Homecoming, Halloween, Home Decor & Spread The Kindness Link Up On the Edge #781
For today’s post, I am just sharing some recent goings-on in my household and with my family. A few weeks before Halloween, Archie, who is now a freshman in high school (how in the world did that happen so quickly?), attended his first Homecoming dance. He and his friend went together and they just looked so darn handsome that it brought tears to my eyes! At my request, I also got a water fountain photo of Archie and his BFF who just happens to be the literal girl next door and one of my favorite humans on earth!
Halloween followed Homecoming and we went big this year with homemade costumes and a hot cocoa bar. Archie wore is Airsoft gear while Ralph and his friend worked very hard at creating their costumes from cardboard boxes. Of course, the parents helped with assemblage but the kids did most of the brainwork for these costumes.
They wanted to be the characters of Little Prince and Mega Knight from a video game called Clash Royale.
We used only cardboard boxes and other random junk lying around the house to create these costumes. The only things that we needed to purchase were a few cans of spray paint and a thrift store pillow case.
Everyone is ready to go trick or treating and Ralph lost his blue helmet plume in the wind and rain!
Jeff and I like to coordinate our costumes so this year we decided to be flat earth conspiracy theorists. Well, actually just Jeff is the conspiracy theorist in his Flat Earth Society tee shirt and tin foil baseball cap. I am the flat earth!
The weather was utterly miserable on Halloween night with cold blustery wind and rain but that didn’t stop us from having a blast. First, I made sure that our porch decor was weather appropriate and our candy wagon was full of goodies.
I have to share a brief story about the creepy girl doll on the left. We just inherited her from our neighbors because their young nephew was terrified of the thing. She is super creepy and I am not really a fan of her either. In any event, her creep factor was perfect for the practical joke we decided to play on Ralph. He is the prince of practical jokes and he definitely had it coming! This plan has actually been two years in the making because revenge is a dish that is best served cold.
Whenever Ralph goes into our bathroom, he pulls back the shower curtain to make sure there are no demons residing in there. I have no idea where this came from but he has been doing it for years. I am not above preying on my children’s fears in the name of a joke (since they really like to prey on their mother’s fears with their funny little jokes). So we planted the creepy girl in the shower and pulled the curtain closed. When Ralph went upstairs to shower on the night of the joke, I waited breathlessly at the bottom of the stairs to hear his reaction. And what I heard sent me into a fit of laughter that persisted until the next morning! After he pulled the shower curtain back, I heard a very exasperated and half-laughing, “YOU BITCHES!” It was not the reaction I anticipated but it was hilarious. Oh my goodness, I just started laughing again as I typed it!
For a fun little welcoming twist to our trick-or-treating event, I set up an amazing hot cocoa bar for friends and neighbors to take a brief hiatus from the rain. I had the fire blazing in the wood stove and I filled my triple crock pot with double chocolate hot cocoa, white chocolate hot cocoa, and hot apple cider. I got a variety of BOO-zy additions for the adults and all the fixings for everyone including sprinkles, various extracts, honey bear pops, maple syrup candies, cinnamon sticks, marshmallows, and whipped cream.
At one point, there was not an empty seat in my living room. Based on the amount of disposable hot drink cups that I went through plus the number of glass mugs in my dishwasher at the end of the night, I served approximately 35 people hot drinks on Halloween night. I filled the crock pots twice and there was not a drop left at the end of the night. The best part was how much gratitude our friends and neighbors expressed for the warm and cozy retreat on a rainy Halloween night!
Here is a photo that popped up in my Facebook memories from Archie’s very first Halloween when Jeff and I dressed as each other and Archie was a little fighter pilot in his camouflage orthotic helmet. In the blink of eye, he’s going to Homecoming dances and trick-or-treating with his friends.
I am going to finish this post with some home decor updates. I had planned to tear out my bedroom carpet and paint the hardwood floor this summer but I never got around to it. However, in preparation for cold hardwood floors, I made two additional rag rugs for both sides of our bed. The blue color way is for Jeff’s side and the red one is on my side. Eventually I will get around to removing the wall-to-wall carpet and painting the floor.
And finally, I have brought out my homemade sock pumpkins from a few years ago and created a dining room table center piece with a recently thrifted sleigh basket. I just love it for this holiday season!
And that’s all I’ve got for you. I hope you have enjoyed our creativity and holiday fun as much as we have! Have a wonderful weekend, my friends.
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Keeping it on the edge,
Shelbee
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.
16 Comments
Nancy
Hilarious how you dressed as each other! And that hot coco bar looks so delicious. I’ll bet Ralph is breading on another prank for you.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Hahaha, thanks so much, Nancy! Oh, Ralph is definitely going to get me back some time in the future. I am bracing myself for it!
xoxo
Shelbee
Di
What great family fun, Shelbee! You really do it up right for Halloween! I’m sure your neighbors were very grateful for your warm cocoa bar on such a stormy night for trick or treating. Your porch decor looks fantastic. It looks like your boys have inherited your creativity, with their homemade costumes. Thanks for sharing and hosting the link up. Hope you have a wonderful week!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Aw, Di, thank you so much! We do have a lot of fun around here, that’s for sure. The boys might not find all of it so fun, like when we insist they maintain above an 85 in all of their classes or make them actually do the chores we give them an allowance for, but they will appreciate it later (I hope)! Have a lovely weekend, my friend!
xoxo
Shelbee
Sally in St Paul
“YOU BITCHES!” Priceless, just priceless.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Oh my gosh, Sally, you just sent me into yet another fit of the giggles! It really is a priceless response. Not at all what I expected but I don’t think any other response would have made me laugh harder!
xoxo
Shelbee
Melynda
Shelbee, thanks so much for the visit and the link-up! Have a wonderful week ahead.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thank you, Melynda! I hope you have a lovely weekend!
xoxo
Shelbee
Joanne
Wow; those costumes are so impressive! Your boy look so handsome all dressed up for his first Homecoming! Time flies by so quickly, doesn’t it? That hot cocoa bars look wonderful.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thank you, thank you, thank you, my friend! Why do they have to grow up so quickly? And what do we do when they leave us?!
xoxo
Shelbee
Marsha Banks
Shelbee, you have the coolest family in the world! I love how you all appreciate the quirks and foibles of each other and yet have so doggone much fun! Love the shower set up though I must admit, when we still had shower curtains, I would peek behind to make sure Norman Bates wasn’t there! That’s one scary movie! The old photo of you, Jeff, and Archie is so sweet and clever! I love that you created the outfits out of things around the house. Those are always the best. I made one of my kids a clown costume one year, and all three ended up wearing it forever. That reminds me of something my mom did. She had made this gown which was probably just two bed sheets sewn together for one of us for Halloween one year. We would dye that thing every once in a while and make it into something else. Ah, such good memories! I love your rag rugs. We are going to take the carpeting out of our bedroom, too, so I may hit you up for instructions!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Marsha, thank you so much! I don’t how cool we really are but we definitely have fun and appreciate each other every day! Umm, yes, Psycho is a very creepy movie, for sure. I also get easily spooked and now Ralph has me checking behind the shower curtain, too. LOL My mother was always very clever when it came to creating costumes and other creative ventures. I remember one year she wore this giant oversize green velour muumuu robe thingy and then she attached Christmas ornaments all over it and put a star on her head. She was a very adorable Christmas tree and I think I need to replicate that costume one of the Halloweens! Please do hit me up for rag rug instructions, or floor painting, or whatever you plan to do when you tear out your bedroom carpet. I would be happy to offer some suggestions!
xoxo
Shelbee
Gail Is This Mutton
Thanks for the feature! Your story about the doll in the shower and Ralph’s reaction made me laugh out loud.
You guys know how to mark Halloween! The candy cart, the cocoa bar, the costumes. Big wow.
Have a good weekend!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Aww, thanks so much, Gail! I think I will be laughing for years to come over the creepy doll in the shower! I am bracing myself, however, for Ralph’s revenge. Hahaha
xoxo
Shelbee
Mitch
I love this post! Family, Halloween, and fun!
Mitch
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Aww, thanks so much, Mitch! I really appreciate that! Have a wonderful day.
xoxo
Shelbee