In a dim, predawn chill, the special-ops agents crept into a basement to await the tense launch of the Obama administration’s top-secret mission.
Then, shortly after daybreak, the covert team got the go-ahead – Mission Swing Set was under way.
“Once the kids were gone, we went to work,” said Greg Foster of Rainbow Play Systems of Brookings, SD, who sneaked his six-member team into the White House basement early Wednesday to prepare to build a swing set for the first daughters.
Once the Obama girls left for school, Foster and his crew emerged to erect the set on the South Lawn.
When Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, arrived home, their mom, grandma and dad herded them outside.
“Surprise!” the president yelled.
“The kids started squealing and screaming and laughing,” Foster recalled. “They ran down the hill, and they jumped on the swing set.”
Foster, who has been building swing sets for 24 years, overheard Obama say, “This is the nicest swing set I’ve ever seen.”
“The kids came over and shook my hand and the hands of all my helpers,” Foster said.
Obama pushed his girls on the tire swing.
“I heard them say, ‘This makes the White House feel more like a home now,’ ” Foster said.
After a while, Obama headed back to work. But the girls kept playing, and Foster said he spotted the president watching them from the Oval Office.
“I did not look at them as president and first lady,” Foster said.
“It looked like Mom and Dad and the kids setting up a new swing set.”