubejane the rhinoceros brought a lot of food and drinks, muttering that he didn’t want to be hungry or thirsty. Lou-Anne’s Omi and Opi and the rest of her family were there too.

Lou-Anne looked very happy as she stood in front of all her friends, the cake and her presents. “My friends, I’ve received some lovely presents, but the best present of all is that you took the time to come and see me. Thank you for coming to help me celebrate today. I hope you will all enjoy the cake and have a great time with all the games.“

With that she cut the first slice of cake and handed it to her best friend M’Pofo. He looked thoroughly happy and trumpeted with joy, because Lou-Anne had given him a very big slice with lots of marula berries in it.

All the animals started singing, “happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Lou-Anne, happy birthday to you.“ At the end of the song they all clapped and cheered loudly.

The fun continued throughout the afternoon and soon everyone was playing games, such as pin the tail on the rhino, or hide and seek, whilst Lou-Anne was contentedly going from one animal to the other giving each one a big hug and thanked them for coming.

That evening when Lou-Anne was tucked up in bed, her Daddy asked her if she had enjoyed her birthday with all her friends.

Lou-Anne smiled, “Daddy, I had a great day,” but she was exhausted after all the fun and was soon sleeping happily with a big smile on her face.

And so you see little one, it’s most fun to celebrate your birthday with those you love and care about, who also love and care about you.