Thousands of children storm White House lawn for annual Easter Egg Roll
The event will include many of the traditional festivities and new additions.
Thousands of children stormed the White House lawn Monday for the annual Easter Egg Roll.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump hosted the event for the third time.
The president thanked the first lady and others for organizing the event and had a few words about the U.S. economy too.
Trump blew a whistle to kick off an egg rolling contest and he and the first lady mingled with the children and families who attended. The first lady gave high fives to kids playing at the hopscotch courts.
At one point, sitting at a small table where children were drawing with crayons, Trump had an exchange with a young boy about the proposed border wall.
"Oh it's happening, it's being built now," Trump told the child.
"This young kid just said keep building the wall, can you believe that? He's going to be a conservative someday," Trump said.
The event, now in its 141st year, got its start under President Rutherford Hayes. One game includes children balancing eggs on wooden spoons. Costumed characters, including the Easter Bunny, were on site.
The Trumps, who celebrated Easter at Mar-a-Lago, cheered on the children participating in the egg races.
The president spent most of the weekend out of the public eye, but did take to Twitter to fire off at least a dozen tweets related to the release of the special counsel report last week.
The Easter Egg Roll event, which is organized by the first lady’s office, incorporated her “Be Best” initiative. There was a station for children to send postcards to family, friends and members of the military.
Also new this year: a game called "musical eggs," which is an Easter-themed adaptation of musical chairs.
More than 30,000 guests were expected to take part in this year’s festivities, according to the first lady’s office.