April 12, 2010
by Rebekah Sanderlin

It started with an email. A good friend from Blue Star Families sent me a message about a month ago saying that BSF had been given tickets to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. She asked if I would like to attend with my family.

"YES!" I responded right away and then struggled over the logistics.

My husband is active duty in the Army, which means that planning anything with him is an exercise in futility. So I started working out a plan to drive by myself to D.C. with my five-year-old son Bo and my 18-month-old daughter Rudy, then I called my husband to see if he had any suggestions.

"Can we all go together?" he asked. I was ashamed that the thought hadn't even crossed my mind. "Uh, I don't know. Let me see if I can get enough tickets," I told him.

We were in luck. Blue Star Families had four tickets for me. My whole family would be doing something family-ish together. What a novelty.


I broke the news to my son when I went to pick him up from school. "Bo," I said, "do you know who the president is?"

"President Mo-momma," he said.

"Close," I told him. "It's President Obama. What do you know about President Obama?" I asked.

"I know he's like King Richard," he said, falling back on all his viewings of the cartoon version of Robin Hood. "He's a bad man and he takes all of our money."

Uh-oh. Turns out his little ears had been listening to his dad and I grumble about politics. It was time for a re-education.

"Not exactly, Bo," I said. "President Obama is kind of like a king, but he's not a bad man and he doesn't take our money for himself. He uses the money to pay for things we need, like playgrounds and schools."

His face brightened at that. "I like playgrounds," he said.

I told Bo that President Obama lives in The White House and that it's kind of like his castle. I also told him that the President has two daughters named Sasha and Malia.

"Are they princesses?" he asked.

"Sort-of," I said.

Then I dropped the big news on him. "Bo, we get to go to an Easter party at The White House!"

His eyes got huge, but not with excitement so much as with fear.



"But how will we get across the moat?" he asked. "Is there a dragon? Does it breathe fire?"

We worked through those questions - and many others - and as we got closer to Easter Bo's excitement had reached fever pitch.

We drove to D.C. on Sunday night and stayed in a hotel - a thrill in itself for the kids. On Monday morning we got the kids and ourselves dressed and fed and then headed to a Metro station. Bo couldn't believe his luck - he'd be visiting President Mo-momma's (I couldn't break him of that one) house and riding on an underground train, all in one day.

Miraculously, both kids were extremely patient as we waited in the very long lines to get onto The White House grounds. Bo was ecstatic as we wandered around the lawn snapping pictures with costumed characters - Dora, Elmo, Maya & Miguel, Clifford, and many more. The theme for the event was getting kids to exercise and eat right, so the activities were mostly sports-themed. Bo got to run through a football activity that was manned by NFL players but he was too excited to sit still for story time with any of the celebrity readers. We did, however, peruse the organic food section while listening to Justin Bieber croon, "baby, baby, baby" from a nearby stage.

And Rudy? She just stared and smiled all day from her stroller. Both kids were exhausted from the day and asleep in their seats within 10 minutes of our five-hour drive home.

Thank you, President & Mrs. Mo-Momma, for a delightful day.