It was a lovely summer’s morning and Angelina Ballerina had just finished doing her morning stretching and twirling routine.

Toot! Toot! It was Postman Pat with the mail. Angelina was very excited because it was her birthday and all her friends would be sending birthday greetings. She looked out of the window and waved to Postman Pat and his cat Jess, who was also riding in the post van. After breakfast Angelina opened her post and thought that it would be nice to spend her birthday visiting some of her friends.

It would be quite a full day, so she put on her favourite Dora the Explorer roller skates and whizzed down to the railway station in no time at all. The very first friend she met was dozing peacefully in the warm sunshine on platform one. It was none other than Paddington Bear who was going to visit his favourite aunt.

After only a couple of minutes they heard a train approaching and suddenly there at the platform side was no.1 himself, Thomas the Tank Engine pulling Annie and Clarabelle. Thomas was in his best, most shiny blue, paintwork.

Angelina Ballerina and Paddington jumped aboard, and found seats in Annie’s comfortable carriage. The guard was ready to blow his whistle and wave his green flag when a shout was heard along the platform, it was Angelina’s friend and teacher Miss Lily who was struggling along with a backpack full of sandwiches and lemonade for a picnic. Miss Lily didn’t trust the weather so she also carried her Disney Princess umbrella and Wellingtons.

It was a good job that Miss Lily stopped Thomas from leaving because, without Angelina knowing it, Miss Lily had gathered many of Angelina’s friends together and they were all clambering aboard as fast as they could: There was Noddy and Big Ears, Peter Rabbit and Mrs Tiggywinkle, Rupert the Bear, Shaun the Sheep, the Disney Princesses and their friends and many more until the train was quite full.

It’s a good job the Fat Controller was having a day off or else he might have said “Humph! this train is too full!” Any way it was no problem to Thomas and he set off at fine speed for the seaside. They were all having a lovely time, laughing and waving to Henry and James as they passed, when suddenly Thomas gave a lurch and started to slow down. Everyone wondered what was happening because they hadn’t reached the seaside, when Rupert and Paddington shouted together “there’s smoke ahead”, and everyone leaned out of the window to look and sure enough, a little way ahead a haystack was blazing and smoking furiously.

As they all wondered what to do, they heard the sound of sirens approaching and, sure enough, already arriving on the scene was Fireman Sam with Penny and other firemen friends arriving on their gleaming Red Fire Engine.

In just a few moments Fireman Sam and Penny had everything organised and water was being sprayed over the fire. In a few minutes the fire was out and Thomas was able to start again, all the friends waved to Fireman Sam and he waved back to them and they set off once more for the seaside.

Before long they arrived at the station, just in time to see Gordon set off, and they all got out of Annie and Clarabelle and headed for the beach to play games, fly their Brookites and have their picnic.

On the way to the beach they passed Farmer Pickle’s farmyard, and who should be there building a big new recycling shed and new roadway for the Bruder Recycling Lorries and Bruder Trailers? It was Bob the Builder and Wendy plus many of Bob’s friends. There was Scoop, Muck, Dizzy, Roley, Lofty, Flex, Tumbler, Scrambler, Benny and, curled up fast asleep next to Spud on some nearby hay bales, was Wendy’s Cat. They all stopped work and everyone had a wonderful time feasting on Miss Lily’s cakes and lemonade.

Angelina Ballerina thanked everyone for making her birthday such a wonderful day.