Lilli is hopping excitedly up and down in the front garden. Again and again she looks towards the street … but no one is in sight yet. Lilli is eagerly waiting for her guests, because today she is celebrating her fifth birthday. Last week she invited her friends from kindergarten to a fairy party and she is very happy that Imke, Elise, Mali, Milla and Felicitas are free and can all come.
“Lilli, please come inside now, we still have a few things to prepare. Besides, you’re wearing your costume but you haven’t got a jacket on!”, her Mum calls for the third time. Lilli sighs and runs into the house. “But Mum, I want to greet all the guests.” “You may do that, but only once they’ve arrived. And that will still take half an hour. In the meantime you can help me set the table. You were going to put the napkins on the plates and decorate the table with the paper flowers, weren’t you?” “Oh yes, I almost forgot that,” admits Lilli as she goes into the living room with her Mum.
Mum puts plates on the table and Lilli places a napkin with colourful flowers on each plate for her friends. Once the cups, cake forks, the jug of juice and bottles of water are on the table, Mum brings in the birthday cake: it is shaped like a beautiful flower and decorated with colourful sugar beads. “There, your fairy table is ready now,” she says to Lilli and places the birthday train with five candles at Lilli’s place just as the doorbell rings.
“Hooray, it’s starting!”, cheers Lilli, running to the door and flinging it open. Imke and Mali are standing there, and behind them Elise and Felicitas are just running up the path to the house. The girls say quick goodbyes to their parents and go into the living room with Lilli. All the friends have dressed up as fairies, just like her. Together they admire the nicely laid table and the birthday cake when Milla rings the doorbell. Mum shows her into the living room: “Now that everyone’s here, you can start opening the presents,” she says to Lilli. The girls sit in a circle on the floor and watch what appears from the brightly wrapped parcels: a book, a DVD, a craft kit, a game and a puzzle. Lilli is pleased that the presents are so varied.
Then everyone sits down at the table and eats a piece of cake. Lilli’s Dad and her brother Steven look into the living room. “Oh, I’ve never seen so many pretty fairies,” says Dad, laughing. Steven just shakes his head. He has just come back from a football match and his hair is completely tousled. “Steven, you’re having a shower first while the girls play a few games, and then you’ll help with the fairy treasure hunt as promised, OK?” says Mum. “But I need to eat first. It’s best if you give me the rest of the cake,” he says. Mum gives Steven a stern look and gives him a slice of cake. “You’ll get exactly as much as everyone else,” she says. Now Lilli shakes her head and grins. She knows that her brother always acts as if he’s starving.
The girls play various fun fairy birthday games and have a great time. Then everyone puts on their jackets and sets off on the fairy treasure hunt: “Imagine,” Mum says, “the dwarves have stolen your fairy treasure because it sparkles so beautifully. Of course you want to get it back. Luckily the dwarves didn’t pay very good attention and on the way to the dwarf village a star or a shiny ribbon kept falling out of the treasure chest. So you’ll need to keep your eyes wide open so you can follow them and find the treasure.” The girls are delighted. Lilli knows that Steven and Dad have prepared a route for the hunt … but she doesn’t know where it leads. So, like her friends, she looks out for the clues. “There’s a pink ribbon on the streetlamp up ahead!”, Milla shouts. The girls run over and next spot a yellow star chalked further along on the pavement. “And here’s the next clue!”, Mali cries, pointing at the star. The girls follow the clues all over the neighbourhood … and eventually arrive at the playground. There stand Steven and Dad grinning. “Right, you clever fairies, have a good search for your treasure. In our dwarf village there are lots of really good hiding places. I’m curious whether you’ll manage it,” Steven says to the girls. And it really is quite hard. Lilli and her friends spread out across the playground and look under every bush, behind every piece of equipment and inside every playhouse. “Have you found anything yet?”, Lilli calls over to Mali and Imke, who are just coming out from behind a small hedge. The two shake their heads. Lilli turns to the bushes she was just about to search under and there she does indeed see something shimmering through the green leaves. “I think I’ve found the treasure!”, she cries, pushing the branches aside. Sure enough, right at the back by the fence there is a box covered in glitter foil. Imke and Mali are the first to reach her, but Elise, Felicitas and Milla come running too. Together they lift the lid and look inside: they find six little boxes, various glitter pens, shimmering stickers, a variety of decorative stones and colourful shiny paper. “Well done, you fairies, you really showed those two dwarves!” says Mum, taking the box from Lilli. “Now we’ll go home and then each of you may decorate your own little treasure box. Agreed?” The girls are pleased and set off. “See how clever we fairies are,” Felicitas says to Steven as they leave the playground. “Exactly!” says Lilli. “We fairies are the cleverest of all!” “Yeah, yeah!” sighs Steven and trudges behind the girls. “Don’t worry about it. The main thing is that the girls have fun. And we’ll give you a football party, OK?” suggests Dad.
Unfortunately the afternoon goes by far too quickly and the friends are already being collected. Of course each girl can take her little treasure box home. “At home I’ll put all my treasures in there straight away. I have lots of lovely stones and shells from the last holiday,” Elise tells Lilli and gives her a goodbye hug. “That’s a great idea, I’ll do that too,” says Lilli. “Then we can compare our treasures,” she suggests to her friend. “But totally secret,” says Elise, “so the nasty dwarves don’t get any silly ideas again!” Lilli has to giggle and glances at Steven and Dad, who are sitting on the sofa. “Well, they aren’t real dwarves, but those two do get silly ideas quite often!”, she says laughing, happy about the lovely birthday party.
If you fancy, you can act out the story with the Little Friends dolls or even Invitations for the next birthday party design. You can download and print the Little Friends invitation cards for that.
