Halloween 2010: A Party, A Princess and One Lucky Duck

Halloween kicked off yesterday with an old-fashioned party at the Eakins. Pumpkin carving, donut eating, sack racing, apple bobbing--they had it all!

Here's the apple bobbing: Tyler H., Lily, Tyler E. and Maddie go at it!

And the donut eating contest, a crowd favorite:

First things first: Maddie and Dada got to work on Maddie's pumpkin. The main requests were a "really, really, REALLY big smile and eyebrows." Maddie was a super helper with scooping out all the gunk.

The Eakin boys jumped together for quick brother shot:

Even Sam got in on the pumpkin carving (with a look of consternation because I wouldn't let him play with the carving tools).

Every time I turned around, Sam was holding a different snack. Here he is munching on a chocolate-dipped pretzel "finger."

All along we had planned to send Sam out as Justin Beiber for Halloween, I mean, look at the kid's hair. It's perfect! But a few days ago our friends told us about a very cute Donald Duck costume. When they handed it off at church today, I just couldn't resist.

Here's Sam checking himself out in the mirror:

Maddie and Sam in front of their pumpkins:

Best buddies Maddie and Nicole, at it again:

Maddie says to Nicole, "Hey Nicoley, let's laugh really hard, okay?" Here's mid-laugh:

And then there was our little ducky, who just stole the evening with his cheery disposition, fists full of candy, and waddling booty. Hilarious.

We ended up hitting a lot of houses, much more than I planned on. The kids were troopers! Even Miss Maddie, with her "glass slippers" managed to walk many, many blocks. It wasn't until the end that she let us help her out.

Enjoying his fourth (!) and final candy of the night.

I was kind of a scrooge about Halloween this year. I'm not a big fan of commercialism, feeding my kids full of sugar, or supporting the child trafficking trade by consuming so much chocolate. I really wanted to boycott Halloween. But looking back on tonight's pictures, it's pretty hard to top the sweetness and cuteness of a princess and her ducky walking down the sidewalk, happy and full of joy.