The “House Critters” Easter Afternoon

    Amy took Avatar out to ride horses in the afternoon. This is when Barb and Bob hid the large white eggs in the back yard that contained special treats from the chocolate shop in town for the youngsters. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds because while ground cover was growing the leaves on bushes and trees weren’t out yet so lots of places that would have been good hiding were just too easy to see. They had been inside a couple of hours when the kids (not really, they are in their middle twenties) came home and went out to hide the rest of the eggs and others items.

  Finally it was time for the back yard Easter egg hunt, with the same rules for items with names on them. Luckily this hunt was in descent weather as some years just staying outside to look took a lot out of the searchers due to cold, wind and eggs hidden in the snow! As usual the critters started to find items first, after all they start out at ground level, and rabbits have good smellers so they can pick out stuff handled by humans quite easily. Amy and Avatar found items early because Barb and Bob hadn’t hidden their stuff in tough locations, which they would have if they had known where their named items were going to be hidden. Barb and Bob found some generic eggs ok but items with their names didn’t seem to be anywhere. With thirty items hidden in the back yard, twenty for the humans and ten for the critters there was lots of looking going on. Big and Henrietta were the first critters to find two items. Their named items were the same, a large white egg filled with baby carrots which just happened to be a favorite treat. After a while the young folks took pity on the seniors and gave each of them some advice. Barb was informed that her main item was in the back of the backyard and Bob was told the opposite. This wasn’t the detailed advice they were hoping for but was better than nothing. Bob sat down on the picnic table as he decided thinking was better than just walking around and looking at everything again. Ducky was next to find his two items, his named treat was in a wax box that came from the live bait store. It contained some small fish, worms, water weeds and two baby frogs which made Ducky quack with joy. Blue was just a bit latter with his named item looking just like Ducky’s but contained sardines, anchovies, mackerel and his favorite which is squid. Barb ask for clarification on what exactly was the back of the back yard and got informed that the front of the garage marked the start of the back of the back yard which ended at the fence.

  Not having to look behind the fence saved her lots of time when going back over the area again. Bob heard the answer to her question which also helped him focus in on where his labeled treat might be. He had already looked around the back of the house and found eggs in the end of a downspout, sitting on the outside faucet and under the grill cover. He decided that as he liked to grill the labeled treat might be near the grill. Although he had looked around the grill before he decided to give the area a closer look. Pulling up the grill cover didn’t help; he got down and raked his fingers through the ground cover between the grill and the back steps which got him an egg. Problem was that it didn’t have his name on it so he still needed to keep looking. By this time Avatar had found all his items, his named item was a gift certificate for special coffee. Meanwhile Amy was having a problem finding her labeled treat and Avatar told her that she needed to look where her mother was looking. Bob still was looking for his labeled treat and ask for a hint, from Amy he got “look up by the house”, which was where he had been looking. He went over by the driveway and looked around the foundation all the way across the back of the house. He looked under the forsythia bush behind the kitchen, in the flower bed beside the kitchen; under the bushes he didn’t know the name of behind the dining room, along the steps into the back hallway, along the foundation of the back walk in closet and along the foundation of the dressing room off of their bedroom. None of this got him anything except a bit angry at not being able to find his last item.

  Barb and Amy were not finding their item either which turned into Amy getting advice of being warmer or colder from Avatar when she moved around the yard and her doing the same thing for Barb. Bob decided to sit and watch the fun as they went from place to place hoping to pin point their last items. Amy had ended up at the red maple tree and kept telling Avatar there was nothing hidden around it, he told her “its right in front of you.” She seemed quite annoyed that she couldn’t find her prize, then she said “you didn’t climb the tree did you?” to Avatar. His lack of an answer told her he had, which is why she was close to the item but could not see it. Amy climbed up a couple of limbs and there was her labeled item, it was not an egg and didn’t have any chocolate in it. There was a small box with a ring in it that Amy had seen at a store, Avatar had gone back to and purchased for her, she was very pleased with her surprise. Rainy had actually found both his items a while ago but with Amy and Barb getting everyone’s attention he had just laid down in the grass and stated munching on his named treat. Turns out he is also a big fan of baby carrots and they were packed in oats, which is another favorite food item.  

  So everyone but the seniors had found all their items and the critters had already eaten half of theirs. Barb got more warm and cold instructions from Amy while Bob got the same information he got earlier. After at least another ten minutes went by Amy took pity on her mother and told her to look only in the area behind the garage. With two sheds in that area it still gave Barb a lot of places to check or perhaps check again. Meanwhile Bob was stumped; he had looked at the area where he had been told his named item was located a number of times with no success. Amy wouldn’t give him any further hints so he decided to look at the whole area and decide where looking again would give him the best chance of success. He was just heading over to the ground cover when Barb yelled out “I found it” and “Amy you are a stinker!” She had found her named item tied up under a step on the ladder that leaned against the back of the garage. Amy had used some dead yard vines to secure it and put the same vines on some of the other steps. Barb had looked at the ladder numerous times and thought the vines were just debris that had blown around and caught on the steps. Bob was the only searcher who hadn’t found all his items even with the hint he had received. Now Bob was the one everyone else was having fun watching as he knelt down on the concrete pad behind the back steps where the grill was located. He started to hand rake the ground cover again but this time he went down all the way to the concrete or ground. Bob was starting to talk to himself using words that aren’t appropriate for this story when he felt the corner of a box. He extracted it from the vines and sure enough his name was on it. The box had been painted green to match the ground cover and looked like it had been a container for large wooden matches. He also though his daughter was a stinker as she would have been the one who painted the box! When he opened it there was a book of car wash coupons, everyone else clapped and finally the outside egg hunt was done.