Parties You Will Never Get Into

It was that one day of the year again, when the commander-in-chief of a superpower traipses on a garden with basketfuls of goodie for children. On March 24, 2008, U.S. President George Bush and wife Laura played peachy hosts-with-the-most for the annual White House Easter Egg roll.

That frosty Easter Monday morning, 22,000 people who had snapped up free tickets trooped to the hallowed South Lawn of the White House. President Bush decided his demographic that day would be tots seven and younger. For once, children, not heads of state, strolled around the manicured lawn.

Kids were treated to great food, and entertainment running the gamut from egg coloring to face painting to magic shows. They were also given a head start in politics, rubbing elbows with larger-than-life characters like Tweety Bird, The Cat in the Hat, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Charlie Brown, and of course, cute Easter Bunnies.

Teen sensation Jonas Brothers brought the house down with rocking musical performances onstage. On a more subdued note, the artist named Wyland organized painting activities commemorating the chosen theme of the year, Ocean Conservation.

No less than the First Lady told the children stories. Likewise, other renowned personalities grabbed the respite of reading to other people’s children. Readers even included secretaries and other high-ranking White House officials. There was also ex-Dallas Cowboy Troy Aikman and TV star Kyle Massey. But then again, Nancy Tafuri and Rosemary Wells, children’s book authors, were on hand for good measure.

But the children were most giddy about the Egg Roll itself. Precocious competitors toted giant spoons to push 7,500 eggs across the patch of greens in the Egg Roll. Others never said die to the egg hunts, which involved 3,200 colored eggs. Still there were those kids content with coloring plain hard-boiled eggs, some 4,500 of them. When the revelry ended at 2pm, children took home with them a commemorative Easter egg of wood.

President Bush was hardly the first one to hold Egg Rolls though. He was part of a long line of U.S. presidents, starting with Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878.