A Bunny's Tale

     It was the morning of Easter.  My sister, brother, and I woke up to an exciting adventure of hunting for eggs and baskets.  Our mom was beaming with delight as she watched us run all over the house in search for our Sunday treasure.  I was around 7 or 8 years old, old enough to know there isn't a real Easter bunny yet young enough to still enjoy the magic of it all.  Then one of my sibilings seen something move.  A loud gasp filled the air followed by a hush of silence.  My other sibiling and I turned and looked at what the gasp was about.  Then we seen it....A BUNNY!


     Being a girl from a large city this was as country as I got.  Bunnies were either found on the farm or maybe every once in a while you might see one outside but this bunny was inside and in my house!  Then we seen something else move.  We looked over.  Another bunny!  We were beside ourselves.  No longer were we in search for baskets or eggs.  We were chasing two bunnies around the house trying to catch them so we can smother it with love.  One was a pure black bunny and the other was a pure white bunny.  Nothing delighted us more that Sunday morning. 


Our Easter gift - a black and a white bunny.  The brown bunny in the picture was a ceramic bunny used to see if the bunnies would get close to it.


     A guy my mom was dating at the time thought it would be nice to suprise us with these bunnies on Easter.  He brought them over late Saturday night and left again to be back over later on Sunday afternoon. 


We had all morning to get use to the bunnies and for the bunnies to get used to us.  He brought us a cage that we hung in our garage to keep the bunnies in.  Sometimes we would reach in and grab a bunny and the bunny would hop right out of our hands.  We had to quickly make sure all the doors were closed so the bunny wouldn't escape to the outdoors.  With time and patience we were always able to capture the bunny and take it either inside or back into the cage. 

     A few weeks later my mom informed us that she was going to donate the bunnies to the Saginaw Children's Zoo for the summer.  We were so sad not having them around the house.  With me being such a young age I did not like the idea but I didn't have a say in the matter.  Our mom did say that we would go and visit them during the summer.  And we did.  We would take several trips to the zoo.  They lived in a round cement slab that was put a few feet in the ground and a cement barrier around with a grassy dome in the middle. Standing close by we could see our bunnies.  We couldn't hold them but just seeing them make us happy.  They were the only two bunnies in the bunny exhibit. 

     Summer came to a close and the bunnies were coming home.  Our mom gave us some news before we could get them.  The zoo called.  Something happened while they were at the zoo.  It is the zoo's policy to only house female animals, well for bunnies anyway.  A male bunny must of got into the cage because they both had babies.  Our mom only wanted our black and white bunnies.  The zoo insisted that since our bunnies had babies that we had to take them all home.  I don't remember how many there were but there was several new white bunnies and several new black bunnies and we even had 2 tiny brown bunnies.  My mom felt overwhelmed at what to do with all these bunnies.  As far as a child's point of view nothing could be greater.

     One day early the next spring I wanted to hold a bunny.  They were all nestled in on the far corner of the cage.  My arm's length wasn't quite yet long enough.  I pulled up a milk crate and climbed up and pulled half of myself into the cage.  The wires that was holding up the suspending cage wasn't strong enough and a few of the wires broke.  The cage was on an uncomfortable list.  We ended up setting the cage on railroad ties to make due until we could get it hanged up from the rafters again. 

     It was a warm day outside and I thought the bunnies would like to enjoy the nice sunshine.  I managed to pull the cage outside and into the grass in our backyard.  They nibbled of a few strands here and there.  It looked like they were enjoying it.  The nights were getting warmer and mom said it would be fine if they stayed outside.  A few days later the bunnies were looking sick and they started to die.  I was so saddened by this.  My mom had her friend come over to help us figure out why they are getting sick.  They refused to eat.  We even used a medicine dropper to help try to feed them.  It was a useless battle.  One by one the bunnies were dying.  It crushed me.  We figured out what caused the bunnies to die off like that.  Mom forgot that she had the grass chemically treated just shortly before I broke the cage.  The grass the bunnies were eating were filled with chemicals by Tru-Green.  I am sure without my knowning my mom's friend helped put the other bunnies out of their misery. 


Our backyard where our bunnies had sealed their fate.


     We had a small funeral and burried some just behind the garage.  I would go and pick dandelions and place it over the turned up dirt that held in our dearly loved pets.  Although they have long been decomposed by now and the people who live there now have no clue that there is a small cemetery of bunnies in the backyard the happy memory of them still lingers on.

No More Easter Baskets!

     I have always enjoyed Easter growing up as a child.  Waking up Easter Sunday morning and tip-toeing out of my bedroom to see if I can locate a hidden egg before any of my sibilings wake up.  But like all sibilings on a holdiay morning the ears become super sonic and they would hear me and wake up and join me in the search of eggs and baskets.  Mom would soon come tumbling out of the bedroom telling us it is too early in the morning but by that time it was too late.  We were all on the search.  Mom takes her place on the couch while 3 young children zip all over the house looking for hidden treasure.  Afterwards my brother, sister and I would gather in the livingroom and open up our baskets looking at our goodies while eatting hard boiled colorful eggs and marshmellow peeps.  Life was grand.
    
     Having a family of my own I carried over the same traditions.  Being on the parent side made me look at things a little bit differently.  The premade baskets bought at the store were soon filled with cheap toys for too much of the cost.  After a few years all the baskets seems redundant.  Baskets with basketballs or footballs.  Baskets with sand toys.  Baskets with a cheap imatition of transformers or barbie or a plastic car that would break before the day was over.  There would be just a few packages of candy and mostly filled with Easter grass that you would still be vacuuming in the fall.  Easter was quickly losing its fun.

     So for a while I decided to make my own baskets.  I got to put what the kids liked in it along with other goodies of peeps, bubbles, books, etc.  The baskets were full and without Easter grass.  The older kids were starting to poke fun at where the hiding places would be and would tease that the Easter baskets are too easy to find.  I thought deeply about it.  They were right.  I was using the same spots over and over again.  Beind the couch, shoved between the fridge and the wall, in the bathtub, or behind the curtain.  I was feeling discouraged.  That bulky handle on the baskets made it hard to find creative places to hide for the older ones.  I needed a new plan. 

     In 2008 I came up with new plan.  No more baskets!  We would do "Hide-A-Gift".   They would each get 3 things, maybe 4.  One would be a big gift of something they want and the others would be smaller items like a kite, frisbee or chocolate bunny or bubbles.  I would buy 6 different designs of wrapping paper and each child's gift would be in that style of wrapping paper.  In the morning, on the coffee table, there would be samples of wrapping paper with their names on it.  They would know to find the present with the corresponding wrapping paper.   I had fun with it.  I hid some balanced on the drapery rod, tucked away in the bookshelf, on top of the bread box and under a cabinet.   For the younger children I would make it easy on them but the older kids had a hard time finding their packages.  In less than an hour a child or two would beg for a quick game of "Hot and Cold" to help tell where the gift was hiding.  Some would be determinded not to need assistance as they could find it themselves only to come back to me discouraged and needing help.  But I needed an idea for Easter candy.  So arrived another idea.  Pinatas!

     I loved Pinatas.  I remember in Kindergarten making one so I knew it couldn't be that hard to do.  A blown up balloon, strips of newspaper and lots and lots of glue.  After it dried I would make an opening and toss in all sorts of goodies like hand size bubbles, pixie sticks, ring pops, tiny Easter chocolates, pop rocks, a few yo-yos and other tiny toys.  I would seal it back up and duct tape the soft spots and add a few more layers of glued newspaper strips.  I would have the kids help me paint it.  Each child gets their own section to paint and design.  They enjoyed making it as much as they enjoyed wacking it open in the afteroon on Easter Sunday.  The youngest would always go first on up to the oldest so that each child hopefully gets a chance to wack it.   


Elizabeth (10) painting her section of the pinata.



Ashton aged 8 painting a bunny design on her section of the pinata.



Easter morning Elizabeth helps holds up the pinata while her sister Ashton takes a wack at it.  It was too cold that year to have the pinata outside.

Halvor aged 3 painting his section of the pinata with the help of his sister Elizabeth (age 10)



Christian (age 11) is helping his brother James (age 6) with his part of the pinata.

    

 We still color eggs and hide them as well.  They enjoy making different designs and writing sayings on the eggs with a white crayon.  The day is filled with eatting hard-boiled eggs and Easter candy just like I did when I was a child.  The tradition has changed for our family from baskets to gifts but the children really enjoy this way and perhaps they will pass this tradition on to their familes as well.