‘Surprise!’ as Prince Harry joins Michelle Obama for Mother’s Day Tea

First lady Michelle Obama gestures during a surprise visit from Prince Harry at an event in honor of military mothers …
Britain’s Prince Harry drew cheers and shrieks of delight Thursday as he made a surprise appearance at a Mother's Day Tea hosted by first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, Vice President Joe Biden's wife.

Obama did all the talking as the guests in the State Dining Room of the White House, chiefly women in the military, their children, their mothers, and some military spouses, snapped phone-camera pictures and chattered excitedly.

The first lady -- President Barack Obama was out of town -- emphasized Harry's service in Britain's military and noted he had returned in January from his second tour in Afghanistan.

"For the past few years, he has focused on honoring the sacrifice and service of our veterans and military families, especially now that the war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close," she said.

"We are absolutely thrilled that he could be with us today," the first lady said of her husband. "He wanted to be here to personally thank you for your service."

But then, a warning:

Harry "only has a limited time with us because he has a very busy schedule," she said.

So the first lady, Biden, and Prince Harry went to the Blue Room adjacent with a plan to greet as many guests as possible.

"Prince Harry is going to stay as long as he can, and our goal is to get through everyone, but whenever he has to leave, we'll pull him out," Obama said. Shortly afterwards, a loudspeaker announcement advised: "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain at your table until directed by a social aide."

Harry is on his way this weekend to the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs for wounded or injured soldiers.

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Students help Michelle Obama plant White House vegetable garden

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First Lady Michelle Obama shared what has become a rite of spring in Washington with a small group of fifth-grade students on Thursday, planting vegetables in the White House garden.

On a day that began with record-cold temperatures that have pushed back the blooming season for the city's famous cherry trees, Obama welcomed about 30 students to help her plant the garden, a project she has championed as a model for children and their parents to emulate as a way to reduce childhood obesity.

"Where are your jackets? I'm going to be the mother," Obama joked with the group of earnest, polite kids, most wearing t-shirts bearing the names of their schools in Florida, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Vermont.

Obama has helped push for changes in school lunch rules to require more vegetables and fruit. The schools were chosen because they have implemented the new rules in creative ways and started their own gardens.

Harvard-educated Obama, who was more popular in polls during the 2012 election campaign than any of the candidates, started the garden on the White House south lawn in 2009, the first time vegetables had been grown there since Eleanor Roosevelt's "victory garden" during World War Two.

Obama, sporting sneakers without socks, put aside a pair of lime green gardening gloves as she crouched between two raised garden boxes, carefully placing tiny wheat kernels into freshly turned soil.

From Somerville, Massachusetts, 11-year-old Ariana Docanto chatted with Obama as she helped plant the wheat, which the White House hopes to harvest and use for bread and risotto.

Docanto described the experience in a single word: "Amazing!"

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Michelle Obama praises Jackie Robinson movie

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama says a new movie chronicling the rise of baseball great Jackie Robinson, including the racial discrimination he suffered on and off the ballfield, left her and the president visibly moved after they saw it over the weekend.

She said the film, "42," also had them wondering "how on earth" the Robinsons lived through it.

Mrs. Obama commented Tuesday before an interactive workshop she held for high school and college students after a screening in the White House movie theater. Students also got to question Robinson's widow, Rachel, and cast and crew members, including Chadwick Boseman, who plays Robinson in the movie.

President Barack Obama was holding a separate White House screening of "42" for the cast and crew Tuesday evening.

The film opens nationwide April 12.

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