Blakley Easter Fun

This year, I was the only one of my siblings able to make the Easter trek to the farm.  Our visit actually began with Mass at Bison as we arrived from the Richards/Rouse doings just in time.  The kids were miraculously good for what turned out to be nearly a 2 hour service. It started at 8:30pm, which is really just too late for littles.  In any case, B got to participate in the Bison creation story re-enactment.  This is a rather unique feature at St. Joseph's in Bison that started when I was little.  At Easter, the Catholic church routinely reads the creation story.  At Bison, my Mom has been the one reading it for what I guess is about two decades now if you can imagine.

 At each phase in the story kids bring up items to the altar symbolizing that step in the process.  For instance, at the mention of the creation of the "great sea monsters" someone brings up a fish bowl.  For the stars, there are of course cardboard stars and pinwheels.  Usually, the kids would need to make several trips to get all the pieces as it is a small parish. In my day, we had extensive rehearsals, and lots of live animals usually including dogs and sheep.  Things are a bit looser these days, but the basics remain.  B was able to participate and brought in a pinwheel (aka star) up at the back of a large group of kids. Then, per my directions came back to get another round.  Apparently, no one else was doing that this year, but he cheerfully complied on his own.  In any case, he got to make a return trip with a Panda (obviously stuffed, not real) and then sat pleasantly as the story continued.  He did manage to avoid the tangle of kids that erupted near the rabbit cage and came running back to see us.

The huge irony for me was that almost to a person every parent at the back trying to organize this herd of youngsters was a person I had done the creation story with as a kid.  The generations have cycled and maybe half of us life elsewhere, but there we were helping our little ones experience something we had enjoyed together as kids. I do not know how much longer the creation story at bison will continue as it seemed particularly unorganized this time, but the chaos was part of the fun.  It is a unique moment that I enjoy and hope my kids get to try again as well.  (You can see some pictures of him on my mom's blog here).

The next day began with a visit from the easter bunny complete with goodies for both kids, but most of the day was quiet farm play.  My Grandpa and Uncle David came to lunch followed by B receiving his very own Massey Ferguson pedal tractor (big deal in farm world).  We had a fabulous easter egg hunt, napped, played with M, cooked, and had a good time. B even found a snake on his egg hunt.  At which point I elected to go inside with Dad, Martha and Maggie as I am no friend of the slithery ones.  I really missed seeing my siblings, but it was a sweet, small easter.  B and Brent headed home at dusk while M and I stayed for the funeral on Monday.  While M slept, I got to enjoy one of the first crazy, wild storms of spring on the porch as we do in Oklahoma with that niggling fear that it "might" be a tornado.  All was well and spring has truly arrived.

Here is a slide show of some of our adventures: