Fiesta Friday/Real Party - Emoji Graduation Party

This is a post for Oriental Trading as part of their Blogger Community. This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience with the products listed. I was provided the product free of charge and I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation was received for this review. 

We hit a milestone...the little one graduated from 5th grade and his brother from 8th grade. I wanted to do a party to celebrate and get friends together before everyone fled for the summer. But theme do you choose for a 10 and 13 year old that isn't carnival or beach?


Of course, emoji! Remember my inspiration board? I really needed to stretch the party muscle...not a lot of emoji products out there, but it's growing!

We held our party at a local hotel, so I wanted easy to transport food that would hold up for a few hours without refrigeration.  What's easier than creating a sweets bar?


I decided to focus on the color yellow,  generic emojis like hearts and rainbows, and smiley face products.  My first stop, Oriental Trading.  They have lots of smiley face products and themed products to choose from!


With their yellow mylar balloons, I used Studio DIY's tutorial to create her emoji balloons.  I guess Cricut's vinyl must be lighter than other types because after I painstakingly created the file, printed out the templates, cut them out, traced them and cut them out of another vinyl brand, most of them were too heavy to float. Oh yes, I was highly irritated...


I found the perfect rainbow ice cream cups at Dollar Tree that I filled with flavored popcorn.


My talented cookie baker friend, Amy's Cakery, created our adorable cookies!


I discovered Bella's Bakery and Bowtique's Instagram feed and her cute LEGO marshmallows and I said to myself 'Self, those look like emoji faces' and she did just that.



Yes, there is a globe emoji...that's not just randomness.


I'm glad that I have an obsessive amount of candy molds so I could make these cute sunglasses pops and candy lips.



I made these too! Well, I bought the Rice Krispies Treats, then dipped them...



My boys love Italian sodas so of course, we had to have them!  If you are looking for a fun summer party idea, setting up a drink bar is the perfect way to go.



I was so excited when I found Oriental Trading's tattoos and black sunglasses to use as party favors along with their suckers and gummy smiley faces.




From board games to giant Jenga to dancing and bad karaoke, I managed to keep elementary and middle school kids entertained.  Except for the older kids sucking the helium out of the balloons. Yes, middle-soon-to-be high schoolers are a strange breed indeed.

If you are looking for a tween/teen party theme, I hope you have been inspired to throw your own emoji-themed party!

Where to buy:
pixel character tattoos, gummy smiley faces, class of 2015 graduation straws, yellow treat bags, smiley face graduation suckers, black sunglasses, smiley face cut outs, yellow mylar balloons - Oriental Trading
emoji stickers - Paper Source

This is a post for Oriental Trading as part of their Blogger Community. This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience with the products listed. I was provided the product free of charge and I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation was received for this review. 



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