As soon as Anna opened her eyes, she remembered what day it was. It was Monday, and it was also her birthday! She was seven years old today.

There would be a party in the afternoon, after school. She could hardly wait!

She was a little faster than usual in going to the table for breakfast.

"Good morning, birthday girl!" Patty said when she saw her daughter.

"Good morning!" Anna replied.

Anton was sitting at the table, drinking coffee.

"Happy birthday, liebchen."

"Thanks, Daddy." Anna sat at the table. Patty served her pancakes.

"I made them especially for your birthday," she said.

"Thank you, Mommy."

Anna ate her breakfast, dressed, and set out for school, meeting up with Mary Lou as usual.

"You're coming to my party, aren't you?" she asked.

"Of course!" said Mary Lou. "All of us are coming. We got you a present, too!"

"Really? What is it?"

"Not gonna tell! Not gonna tell!" Mary Lou chanted in a singsong voice.

Both girls were giggling as they entered the school.

Anna looked forward to the morning class. After the pledge of allegiance and morning prayer, the class always sang 'Happy Birthday' to any child who had a birthday that day.

However, to her surprise and disappointment, Miss Barlow began to divide the class into reading groups. Dasan raised his hand.

"Yes, Dasan?"

"We forgot to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Anna," Dasan pointed out.

Miss Barlow sighed.

"Indeed we did. Class, let's sing 'Happy birthday' to Anna before we get out our reading books."

Anna smiled gratefully at Dasan. She was happy to hear most of her classmates singing 'Happy Birthday' to her, but she felt just a little hurt that Miss Barlow had had to be reminded of it.

She thought about her party all day. She hoped all her friends would come.

At last the school day was over, and Anna walked home with Mary Lou.

"Bye bye! See you at the party!" Mary Lou called as they parted ways.

"When she got home, Anna took a shower and put on her best dress, which was her navy blue sailor dress with the white collar and red ribbon. Patty put her hair up in pigtails with matching red ribbons.

When Simon woke up from his nap, she bathed and dressed him as well, and then the three of them went outside to wait for the guests to arrive.

It was a gorgeous spring day, and Patty had covered the picnic table in the back yard with a red and white tablecloth. She'd baked a strawberry cake with pink icing and put seven candles on top.

First to arrive was Aunt Sharon, grinning and bearing an oblong box tied with a red ribbon.

"Oh boy!" said Anna, reaching for the box.

Patty shook her head.

"Wait until the others are here and we've had our cake."

A few minutes later, Aunt Hannah came with her sons Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew was five, Mark wasn't quite three, and Luke was sixteen months old.

"It's so good to see you again!" said Aunt Sharon, going to Aunt Hannah and giving her a hug. "How have you been?"

"These three have just about driven me crazy!" Both women laughed. "Take my advice; enjoy the single life while you can!"

In truth, Aunt Hannah loved her life with Uncle Jim Bob and their sons. In the nine years they'd known each other, Aunt Hannah and Aunt Sharon had grown quite close, although they didn't see each other very often.

Next to come was Mrs. James with Marjorie, Mary Lou, Marlene, and five-month-old Martha.

"What a big girl you are!" Patty said to Martha, who gurgled in response.

At last Dasan arrived with his mother and his little sister, Shania.

"I had to remind Miss Barlow about it being Anna's birthday," Dasan announced. "I guess she forgot."

The children played hide and seek and pin the tale on the donkey. Anna kept waiting for Laura, but she never showed up.

"Shall we wait and see if Laura comes before serving the cake?" asked Patty.

"No!" all the children shouted in unison.

Patty lit the candles, and she made a wish and blew them out. Then Patty sliced the cake and began to serve it with ice cream. She'd bought both strawberry and vanilla, in case some people didn't like strawberry.

When everyone was finished eating, Patty cleaned up, and at last Anna got to open her presents.

She grabbed Aunt Sharon's present, as it was the one she was most curious about. Quickly she tore the wrapper off.

"A Zorro guitar!" she cried. "Cool!"

She also received an Adventures of Lassie game, a hula hoop, a jump rope, and a box of 64 crayons with a built-in sharpener and a Happy Times coloring book to go along with them.

She was opening the last of her presents when Elizabeth's car pulled up. She rolled the window down, and Patty went to talk to her.

"I just came by to give you Laura's present to Anna," said Elizabeth. "I'm taking Laura to Annie's. They're going to a horse show together."

Anna overheard the interchange, and it pierced her heart.

"I went to her party!" she whined.

"Shh," her mother scolded. "Laura's two years older than you, and she did give you a present. All your friends who are your age came."

"But I've known Laura longer than any of them!"

Patty sighed. "Kids grow up, and their interests change, Anna. You don't have much fun playing with kids Simon's age, do you?"

"Well, no, I guess not. I'm gonna miss playing with Laura, though."

"I'm sure she'll still play with you sometimes, just like you play with Simon and your cousins sometimes. Well, what did she get you?"

Anna tore the wrapper off the package. Paper dolls.

"Well, that's nice," said Patty.

"Yeah," Anna agreed.

Soon the party broke up, and the guests began to leave. They thanked Anna for inviting them, and she thanked them for coming.

Later that evening, Anton called Anna over to him in the living room. He had something in his hand. He showed it to his daughter. It was a ring which was made of a type of metal which looked very old. It had a plain, smooth facet on one side, and there were flowers carved around the outside.

"Wow!" Anna breathed.

"This belonged to your Oma when she was a little girl." He took Anna's right hand and slid the ring onto her ring finger.

"It's pretty!" said Anna. "Thank you, Daddy!" She hugged him and kissed his cheek.

"You're welcome, liebchen."

As she turned the ring over on her finger, Anna decided it was the nicest gift of all.