As a child I had a lot of adventures. They were all great and helped shaped me.
One that has stuck with me is when my friends and I went searching for the Easter Bunny.
On a bright and warm morning a group of eight kids met up at a fallen tree. They were a buzz with the anticipated holiday, Easter.
Two brown haired sisters were looking forward to finding eggs, doing crafts and having a picnic lunch with their mother. Two other sisters, one blond and the other with black hair, were excited also. They always had a large family dinner with gifts. Two brothers, one brown haired and the other blonde, were less excited. They would be spending half the day away from their friends. The last set is a brother and sister, both brown haired. They were just excited to play with their friends before summer camp.
While planning out their morning adventure the group listened to one of the boys suggestions to look for the Easter Bunny. They were all free until lunch. Surely they could find him by then.
First off was the area by the ice rink. Well, it was a rink in the winter. This was spring. It was a partially boxed off mud pile. They played a fun game to see how many steps one got make before they lose their rubber boots. Only the lightest of the group ever made it across with their boots intact. There was no time for this game today. They looked for any rabbit tracks or tell tale signs the Easter Bunny had been by. No luck.
Next they headed to the forest and undeveloped area at the top of “the hill”. “The hill” was over half a mile long and very steep. This was a favorite area to hold bike races. Not many kids could bike all the way up. At the very top it was gravel as it went to an area of the neighborhood that had not been developed. If you went to the end of the gravel road the normal gravel became lava rock. It was a great place to pretend you were a mountain climber.
There were no signs of the Easter Bunny on the road or at the lava rock mountain. On of the boys said his older brother had a fort in the forest. The Easter Bunny might have visited it. Since they were up there they went in search of the fort.
The forest was thick and it took them a while to find the fort. It was back further than any of them had gone before. Several times they were tempted to turn around. Curiosity prevailed and they continued on until they found the fort.
They did not spent a lot of time at the fort. It looked abandon and scary. They turned around and headed straight for the road. They had searched almost all of the high places in the neighborhood, it was time to search near the houses and the area near the roads that left the neighborhood.
They took a small path from the end of the gravel road down to the “top” row of houses. Saying hello to any adults they came into contact with they made a quick search of the area. There were no signs of the Easter Bunny. They did not tell the adults what they were doing. They would just think it was silly and childish.
Next came the “second” row of houses, easily accessed from the hill and the road. This area met with the same results as the “top” row. This time they took the access path down to the “first” row.
“First” row was set up a bit different than the other two rows. It had a wall of tires in most of the back yards. This wall was used by some of the parents to grow plants, others just treated it like a fence and a few hid it with shrubbery. In the “first” row was where they had their first sign of luck, easter eggs!
There were Easter eggs hiding in the tire wall. He is real!
It took them all morning, but they had the proof that the Easter Bunny was real.
Just in time for lunch.