Madeline's Haunted Party

Since Madeline's birthday is so close to Halloween, she wanted a spooky-themed sleepover party. I'm so thankful that Lyle was home the day of the party so that he could help me decorate. Lyle took on the task of decorating the front porch. He headed down to the garden and gathered the items for this pretty fall display.

Madeline, however, really wasn't going for "pretty". She wanted SPOOKY! So, we added the cobwebs and some bats and spiders.

The spooky guy on the front porch was acceptable to both Madeline and Mom. I just couldn't do gory. This guy looks like a friendly sort of spook!

Decorating the "haunted library" was very fun! We were generous with our use of cobwebs, with the chandelier getting a heavy coating.

I thought Lyle's painting was great for the haunted house look. He just needed eyes that moved back and forth!

When Lyle picked Madeline up from school he apologized that he'd forgotten it was her birthday party day and he hoped they'd be able to throw together some decorations before the party. She was SO thrilled to walk in and see the haunted library!

We used Madeline's witch costume broom and and hat on the mantle. We couldn't find candle holders for the halloween candles, so Lyle drilled a couple of holes in one of our pumpkins for a fun centerpiece.

For dinner, we had witches brew punch (with a floating ice hand), broomsticks (breadsticks with a fringed edge), witches hands (chicken fingers cut with 5 fingers) and for dessert texas sheet cake with frosting cobwebs and plastic spiders on top. Madeline and her friends had such a fun time! After dinner we played "Bear" and some other spooky games and they had a very fun sleepover--Madeline's first. We had fun putting it all together, but I'm glad the kids are only allowed a friends-over birthday party every other year. It's tiring!