“It’s pretty cool eating lunch at school with my Dad,” said Tyler Norris, 8, talking about the student-family lunch Wednesday at South Whidbey Intermediate School, where parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters joined students for an early Thanksgiving celebration in the cafeteria.

Tyler, a third-grader in his first year at the Intermediate School, was looking forward to the 30 minutes or so he would be spending with his dad, John Norris. A slight time change had caused Tyler to call his dad not once but twice, “so that I would be at school at the right time,” Norris said.

“He really wanted me there. So did I. This is lots of fun.”

Sandra Stipe of Freeland echoed the sentiment.

“This is so nice. A chance for families to get together,” she said. Stipe’s son Chris attended Coupeville Elementary last year, so this was his first experience at having his mom to lunch.

The Thanksgiving lunches are old hat to Bambi Meehan, who was attending with her youngest daughter Erin, a third-grader.

“I have a seventh-grader and a ninth-grader so I have been to a few of these,” Meehan said. “She wanted me here and I wouldn’t miss it.”

This year’s event, Harvest Feast 2001, allowed students to invite their parents and extended family to join them for a Thanksgiving celebration lunch.

A total of 573 parents and students enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving menu that included roast turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, green beans, ice cream and milk.

School district food service personnel prepared and served the Thanksgiving feast at the intermediate and primary schools.