Penelope Pig Picnic--Updated

Update below!


School is back in full swing. We've had homework: new words to learn, "Mother" and "Sally" and today some cutting with scissors to do. You know the world is changing when you have to explain to your 4 year old that Mother and Mom and Mama and Mommy all mean the same thing. He didn't question Sally as much as he questioned why we've been calling her "Baby" in every story until now.
But I digress.
Tomorrow is a special day because Ian's class will be having a Penelope Pig Picnic at lunch time. I can only assume that Penelope Pig is the character of a book they read during storytime. The whole class will be eating on old blankets in the classroom and there is a stipulation. The children have to bring their lunch and they have to bring items that start with the letter "P". Then the teacher gave a rather strict admonishment that I am curious about. She said to let the children think of their own "P" items.
So for the first half hour after I read Ian the letter from the teacher, he said "Popcorn." Boy are we SO glad for that Jiffy Pop that Gramma and Papaw got at Thanksgiving. It was really hard not to start barrelling off "P" items, but I got a brain wave. I told him to go find the popcorn and then look in the pantry and in the fridge for anything that started with "P". He got distracted halfway, so I had to steer him back to the pantry and help him find the popcorn.
He found some Peanut butter. Yay!
We went to the fridge. He found pickles. Yay! Yay! We looked for fruit that started with "P". He thought of peaches, but he couldn't find any. Mommy found a fruit cup that had peaches, pears and pineapple in it. I was a hero!
Then Ian asked for Punch juice to drink. We couldn't find any Juicy Juice Fruit Punch, which is what Punch juice is. But I did find some sugar-free Fruit Punch mix that we made up this afternoon.
I think Ian is more excited about taking his lunch box than anything else, though.
There were things that he thought of that did not make the cut like Peas, porkchops, peppers and a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. He opted for pbj instead, though I don't see anything wrong with my PB & P childhood favorite.
I did help, I admit it, but it was Ian's idea to put it into his lunch box. I made some Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars today, because we are out of everything sweet and my HC was starting to bang his head against the wall in despair.
And I stuck some peppermints in the lunch box too.
I can't wait to hear about it tomorrow. I am really waiting to see which parent sends a pomegranate or a passionfruit or a pulled pork sandwich on pumpernickel.

Update: The picnic was a great success, but the only thing Ian will tell me about is popcorn, peanut butter sandwiches and pickles. And now he wants pizza.
Oh and next week is Homecoming (again?!) and Monday is Mismatch Day. We'll see what Ian picks out.