White House Easter Egg Roll 2008

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My boys are blissfully unaware of the mania that surrounds the Jonas Brothers. That name was not lost however, on the thousands of other people at this year's White House Easter Egg Roll. Apparently the boy band is why the line formed so early Friday morning for tickets. So although they were already on stage playing when we arrived at the event, we didn't feel the need to fight our way through the mob to get a better view. Instead, we headed straight over to the line for the egg roll. In addition to rolling eggs, we colored bunny ears, listened to a story being read by a politician whose name escapes me, handled clams, horseshoe crabs, and hermit crabs in a touch tank, did an Easter egg hunt, and took pictures with strolling characters. We also ran into an old college buddy of my husband's at the White House, proving once again how small the world is.

Although we didn't get to meet the President, we had a great time anyway. Prior to being escorted to the front lawn of the White House, we enjoyed a free breakfast of egg burritos and Starbucks coffee at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion. My children got a chance to dance with the DJ on stage to tunes like YMCA and the Macarena. The weather was beautiful and breezy.

I made a few more mental notes about tickets for other families planning this trip; It appears there were people that showed up to the Ellipse without actual tickets in hand, and others who brought extra tickets with them. We walked by one lady who was holding up tickets and looking for someone to give them to. We also passed two or three people who were walking around still looking for extra tickets. I also noticed that there were many, many postings of tickets for sale or trade on Craigslist/DC this weekend.

Although the last group of timed tickets to the event is at 2:00, by 3pm they started closing activities down. We found we didn't have quite enough time to do everything there was to do; so families planning for next year might strive to get an earlier entry time.

Finally, no entry about the White House Easter Egg Roll would be complete without a mention of the parting gifts. We picked up T-shirts with the Easter Egg Roll logo, buttons, posters, and a gift bag that contained items such as a collectable wooden Easter egg, a children's book, coloring books, crayons, bookmarks, postcards, and marshmallow peeps just to name a few.

We left exhausted but already looking forward to next year...

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