Hoping to see this again? Might not happen if the government shuts down! (Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)

The White House’s ceremonial side is busy sprucing up the joint for the annual Easter Egg Roll, which is penciled in for Monday, April 1. Only now, the White House is warning that it might have to cancel the springtime celebration, and despite the scheduling, that’s no joke.

The reason? Federal stubbornness, what else? As if the $85 billion sequestration that went into effect on March 1 wasn’t enough, Congress and the White House’s official side are plummeting toward another budget deadline on March 27, when the current continuing resolution under which the government is currently operating is due to expire. If the clock strikes midnight and there’s no new agreement in place, nonessential government operations will begin to shutdown. And as much as it might be a longstanding tradition, inviting a bunch of kids over to roll some wooden eggs on the lawn while celebrating this year’s theme—”Be Healthy, Be Active, Be You!” aka exercise—is not an essential government function.

In a memo to lawmakers and ticket-holders, the White House warned that should Congress screw it up and allow March 27 to lapse without passing a new budget deal, the White House might have to cancel the Easter Egg Roll, thus depriving invited families of a wonderful memory, backslapping lawmakers of cheesy photo-ops, and click-dependent online publications of traffic-baiting galleries.

But it’s also very unlikely a shutdown will happen. For one thing, even in an extended period of congressional obstreperousness and other dunderheaded behavior, the last Congress always managed to avert a government shutdown at the last minute. And then there is the latest development from the Senate, which voted today to close debate on its version of a new continuing resolution and send the bill to the House of Representatives which will most likely proceed to cock it all up until the very last minute on Friday. (The deadline is technically March 27, but Congress is going on vacation at the end of the week.)

At the White House today, Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters the Obama administration expects the Easter Egg Roll to happen. “We have every expectation that the Easter Egg Roll will proceed as planned,” he said.