thanksgiving

first, check out these adorable photos from toby's preschool. the pre-k 5s had a mini-macy's thanksgiving day parade on wednesday. all the other classes came out to line the parade route (around the playground) and cheer everybody on. could not have been cuter. they even had rolled out cribs with 3 babies per crib standing out there too. toby was playing the recorder, the preschool director, pat sullivan, was the grand marshall, there were clowns, wagon floats, and even some big balloons. i love that he's waving to the crowds!!!

then, for thanksgiving itself, we had decided to make it a different year. matthew wanted to switch some things up, and so we cancelled the usual family commitments, to make our own day.

we started by donating our time at the salvation army in tempe. matthew and toby were serving meals, and i was busing the tables, getting drinks, etc. it was great to have toby there helping, and we have decided to make it a coates tradition to give our thanksgiving mornings.

added bonus- we watched the parade in the afternoon, and got to fast forward through all the cheesy banter and get to all the good stuff. i cooked us a modified dinner.

turkey, roasted red potatoes, steamed green beans, creamed corn, and pumpkin pie.

here's how the turkey came out.

to end the day, we went to a jester'z comedy show. it's an improv show with audience input, a la whose line is it anyway. but, it's a family friendly show- nothing racy, no cursing- just clean and still really funny.

couple more pics, from this weekend, toby's latest lego creation. a pretty awesome airplane- that career as a lego designer ever-closer.

and from last weekend, we saw santa for the first time (we go see him a lot!) at an event in downtown chandler.