Make new friends and keep the old... one is silver and the other gold

Cerise is in her "senior" year at kindergarten. Over the course of nearly two years, she's made numerous friends and bonded well with all the teachers. Teachers say they'll miss her terribly when she leaves kindy. Glad to know she's made a good impression.

Because her birthday falls late in the year, Cerise has been left behind by many of her chums who already turned 5 and moved on to "conquer the world". Luckily, she's quite good at dealing with goodbyes from friends, anxiously waiting for her turn to bid farewell and explore the big wide world of Primary . Now she's left with less close friends and more new kids to make friends with.

This photo shows her with her 3 dearest girlfriends.
Her popularity at kindy has never been more apparent to me than in the last year. She'd been invited to so many birthday parties I'm running out of gift ideas! Though I'm pleased the last party is the biggest success yet...when the birthday girl had only half opened Cerise's gift to her, Alyssa gasped "It's just what I wanted for my birthday! I have a Sky Dancer (a ballerina doll that dances in the air)". She then ran around showing it off to everyone. I tell you, it can be tricky giving gifts to 4 and 5 year olds coz they can be brutally honest about what they think of it. So in this case, high 5 to Cerise and I for making the perfect choice.

Seen here dressed up as an elephant, Cerise begged me to let her wear her Snow White dress but being a practical mum that I am, I insisted that she wore her elephant suit because it's the only dress-up costume she has which she can wear during winter (too hot for summer which is just around the corner).
Of course, when we first got to the party it all made sense to me why she was insisting on her Snow White dress. All the girls were wearing princess and fairy dresses! They must have talked about it, and perhaps agreed on it, at kindy! I felt really bad that Cerise was going to feel out of place. So I told her she didn't have to wear her costume. But she later on asked me to put it on her. And boy did she turn out to be the life of the party! All the kids thought she had the coolest costume, so soft, fluffy and cuddly.

Gabby couldn't stop fussing over her!

Some of the kids were just a little too excited I worried they were gonna tickle the elephant to near hyperventilation!

Often I run into parents of Cerise's classmates at the mall and they would tell me how their children always talk about Cerise. I'd like to think Cerise is in the good part of the story when they ask their children how their day went at kindy. I should know... parents know by heart the names of their children's classmates under two categories only - the "nice ones" and the "naughty ones"! Well, at least I do!

Our recent photo and story in an Auckland wide community paper must have fuelled Cerise's popularity. I remember dropping by their class one afternoon and the kids instantly recognized me, despite me not being seen there often. After some whispers and giggles, her classmates blabbered on and on about how they saw our photo in the paper. And then one said, "Cerise, your mum is cool!". To which my little angel replied, "Yeah, she dressed herself up and put make up!". That was the cue for me to go and leave them in peace.

Just as I was about to leave, I witnessed an even funnier conversation...

CERISE: Do you wanna come to my house?!

ALYSSA: Yes! (short pause) Do you have a job?

CERISE: (with a puzzled look) No! (translation: what the...?) (shook her head and walked away)