Happy Halloween!

It's not midnight yet, so I got this one posted in time!

Happy Halloween, Gentle Reader! If you're not bouncing off the walls from a sugar high or drunk off your ass, take a few moments to enjoy some images from Halloween 2009 at Chez Boeckman-Walker.

This year, the boy had not one, not two but three costumes. Here's the latest custom costume, courtesy Mum. The boy has a...frightening attachment to Anakin Skywalker and won't be persuaded away with it, no matter how many times his father and I remind him that Anakin's a real jerk and then becomes Darth Vader, who's really a jerk. Ah well.

Here the boy attempts to do his "angry Anakin" impression. Umm, okay. (Check out the "authentic" Jedi padawan rat tail--er, braid. The husband found it while cleaning out the Star Wars closet this summer, knowing it'd be right up the boy's alley come Halloween.)

I don't think Anakin was ever this smirky. But the boy is. The boy could have been the smirkiest Jedi ever. If, y'know, Jedi were real.

The boys once again carved pumpkins. Let me assure you, Gentle Reader, great thought and planning went into choosing a design for them. The boy, in fact, drew up several ideas at the end of September, when we acquired our gourds.

Perhaps that's why the boy was so...anxious about Daddy getting things just right.

In the end, the husband thought the duo sort of looked like Waldorf and Statler.

What do you think?

While the boys wielded knives, I wielded butter cream frosting and cakes made of swirled-together orange-colored and cocoa batter.

I was inspired to do this little bit of butter cream artistry by my dear friend and the world's greatest Spin instructor, who now is my dear friend, the world's greatest Spin instructor and entrepreneur. She's launched her own cupcake and doggie treat business, Sweet Treets (Web site forthcoming). Since we've swapped goodies over the years and the husband put together her logo, my dear friend shared some very yummy treats with us, and they put my own frosting work to shame:

Check out the logo!

For as much fun as we always have come trick-or-treat time, Halloween 2009 started with a pleasant surprise.

Calli has found her way home!

First Rory P. Calhoun and Keeko showed up on our kitchen porch on the first cool morning of the fall, and I can so count on them showing up anything the overnight temperature dips below 65 degrees that I've now set out three bowls so the boys and Momma don't fight. Now with Calli's return, I'll have to scrounge up a fourth bowl.

Momma needs to do a better job of finding homes for her offspring, methinks.

Well, check back tomorrow for pictures of the human residents of Chez Boeckman-Walker in their trick-or-treating attire. That is, if you're not in a sugar-overload diabetic coma, Gentle Reader.

Happy Halloween!