Graduation

End of school yearOops, it’s over

What was at the Graduation party

• A stage with a giant balloon archway that read CONGRATS CLASS OF 2026
• A feast table piled with popcorn and snacks, with seats for every guest
• A giant dance floor with light-up tiles that played notes when you stepped on them
• A rack of graduation cap costumes everyone could grab and wear
• Built into its own corner of the Home Island for the end of the school year

Built into a corner of the island.

Hi, Spritz here. I run the Global Playground, so I'm used to a crowd. But I'd never seen the Home Island do anything like the party we threw for the Class of 2026. The whole thing was built into a corner of the island like its own little world, and every kid that made it through the school year came through it at some point.

The whole party island, laid out end to end.

First, the stage.

Stone columns on either side, a wooden platform across the middle, and a balloon archway over the top that read CONGRATS CLASS OF 2026 in big orange letters. Kids took turns climbing up there in their graduation caps, lined up across the stage like the world's smallest faculty photo. Bandit Z made about four trips. He kept forgetting he'd already been called.

The world's smallest faculty photo.

Then the feast.

A long table with snacks laid end to end, popcorn buckets, drinks, the works. Chairs pulled up close so nobody had to stand. Somebody hopped up onto the table itself, somebody else shouted Time to eat from across the platform, and from then on it was a slow loop of sitting down, eating, getting up, going back for more.

Snacks end to end. Popcorn bucket per seat.

The dance floor everyone will remember.

A giant purple pad set into its own platform, with light-up colored tiles in rows. Step on a tile and it played a note. Step on a few of them in a row and you'd accidentally compose something. Most kids gave up trying to play it on purpose and just ran across as fast as they could, which honestly sounded the best.

The dance floor. Every tile played a note.

And the graduation cap costumes.

A whole rack near the stage, free for the taking. Pull one on and you carried the moment around with you, all the way back to your own island. Some kids kept them on for days. Some kept theirs on permanently. The cap suits everybody, which I did not expect, but here we are.

Balloons, caps, and the long way back to the snacks.

Class of 2026, you earned every snack and every dance tile. See you on the island next year.