Premature start to Christmas break

Charlotte's last day of preschool before Christmas break was December 8th, and she doesn't return to school until January 5th.  Huh?  Does she really need a month-long break?  And a break from WHAT, exactly?  From having ridiculous amounts of fun with her dearly beloved Miss Sally?  Sheesh.  All the class parents were taken a little by surprise by the length of the break, but we had fun at the class Christmas party last Thursday anyway.  Here is my little elf, ready to head to school and party:

But first, she had to give Santa (made for us a few years ago by my Aunt Janet) a big smooch.

Guess who else insisted on having his photo taken?

Charlotte's class party started with pizza and grapes around the lunch table in the classroom.  That adults just stood around and watched the kids eat.

Petey (who had eaten at home) happily played with the classroom toys.

But then Petey decided he wanted to eat some popcorn with the big kids.  He pulled up his own chair to the table and made himself right at home.

Later, he was playing back at the "station" with the cars, and Chase (one of Charlie Jo's classmates) decided Peter needed to follow the rules and wear the color necklace that corresponds to the station (thus limiting the number of kids in each station because once the necklaces run out, no one else can play at that station).  Petey was a little confused, but wore the necklace like a good boy.  He does love a good accessory.

At one point, Petey had to be rescued from the boisterous and overenthusiastic big boys.  Here, Chase, Tyler, and Braden had put Petey "in jail" and Petey kept repeating "hep Mommy, hep!" ("help Mommy, help!") for goodness knows how long before I realized I should put the camera down and go help him.

Charlotte was beside herself with grief when she realized she didn't get to go back to school for four whole weeks, but I reassured her that we would have a lot of fun in the meantime (starting with Peter's birthday weekend extravaganza -- post coming soon!).