Post by Aimée Lowry & Bettijo B. Hirschi from PagingSupermom.com

Wow. I just went through all the pictures from Harrison’s Spooky Country Ghost third birthday party! There’s a lot to share, so I’m dividing everything up into a couple posts. Today we’ll talk about the Decor + Food Table, in a few days we’ll cover the invitations!

Per Harrison’s request, rather than decorating with a lot of ghosts, we decided to have each little guest come as a spooky spirit. The invitation provided a white bed sheet with basic instructions for each guest to come appropriately disguised. The little ghosts did not disappoint!

My friend Jenn from JennV Photography was on hand to capture the ghosts and all the party details. For a complete round-up of the photobooth pictures, check out Jenn’s site. I especially loved these ghosts!

Isn’t that mustache sticker fun? Liam, our mustache-wearing ghost was a little wild, so we reinforced the sticker to the sheet with a glue gun for some extra staying power, and it worked great.

My favorite part of the entire party is Harrison’s outfit. I love his striped socks with his black Converse and white ghost costume. It’s so three! And I love that he INSISTED that he and Liam wear their skeleton pajama tops under their ghost costume… because under “real” ghosts are skeleton bones, right? I just love his logic.

As guests came to the door they were greeted with a ghostly banner, floating bubbles (from our bubble machine) and a spooky ghost peeping through the window. (Yes, we use the word spooky quite loosely here — keep in mind Harrison turned three!)

The peeping window ghosts were made from a roll of kraft paper. Bettijo drew the ghost free-hand, cut it out then drew eyes and a mouth onto both sides of the paper with a black marker. We taped the ghosts to our front window and the back door.

Since our front room is still piano-less, we had plenty of space to set up a quick photobooth. I covered our bookshelves with a kraft paper roll. I simply used painters’ tape to attach the paper to the top of the shelves and secured it with more tape along the bottom. Next, we covered our carpet with a tarp from our painting bin. The straw bales were purchased at a local feed store to give our spooky ghosts something to stand or sit on. Then we grabbed a few things from my fall décor stash—extra pumpkins, leaves and a wire basket.

The chalkboard is leftover scrap wood that Bettijo had in her barn. She painted it with chalkboard paint and brought it over as a last-minute addition. She even had the pitch fork in her barn, too. (Her barn is full of all sorts of inspiring things… but that’s a different post for a different day!)

My favorite booth detail is this awesome crate! I spotted a wood crate tutorial on one of my favorite DIY blogs, and I knew immediately that the photobooth needed it to complete the country feel. Bettijo’s husband Heath was working on a few other wood projects, so he kindly added this to his list! To fit our needs, he make the crate a bit taller and slightly smaller. (Our finished size is roughly 12″x24″.) Can you believe it? Thank you, Heath! (And thank you The House of Smiths for the awesome tutorial!)

After a quick picture, our little ghostly guests made their way into the kitchen for dinner. To keep in line with the country ghost theme, I planned for the food to be essentially colorless. Our menu included Debbie’s Ghostly White Bean Chili with toppings, white cheddar mac+cheese, cantaloupe and boo biscuits with a butter bar. I made country food labels attached with clothespins.

The food table was made more rustic with my (and Bettijo’s) new obsession: wood slabs from Save on Crafts. Not only did the slabs add height where needed, they also served as hot pads under the chili and mac+cheese. Plus, they were the perfect country touch! The smaller wood slabs were used to present the chili garnishes as well as the paper goods and utensils. Aren’t they fabulous?!

The ghosts hovering in the corner over the food were also simple to make. (At least it looked simple as I watched Bettijo finish assembling them while I wrapped up the last-minute food preparartions. Thank goodness for friends when it comes to hosting parties, right?) To make the hanging ghosts, inflate and knot a white balloon. Tie a piece of string around the knot. Using a wide-eyed sewing needle, poke the string through the center of a piece of light-weight fabric. Hang. If desired glue oval construction-paper eyes onto the fabric.

Reposted with permission by Aimée Lowry & Bettijo B. Hirschi from PagingSupermom.com