William's 3rd Birthday at Reagan National Airport

William's 3rd birthday party was originally slated for Saturday, February 6th, the day before his 3rd birthday. However, you might recall that we got 54 inches of snow over his birthday weekend. Therefore, we opted to cancel his party and move it to Saturday, the 13th.

William was SO excited for his birthday party and woke up on Saturday morning talking about the party favors and all his friends coming to the airport to watch the planes. We arrived at Reagan National around 10:15am and set up the party in the Exhibit Hall of Terminal A. This particular area of Reagan Airport was the original airport in the 1940s. Now that the airport has expanded, the Exhibit Hall is just a huge open space with floor to ceiling windows and it's used mostly as a holding area for passengers while they wait for their flights and also as a walkway between Terminals A and B/C. More importantly, over the last 2 years this is the space where we have taken William to watch the airplanes. This is the place where William's love for airplanes really "took off!"

So, while we were discussing where to have his birthday party, Dan came up with the brilliant idea to host the party at the airport Exhibit Hall. Genius! Because we didn't rent any space, I tried to keep the party really low key and used things to make the party a quick clean up. I hated to think that security might make us relocate our celebration.

9 of William's buddies met us at the airport to celebrate the big 3. As each child arrived, William proudly handed them a Matchbox Skybuster airplane and said, "I am happy you are here!" The kids had a BLAST running around the room, flying their planes and stopping for a split second to watch the airplanes outside on the runways.

Once everyone was there, I quickly got the kids in a line and handed William his birthday sign. He got to be the line leader and "fly" the group over to the "runway" tablecloth where I had set up little snack packs for each kid.

There was a bottle of water, a fruit bar and a bag of Goldfish inside the treat sacks. After awhile, I passed out the airplane cookies (my kiddo doesn't like cake and specifically asked for M&M flavor cookies) and we sang "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to William with a number 3 candle. He was so delighted and loved that the moment was 100% HIS!

After the kids loaded up on sugar, it was time to start cleaning up and heading home. William gave each kid a party favor bag and said, "Thank you for coming to fly with me!" when he handed them out.


He was VERY SPECIFIC about the party favors. He wanted an Oreo, a sucker, and a glider in each one. No problem. I also threw in a paper #3 and some confetti.

As the party ended, William started to cry. He truly had the time of his life and hated to see his friends leave. I think this was the first birthday that he really understood that it was about him. Not in a selfish way, but he was just thrilled that all his friends came to the airport to play with him since it's his favorite place on earth and that it was all about his passion - airplanes. I will never forget his smile or his shreeks of pure joy as he spun around the airport on a sugar high.
My most precious pilot, welcome to 3 years old!