Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

What was with all the teddy bears in the neighborhood windows? What’s with the bunny eggs in the windows?

Perhaps, Melanie Adams is right. Staying home can be a good thing. It’s cause to get those creative juices flowing in an effort to fill time in fun and family ways.

So, perhaps, that explains why teddy bears have been boldly displayed in the windows of homes around Troy in recent days.

“It’s like a scavenger hunt,” Adams said. “Parents drive their children around the neighborhoods to let them see how many bears they can find in the widows or on the porches of the different houses. It’s fun for the children and also gives their parents an opportunity go out for a drive and as they have family fun together.”

But bears? Why not deer or squirrels, something native to Pike County?

“There is a book and a song, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt,’ that kids love to read and sing,” Adams said. “Some of the parents play the song as they are driving around on a bear hunt. That makes hunting for bears even more fun.”

But during Holy Week the bears have given way to bunnies that are hopping around everywhere and leaving Easter eggs behind.

“Parents are cutting out oval shapes and the children are coloring or decorating them like Easter eggs,” Adams said. “The eggs are hung or placed in the windows of the homes and the children are being driven around on an Easter egg hunt — a social distancing egg hut.”

Adams said the fun of the Easter egg hunt is two-fold. The children have the fun of decorating their egg or eggs and then the fun of hunting eggs around the neighborhood.

“David and I have made the Easter egg hunt a game,” Adams said. “Our girls, Macey and Adeline, each have a side of the street and they see who can find the most eggs. It’s a lot of fun for all of us.”

The fun of the Easter egg hunt is not limited to the children who decorate the eggs. Its fun for families that just want to join the fun of the hunt.

Eggs are “hidden” in neighborhoods around Troy and also in homes throughout the county for others to enjoy on this Easter weekend.

“Although stormy weather is predicted for Easter Sunday, there are many opportunities to enjoy the outdoors during the time we are requested to stay home,” Adams said. “I know our girls are noticing that it rained last night and how quickly the leaves are growing, the full moon and so many other things in nature that we have been missing.”

Adams said this is a challenging time for parents who usually work full-time and now are having to find ways to balance working at home with school work and being a home.

“Sharing ideas and tips for things for the children to do and families, too, make it easier and more fun to ’stay home,’” Adams said. “This Easter Sunday will be different but we will find our own ways to celebrate this most special day of the year.”