A new house - and a new way of life - await Malia and Sasha Obama
Malia and Sasha Obama's new house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has 132 rooms, an 18-acre back yard, and a 100-person staff at its occupants' disposal.
Not bad for a 7- and 10-year-old.
But, of course, their new house also comes with high expectations, tight security and a worldwide spotlight.
When the Obama family moves into the White House in January, President-elect Barack Obama's daughters will be the youngest White House residents since 1961, when President John F. Kennedy moved in with his children Caroline, 3, and newborn John Jr.
Malia and Sasha will get to pick from more than a dozens bedrooms and will be allowed to decorate them as they wish, said John Riley, director of educational programs at The White House Historical Association.
Michelle Obama says she wants to keep the girls grounded and their lives normal, but historians doubt that's possible. Not just because of who their father is, but because of the high security necessary.
Malia's and Sasha's lives will have some normal aspects, though. If they want to raid the fridge, they can, and it will be filled with foods they like. The kitchen was added by the Kennedy family for that very reason.
They can invite their friends over for parties, like the senior prom Susan Ford hosted in the White House in 1975. The girls can play in the tree house, as Amy Carter did. And they can run around in an 18-acre back yard with a swimming pool and tennis courts, as Teddy Roosevelt's six children did.
But they'll likely spend their summers traveling the globe with their parents and meeting the world's most powerful and interesting people, Riley said. They might have to take an armored limousine to school. And security will be around them wherever they go - including school - creating a feeling of confinement.
"The downside is that it can seem a little lonely at times. They can feel a little trapped," Riley said.
On Monday, Michele Obama started to research the different public and private schools the girls could attend in Washington D.C., and made arrangements to move the family from Hyde Park to Washington.
"Like any new thing, it feels a bit daunting until you have your plan," Michelle Obama told Newsweek. "What I do know is that once the pieces start coming together, I think that's when the excitement can begin. When the girls know what school they're going to be in, they'll have a sense of how that's going to feel, and they'll know what their rooms look like. All my anticipation is really around the girls, making sure that they're OK."
While Malia and Sasha appear to be delightful young girls, behavior of the presidential children has not always been prim and proper. Of course, we've all seen "John John" Kennedy sitting under the Oval Office desk and tugging on his father's leg. But Quentin Roosevelt once pulled a pony down the White House hall and up the elevator to cheer up his sick brother, Archie. Thomas "Tad" Lincoln dressed in a soldier costume and used a toy cannon to bomb the door of the Cabinet Room, interrupting President Lincoln and his advisers while they discussed the Civil War.
But whatever shenanigans happen in the White House will likely stay in the White House, as the Obamas- like most recent presidents - have kept their children and their private residences off limits to reporters and photographers.
"We'll see less of them in those more intimate moments," Riley said. "We might have to wait until they're grown up until they tell us stories of what it was like."
Newsweek contributed to this report