Barack Obama kisses first lady Michelle Obama alongside a masked adult dressed as a towering, man-sized rabbit whose unblinking eyes never stray from the president and his wife. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Cam Anthony sings the national anthem as the president and his wife hold hand to their hearts, while the Easter Bunny looks down upon the assembled with disdain and a not-very-leporine hand on its chest. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Throngs of children and parents mill in disorder on the South Lawn of the White House, with little or no idea of what’s in store for them or why the US celebrates a religious holiday in this fashion. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Small children chase eggs with sticks on the White House’s well-cropped grass, putting on a stoic face for their parents, who have brought them here and incessantly take pictures. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Children roll eggs at the 126th White House Easter Egg Roll, the practice, purpose and origin of which even a gallery of photographs does little to explain. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama laugh and laugh, blissfully ignorant of the adult in a rabbit suit who contemplates unknowable schemes behind them. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Barack Obama reads Where the Wild Things Are to White House staffers, who never in their lives had heard such an exciting tale before and were all tuckered out from the big day. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

With only 338 words at his disposal, the twice-elected president of the United States used threatening hand gestures and expressions of terrible pain and sadness to illustrate the story of a disobedient child who deals with punishment by daydreaming. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama rejoice as children successfully roll eggs across their lawn. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images