Kids find White House a real treat

WASHINGTON – The first lady was a leopard with fuzzy ears and a spotted orange-and-black top. The president was a middle-aged dad, with black cardigan, checkered shirt and sensible brown slacks. Together they handed out treats on the north portico of the White House on Saturday night.

“I’m so excited my hands are shaking,” said Jarmell Wilson, of Bowie, Md., who came with her husband, Damon, and masked 8-year-old son, Damon Jr. About 2,600 trick-or-treaters went up the front drive of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to the north portico to collect goody bags holding White House M&Ms, an orange sugar cookie in the shape of the residence and dried fruit.

The White House invited children ages 5 to 14 from 11 schools to file past the front entrance of the house, which was lit in orange, wrapped in cobwebs and adorned with a giant black spider with a dozen eyes. It wasn’t the first Halloween event at the White House – Tricia Nixon hosted underprivileged children, the Fords and Carters welcomed trick-or-treaters from such charitable organizations as UNICEF – but it might have been the biggest.