Alma 32:41

...Nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs After Party

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs party! Look for my husband's name(Matt Wheeler) in the credits under lighters and Compositers. :) I totally recommend seeing the movie in 3D- it's amazing! Here's what we did:

Decor
I kept it pretty simple. I got blue plastic table cloths and white plates so they kind of looked like a sky with clouds.

Matt got some stuffed animals from the premiere- a rat bird and a Steve. And we had two toys from a trip to Burger King.

We gave my Dad a framed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs poster for his Media Room for his b-day so we used that too.
Menu
Main dish
Italian meatballs (with spaghetti (or shapes pasta for the kids) or dinner rolls and mozzarella for mini subs) LOVE blog chef for recipes- always simple and yummy
Sweet and Sour Meatballs (with rice) LOVE My Kitchen Cafe- also always simple and yummy. I made LOTS of extra sauce for these
Swedish meatballs (from Ikea with their special gravy :) )

sides
Salad
French fries
Fruit (current favorites- nectarines, grapes, apples...)
Ruffles chips with french onion dip
Plus rice and pasta and rolls as mentioned above

Dessert
Brownies (Matt's fave for his b-day)
And Jello done in a jello mold like the hotel in the movie (forgot to get this out of the fridge)
assorted candies including Gummi Bears- (when you see the movie you'll see why)

Activities:
I totally wussed out on these! I am so disappointed in myself since really this is what a party should be about (for the kids anyway). We did a few things but not food oriented like I had originally planned.

Finger painting


playing with toys downstairs (we made a slide out of our old Quadro set- some day when I have a house I want one of these! Even though it is now 25 years old everything came apart and went together really easily.)

This photo was taken earlier in the day but you get the point- kids love it!
Coloring Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs coloring pages (Matt got a book from the premiere)
played a few games outside (classics like Chase the Uncle and duck duck goose (which turned into Chase the Aunt since they didn't get that only one person was supposed to chase when she said goose. :) )

 

Family photos to spell out We Love You Grandma!

We used the activities to send a care package to Matt's Grandma Wheeler. We sent her photos of family groups holding the signs We Love You Grandma! and I cut up a section of the fingerpainting to make a large card- everyone wrote a short message on the back of it. We also sent her some Cloudy Coloring pages and some crayons.



I had wanted to have the kids paint with apples, oranges, and potatoes. But I was a slacker about it. I also wanted to do a pin the meatball on the city game but I never made the game. See total slacker! Well it did take me awhile to put the slide together- even though it was easy it was a long process.

 Party favors for the kids
Punch Balloons- these are the coolest things ever! Last a lot longer than balloons- you can blow them up several times and kids LOVE them!
Water bombs from the dollar spot at Target
Felt Apples that I hand-sewed (I was too ambitious and didn't quite finish these but they are still cute) pattern from Umecrafts on Etsy

Smocks for painting (I made these from pillowcases- you can see them on the kids in the fingerpainting photos)
A toy dinosaur from the dollar spot at Target for the baby cousin


It was great fun!  Everyone there was family so everyone was happy to just hang out or to help out.  Now I know for the next party- don't procrastinate!  HaHa I guess I already knew that.  I found and had lots of great ideas that I didn't get to do because I waited too long.  This year for Kaden's birthday I think we are going to give him a real party so I am starting to gather ideas now(His b-day is in Feb). :)  Maybe then I will get all my ideas done! 

9 comments:

Unknown said...

AWESOME! I LOVE IT AND I MISS MY FRIEND AND OLD NEIGHBOR AND VISITS FROM KADEN!

Elizabeth Downie said...

What a fun party!! :) Great job! Looks like you really put a lot of work into it, even though you claim you "wussed out!" ;)

Anissa said...

FUN Post! And it was a fun party for sure. The kids had a great time and so did we!

Katherine said...

That looks like so much fun! I'm impressed! I loved that book as a kid (still do!) and am excited to see the movie!

Michelle Williams said...

The Party was great and you are AMAZING!! Miss you already, the house will be so empty when we get home.

Gina said...

What a great idea! So much fun for all! Wish we could have been there!

mindy said...

What a neat party idea! And your idea of "wussing out" would be like the greatest creative achievement of my life...so don't feel bad! Thanks for the comment on my blog...I really appreciate it! I look forward to digging through yours!
Mindy
www.thesuburbanlife.com

Steph said...

I wish I was closer so I could have come to your 'Cloudy' party! I saw the awesome pictures in Grandma Wheeler's room, very cute! I don't think you are a slacker at all! You did WAY more than I would have! Fun fun fun!

Laura said...

Hi,

I have kind of an odd question, but were those Steve stuffed animals made only for the premiere? I'm a computer animator myself and just got a hedgehog named STEEEVE! I'd really like to get him a Steve toy, but they don't seem to exist... Do you know if Sony has a gift shop at their studio with them? I do know a distant acquaintance who works there..

Thanks!
-Laura