CAPE COUPLE'S FRONT YARD AN EASTER PARADE OF BUNNIES

Maxine Boren began going gaga for Easter decorations 18 years ago after she spied plastic eggs hanging from a tree in someone's yard. She decorated the buckeye tree in her own yard in the same fashion and since has added something new to the Technicolor pageant every year.

Her front yard now is awash in inflatable rabbits 50 of them and uncountable plastic eggs and silk flowers. This year she found room for a 6-foot-tall inflatable rabbit and a sign that gives directions to Bunny Trail, Hoppy Highway, Spring Valley and Eggs Pressway.

The dogwood, the flowering crabtree and the pear trees in her front yard all are hung with plastic eggs of many colors. An egg garland is wound around the holly bush.

Maxine's husband, Gerald, is in charge of blowing up the bunnies. He used to use his own wind, but you know how bunnies are. Now a pump is required.

The Easter decorations are all secular; none are religious. Maxine, who attends St. Andrew Lutheran Church, says she just hasn't been able to find anything religious. "And I guess this is more just for kids." she said.

Decorating for Easter hasn't quite caught on the way decorating for Christmas has, and the Borens don't understand why. They point out that the weather is much nicer at Easter. Their Christmas decorations are mild in comparison.

The urge to decorate doesn't extend inside their house either. "I don't have time for the inside," Maxine says.

When the Borens built their house at 2114 Sherwood Drive in 1963, theirs was only the second house on the street. Gerald worked for the post office, and Maxine was a secretary for an accounting firm before their retirement.

Their four grandchildren used to enjoy the decorations, but they're all grown. Now the Borens decorate for themselves, their neighbors and the cars that often stop. Sometimes the drivers and passengers get out to get a better view and talk. A few days ago a bus from the Lutheran Home stopped to give the passengers a look.

Many people think the silk flowers are real. "In a couple of weeks I'll have real flowers," Maxine says. Twice her yard has been named Yard of the Month. She's known as the flower lady of Sherwood.

So far the Easter display hasn't been lighted. "I haven't talked him into doing that yet," Maxine says, laughing.

The display will come down a day or two after Easter. "It comes down faster than it goes up," she says. They've had little vandalism over the years and don't worry about it. They do worry about wind storms.

As a girl, Maxine would go to Woolworths to see the dyed baby chicks and watch the confectioners decorate chocolate eggs they would put your name on. She never received either of those for Easter and admits her yard may be a way of making up for it.

She always did the Easter egg hunts and baskets for her own kids and says, "Some of those things are hard to stop."