Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Birthday Party

With the upcoming movie  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs I have decided to put together some fun ideas that would be perfect for this party theme.  While there is no official party supplies currently available at this time with a little creativity and imagination you can make it work and I am going to show you how. So as they say in the movie “Prepare to get SERVED” this is going to be fun.

First off you can find a nice selection of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Birthday Party Invitations right on Ebay ready to be personalized with all your party information. You can find any style you are looking for from Ticket Style Invites, VIP Pass Invites, Scratch ff Invites to your Basic Invitations. The one you see featured above to your left in the photo is one of my personal favorites and that is the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Scratch Off style. You send a photo of the birthday child to the seller and they add it on so that when your guest gets the invite they have to scratch off the circle to reveal who the party is for. The same seller, Designsbyfun,  also sells matching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Favor Labels, Candy Bar Wrappers and Water Bottle Wrappers.

For your paper goods I think a Red and White Checkered Table Cloth with some solid colored plastic Plates would give you the feel you would want.  I think about the Italian feel from the Spaghetti and Meatballs so this is the look I would go for. You can add in some solid colored Red, White and Green Balloons that represent the Italian Flag colors also.  Keep it Simple – this party is all about the food not so much the decor.

You can add in some music to set the mood with the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Soundtrack which features songs like; Raining Sunshine, The Food Storm, Ice Cream Wonderland,  The Spaghetti Twister and more.

Now for some fun and games. This movie is all about food so you can really have a lot of fun with it – with the emphasis being on Meatballs of course.  In the movie and the book Food Falls from the sky in the small town of ChewandSwallow.  So playing off of that idea I am going to come up with some game ideas and share some games that are already made and would work with this theme.

Meatball Toss – For this game you can set up a plate of Spaghetti on the floor (you do not need to have sauce on it). Then make a few  pretend meatballs from small styrafoam balls colored brown with a marker. The kids will have to take turns tossing the meatballs and seeing if they can get them to land on top of the spaghetti.

Pin the Meatballs on the Spaghetti – For this game I found a great poster of a Plate of Spaghetti. Then you can make and cut out Meatballs. This game would be played like your traditional Pin the tail on the Donkey Game.  See which of your party guests will be able to get their meatball placed on top of the spaghetti in the sauce.

Dodge the Meatball – Of course in the movie Meatballs are falling from the sky and all the towns people have to get out of the way. So with a play on the game Dodge Ball – the balls thrown can be called meatballs. So do not get hit with the Meatball!!!

Food Bingo – There are some great versions of Food Bingo available to purchase. These games have pictures of all kinds of food on the cards. You call out the food and the kids will mark it off on their card until they have a Bingo.

Build a Burger Game – For this you will need to create pieces for your Burger – You can do this using either using real Buns and making the inside pieces from construction paper or Poster board for thicker pieces.  Make sure you have enough so each guest can build a burger. So have Buns, Burger, Lettuce, Cheese, Tomato, Pickles and Onions etc..  Make a picture showing what should be on their burger. Lay all your pieces out on the ground in a large area. Give each guest a plate to use for their burger. Set a time limit – maybe 1 minute. On go they will have to run and find all the pieces needed to build their burger. The first one to place their burger on the table with the correct items on it wins.

Find the Meatball – Take a couple pounds of cooked spaghetti and put in a pot – you can use sauce if you like, but it may get messy. Having sauce will make it more fun – just have towels available for easy clean up. Within the spaghetti hide a few ping pong balls to represent meatballs. have each guest stick their hand in the spaghetti and see if they can find all the meatballs within a time limit.

Meatball Madness Game –  The Meatball Madness Game is a game of skill. This is played one player at a time. The battery-powered ladle lets them levitate a meatball through a series of obstacles in a restaurant and onto the customer’s plate. Game comes in 3 sections that can be scattered throughout a room to get the  kids to run from section to section.

Spaghetti Toss – You may want to play this one outside. You will need lots of cooked spaghetti – no sauce is required. This is more for fun than a game per say for the kids. For this create what looks like a large plate out of cardboard or wood and have it stand upright. Give the kids each a plate of cooked spaghetti. Then on go let them toss the spaghetti at the plate and have fun seeing if they can get it to stick on. This will no doubt be a lot of fun for the kids – who does not love to throw food.

Meatball Spoon Race – Again this is a play on the Egg Spoon Race Game.  For this have some spoons and some balls to represent meatballs. I like the Styrofoam Balls because they are light and will not stay on the spoons so easy.  Set them up to race and at the end have plates of spaghetti they have to place their meatballs on. See who can get their meatballs to the plates first.

Food Clean Up – A big problem in ChewandSwallow was the clean up of all the food that fell from the sky.  So for this game what you can do is take play food – lots of it or cut out pictures of food from magazines. Use all kinds of food. Then to make it a bit harder break the guests into two teams. Give each team buckets and label each – Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert.  Scatter the food all over a large area and set a timer. On go each team will have to run as fast as they can to clean up all the food and then bring it back to their buckets and place it in the correct one.  You can have a rule – one food item at time can be brought back. Them when time is up they get 1 point for each item placed in the correct bucket and minus 1 point for each that is in the wrong one. The team with the most points win. Just be sure when using food photos that they can easily be put into any of the categories without too much guess work.

How about a Meatball Pinata? Well for this you will have to make it yourself, but it will be so worth it to see the kids eyes light up when a big Meatball is hanging. See my post on How to make a Pinata it is very easy to do and making a Meatball is pretty much fool proof.  For your inside balloon you can use a punching ball to get a bigger size. Then you can decorate it with red paint or shredded red or brown crepe paper to give it a fun meaty look.

A fun craft activity for the kids can be to Design their own Umbrellas. These Nylon Umbrellas are 16″  and ready for the kids to decorate with their own designs using markers. I think this is great it goes with the theme and it also makes a great party favor the kids can take home and be able to use.

Food Ideas for this party theme can really be anything, but it would be more fun if you served Meatballs. You can do a variety of flavors and have them with toothpicks for easy eating or you can serve Spaghetti with Meatballs of course. Be sure to have some Jello – the movie and book have a lot of fun with Jello and also donuts. Just have fun – keep it simple and make sure you have items the kids will actually eat.

So what do you do for your cake? Have you seen a Spaghetti and Meatballs Cake? It is not as hard to make as it looks.  You can also have some fun Fudge Balls and Round Chocolate Cookies for fun snacks to represent Meatballs. Or how about some Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes? You can find how to make these and more fun Cupcakes in the book – Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make.

So onto some fun Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Party Favors.  I came across these fun Meatball Gumballs. I am not a big fan of sending the kids home with candy, but these are great, unique and the kids would love them. You can also pair that up with a copy of the original Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Book by Judi Barret or any of the new books based on the movie and you are all set.

I hope I was able to give you some ideas for this theme and if they come out with some Official Party Supplies – I will be sure to update this post. Have fun and remember the weather can be crazy!!!

Related Links:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Movie – Here you will find all the information about the movie, Listen to the story on Video and all the toys and games to go along with it.

Buy at AllPosters.com