Young and old work together for an egg hunt

Today when I opened my laptop to write this column my cat, Car-E, leaped up on my keyboard. Of course, Stella, my dog, wasn't happy to have the cat on this perch. She ran around the base of the table, barking. This was not the best way to start my writing adventure.

After allowing them some special time with me, I put the dog on the porch where she could look for rabbits and transported the cat to a different room.

I'm just back from an outing with my family. It was our Easter gathering even though it wasn't on Easter Sunday. Sometimes you must pick and choose days that work best for most of the family. Everyone couldn't join us this time, some because of work, others because of activities, and one person was laid up with a sore back. Still, we made the best of our day in Sun Prairie.

Now that I can grasp the steering wheel with both hands, I drove the two hours for our Easter luncheon. My broken hand will have more therapy in the future. It's not perfect, or back to normal, but at least I can drive again.

The night before this trip, the weather reports were for snow again in my area. When I went to bed, I said a little prayer hoping that this time they were wrong, that I wouldn't get three-plus inches of snow in the morning.

When I awoke, I found only a dusting of white on the ground. The bulk of the weather had gone north and dumped six inches of snow about 50 miles away. I could drive to my destination on dry roads, for which I was very grateful.

Rachel and her family provided us with a wonderful lunch. You'd think that was the highlight of the day, but I think the egg hunt took precedence, at least for some of the crowd.

Because of dietary restrictions for one of our egg hunters, the plastic eggs were filled with prizes that wouldn't affect anyone's allergies or health. Rebecca came prepared with filled eggs that fit the bill.

When it came time for the egg hunt, adults of all ages placed eggs around the yard, in trees, in bushes, and even on cars. At this time the children were supposed to be in the basement, not looking—I only hid a couple of eggs. Mostly I just watched and laughed at all the antics that were happening in the yard.

My two oldest grandsons were not there to help hide the eggs, and the youngest grandchildren were not available for this egg hunt, so we were limited to five hunters.

It was a free-for-all when it came time to gather eggs. When the baskets were filled, the children put some of their unopened eggs into other baskets for those who could not attend—they all showed great restraint and gave an assortment of all egg shapes and sizes.

Kites were put together after our meal and the children spent time trying to keep them in the air. The wind wasn't cooperative. Mostly the kids ran like crazy trying to keep their kites aloft. When a small breeze did pop up it put two kites into a tree. Luckily, the kites were rescued before the tree could eat them. 

It was a good day, especially time spent with my family.

Susan Manzke, Sunnybook Farm, N8646 Miller Rd, Seymour, WI 54165; sunnybook@aol.com; susanmanzke@gmail.com; www.susanmanzke.net/blog.