`EGG'-CEPTIONAL DECORATIONS BECOM AND EASTER TRADITION

Fifteen years ago, Maxine Boren saw a tree decorated with colorful, plastic Easter eggs, thought it was a good idea, and persuaded her husband, Gerald, to help her tie dozens of plastic eggs to the big tree in their front yard at 2114 Sherwood Drive.

Since then, decorating the yard has become an Easter tradition at the Boren home. Maxine has been adding decorations year by year. First an inflatable Easter bunny joined the collection, and quickly rabbits multiplied across the lawn. This year, in addition to eggs in a number of trees and bunnies scattered around the yard, the Borens' yard is also home to colorful artificial flowers and wooden cut-outs of bunnies and eggs.

Maxine said she decorates her yard simply because she enjoys doing it. "It's really a big job," she said, "but it's getting to be that it is expected of me because the same kids come by each year."

The Borens' yard gets a lot of visitors during the Easter season. "People slow down and look at the yard all the time," Maxine said. "A lot of times they have little kids in the car with them."

The Borens usually start putting their decorations up a week or two before Easter, depending on the weather. The decorations are taken down the Monday following Easter.

Maxine prefers decorating her yard for Easter rather than Christmas. "It's too cold during Christmas time to be out decorating," she said. "Also, the Easter decorations are the least expensive of the holidays. With Christmas you have to deal with all those lights, and the Easter decorations are a lot easier."

With or without Easter decorations, neighborhood walkers stop by all the time to tell her how pretty they think the yard looks. Maxine is an avid gardener who has won the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Yard of the Month contest twice. "I really love plants," she said. "Everybody thinks that it's so good that I can grow plants and flowers, but I'm really just lucky."

Over the years, Maxine has noticed that Easter decorating has become increasingly popular. "I have noticed that since I started putting eggs on my trees a lot of other people around town have started putting eggs on theirs," she said.

Maxine will continue to decorate her yard as long as she can get her husband to tie plastic eggs up in the trees.