South Lawn
8:35 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Why are you guys still up here? (Laughter.) How’s it going? So what’s been going on? What have you guys been up to?
GIRLS: Singing!
THE PRESIDENT: You’re singing camp songs?
GIRLS: Yes!
MRS. OBAMA: Is that all you’ve been doing is singing — and why are you all dusty? (Laughter.) What game were you all playing? (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: So you’ve been singing. What were you doing before you were singing? You guys had dinner.
GIRLS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: You did some rock climbing?
GIRLS: Yes!
THE PRESIDENT: Where did you go rock climbing? (Laughter.) There are no rocks over there. What are you talking about? (Laughter.) So you guys been having fun?
GIRLS: Yes!
THE PRESIDENT: So most of you guys are going into 5th grade or 6th grade?
GIRLS: Fifth.
THE PRESIDENT: Going into 5th. And so you guys are from a bunch of different troops, or —
GIRLS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, from all over the country?
GIRLS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: So you guys are making new friends.
GIRLS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s terrific.
MRS. OBAMA: Look at their cool little chairs.
THE PRESIDENT: They’re very nice chairs.
GIRL: They roll back. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Can I just say back when I went camping my tents weren’t as nice. (Laughter.) And I didn’t have cool chairs like this. (Laughter.)
GIRL: Where did they come from?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. They just showed up. (Laughter.) I don’t know what you guys are doing here. (Laughter.)
GIRL: Camping on your lawn. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: You’re camping on my lawn. I don’t know how that happened.
MRS. OBAMA: They’re making history.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the reason you guys are here is because we’re celebrating the Great Outdoors and the National Park Service is trying to make sure that young people get outside — so you guys aren’t watching TV all the time, or playing video games all the time, but you’re getting outside, getting some fresh air and spending time with your friends and having adventures. And there are national parks all across the country, and it turns out that the White House is a national park. (Applause.) I didn’t know that.
MRS. OBAMA: They knew.
THE PRESIDENT: You guys knew. Okay. So you guys are helping to celebrate and kick off this whole Great Outdoors adventure that everybody is going to be having this summer, right?
GIRLS: Yes!
THE PRESIDENT: All right. So I don’t really know any campfire songs. Are you guys going to teach me one?
GIRLS: Yes!
(The President and the First Lady sing along to campfire songs.)
THE PRESIDENT: Did you see the First Lady rocking out a little bit? (Laughter.) She had the moves.
All right, well, you know what, you guys are having so much fun. Unfortunately, I’ve got to go to work.
GIRLS: Noooo —
THE PRESIDENT: I am not allowed to have fun. (Laughter.)
GIRL: Can we have a hug?
THE PRESIDENT: We can have a group hug. (All the girls at once come running up for a group hug.) Those are some good hugs! I didn’t know that Girl Scouts gave such good hugs. (Laughter.) Who are those Girl Scouts over there? (pointing to the troop leaders.) They look at least like they’re juniors. (Laughter.)
I’m so glad you guys are having fun. But I want to make sure — you guys better clean up this mess. (Laughter.) When I wake up in the morning — I’m teasing. You guys aren’t going to be making a racket, are you?
GIRLS: Yes!
THE PRESIDENT: All right. It was good to see you guys. All right, have fun.
END
8:47 P.M. RDT