White House Egg Roll

The White House Easter Egg Roll is an annual family event to race Easter Eggs on the South Lawn while enjoying storytelling and a visit with the Easter Bunny. This holiday tradition has a long history dating back to 1878 when President Rutherford B. Hayes officially opened the White House grounds to local children for egg rolling on Easter Monday. Successive Presidents have continued the tradition of inviting children to the White House Lawn for egg rolling and other activities and entertainment. This year our family was very fortunate to participate in the Egg Roll.

Our tickets had a timed entrance/exit period of 1:15p-3:15p. You had to be at the staging area an hour prior to your entrance. The plan was for me to drive the kids to Mr. O's office where we would park the car (He works 5 minutes from the White House). It was noon when we had parked the car and headed to the staging area. Mr. O asked if I had the tickets.

Me: NOPE, I thought you had them. I started laughing, because the situation was incredulous.

Mr. O: C'mon, stop joking. Do you have them or not?

M: Really, Mr. O...I really don't have them.

The kids were about to cry when they realized we couldn't get in without the tickets. I told Mr. O to take them to lunch, and I would drive 32 miles home to get the tickets.

I got back to his office at 1:20. We got to the ellipse at 1:30, and I was feeling doubtful that we would be admitted since our group staging area was empty. Fortunately, though, we caught the end of our group and just barely made it through.

The South Lawn was crazily packed with people. It was neat to be so close to the President's home though.





I especially enjoyed watching our children participate in their first Egg Roll Race. Each race had 12 participants...Not that anyone was counting, but Tank came in first, Banana finished in the middle, and KK brought up the rear. :)



Fun was had by all!!! I'd like to attend the Easter Egg Roll again with my family, but I would wait until they were a few years older. Many of the events were geared for young children. It was just too crowded, and I was afraid we'd lose one or more of the kids.