White House Egg Roll

With Easter approaching I realized that I live entirely too far to embark on my annual quest for White House Easter Egg Roll tickets. For the past four Easters we have lived on the East Coast and close enough to Washington DC to take part in a tradition that dates back to the late 1800s.

I have a lot of fun memories of sitting out all night on the Ellipse with friends who were crazy enough to join me, waiting for the sun to come up to get the prized tickets only for it to rain on the actual event. The funny thing is, these tickets are free, if you are willing to camp out in front of the White House all night. Last year I even convinced Adam to make the pilgrimage with me, and we pitched a tent. We have always debated whether or not it is better to have good weather while waiting in line or for the actual event. In my very soggy experience I am going to say it is better to endure the rain while waiting in line Friday night and then having a beautiful day Easter Monday.

The Egg Roll itself is just a small part of the event, there are performers, guest celebrity readers, egg decorating, craft stations, a petting zoo and many other fun things to do. It was just so fun for my kids to know they were standing in the front yard(or is it the back yard?) of the White House, how many people can say that? We even got to see the President and Mrs. Bush's two Scottie dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, last year. The kids loved that.

The highlight for Emma was being able to take a picture with Ally and AJ and see them perform (if you have a tweener you know who they are).

I am curious how many of you Virginia or Maryland folks are going to head down there this upcoming weekend? Please post something to keep us updated. Last year Adam and I got there at 9PM and we were already halfway around the Ellipse, so my advice is to go early. I will be praying for good weather.

Since I can't go this year, I thought I would take you on a stroll down memory lane of our last four Egg Rolls.

Happy Easter!

This was last year, 2006. It was raining when we got there but we powered through and the sun actually came out in the afternoon.


2005
As you can see this was a very wet year. Laura has quite the contraption on her stroller, but it served its purpose and kept her dry. It was a very mushy cold day, we were covered with mud and soaked when we got home. That day was memorable but I am not sure if they were all good memories.

2004
This year it was so wet we never even made it onto the White House lawn.
Our tickets were for later in the day and when we got down to DC, the lawn had been closed and people were not allowed through. The kids still had fun riding the Metro and receiving their treat bags.

Any time we went to DC riding the Metro was always Andrew's favorite part. As a mother, I was always stressed out about one of the kids tripping and falling onto the track or something.

2003 was the only year that we had beautiful weather. It was a special year because only active duty service members and their families were able to participate. The war had just started and this was a way to keep the area more secure and at the same time honor those who serve. This was also the only year we did not have to wait in line, the tickets were distributed through the chain of command and there were not as many issued to diminish crowd issues.