Easter Morning

Ben is ready to begin our Annual Family Easter Morning Egg Hunt. Except, this year we were busy, (mommy had a huge hang over from sleep deprivation, you'll soon see why), and so we opted for one giant prize.

That search took about 10 seconds. The bunny was under a pillow. We've got to up our game next year!

The biggest chocolate bunny Ben has ever owned. If you know Veggie Tales, the entire morning we sang, "the bunny, the bunny, oh I love the bunny..."

The chocolate is starting to make him crazy. Ben will tell you that he is mad at mom in this picture because he wants to eat a big piece, not a small piece of his bunny.

Ben is showing me where to cut his bunny so he can eat the entire head and ears!

2008 White House Easter Egg Roll Camp Out!!!

Several friends and I decided to camp out to get tickets to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. It is a tradition that began in 1878. 22,000 tickets were given out for free, (except for the cost of losing a night of sleep to be in line!). We drove into D.C. at 9:00pm and set up our tent and sleeping bags. At that point we were told we had less than a 50% chance of receiving tickets. So we played games and watched a movie on a portable DVD player and at 3:00am were told by the park and rec. service workers to sit in line outside our tents to receive our vouchers. So we did, and somewhere around 5:00am, were rewarded with the vouchers that promised us tickets. At 6:45am, park employees hollered to have our tents taken down and we were in line again at 7:00am to pick-up our tickets. Each person could receive the maximum of 5, 2 adult and 3 children. And finally, in the area of 8:00am, we had our tickets in hand! Overall, it was a very fun experience, at least something to be done once in a life time:)

Egg Roll activities included: reading nooks with Laura Bush, Tory Aikman and numerous authors and government officials, animal stage, face painting, egg coloring, entertainment stage, and a magic stage.

And we each received a gift bag at the end with books, a poster, and a commemorative wooden White House Easter Egg.

I think this is at 4:30 a.m.

We got the tickets!

Waiting to enter

We're ready to go. After waiting in several lines to enter, and with several lines to come, Ben definitely had his ups and downs at this event.

Security-Don't mess with these guys and don't cross the rope!

Long lines for the egg roll.

Disney singer, 15 year old Jordan Pruitt

A moment of joy as Ben breaks into dance to the singing of Jordan.

The Egg Hunt

Ben is forcing a smile for the one egg he found that he had to return at the end of the hunt. Thousands of eggs were boiled and colored for the event but unfortunately we couldn't keep them because they were 6 weeks old.

Ben Confiding to the camera that the egg hunt wasn't all it was cracked up to be. (No pun intended).

Super Why

Super Why, (one of Ben's favorite shows on PBS), was present at the White House along with other famous characters and people.

Ben was scared and refused to look at the oversized heads and unblinking eyes.

Pet the alligator

Get ready to roll!