Easter Bunny

The Elkridge Volunteer Fire Department will hold an all-you-can-eat breakfast with the Easter Bunny from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. April 2 at the firehouse, 6275 Old Washington Road. Eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, home fries, sausage gravy, toast, juices, coffee and tea will be served. There is a fee. Information: 410-313-4901. Also at the Fire Department, a Home Party Vendor Show, featuring consultants and demonstrations by representatives from Mary Kay, Longaberger, Pampered Chef, Avon and others, is scheduled from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. April 9. Lunch will be available.

In the week before Easter, Wockenfuss Candies sells more than 33,000 pounds of chocolate at its five Baltimore stores. The crowds can be thick, and supplies sometimes run out. Factor in driving and parking, and you'll wonder how the Easter Bunny does this for free.Is there another way? There is now. Step right up to the virtual candy counter -- http: //www.wockenfusscandies.com or http: //www.candycounter.com -- and place an order.We took it for a test run (purely in the interest of investigative journalism)

You're no bunny 'til some bunny loves you.Sue Bents, Crofton's recreation assistant, is making plans to welcome the Easter Bunny with open arms when it hops into town April 3 as part of the annual community festivities.The Easter hunt, on the grounds of Crofton Elementary School, for those colored eggs will begin at noon and last until 1:30 p.m.The big bunny will be joined by his good friend Barney, star of television and shopping malls. Youngsters will be able to meet the purple dinosaur and have their pictures taken.

The Easter Bunny came a few days early for several Ellicott City merchants who were allegedly victimized by a pair who were charged with shoplifting last weekend, police said.As Barry Gibson tells the tale, he was dressed in a fluffy white, fake fur bunny suit, colorful sequined vest and black sunglasses Sunday when he noticed a woman putting a wooden Christmas ornament into her purse while in the Forget-Me-Not Factory.A man who was with the woman walked about the store -- a gift shop at the bottom of Main Street -- uttering obscenities and causing havoc, apparently trying to draw attention away from the woman, Gibson said.

TOO BAD THE Easter Bunny wasn't at the Baltimore courthouse. Thieves brazenly made off with 300-pound solid brass doors that had graced the side entrance of the downtown building for 65 years.They pulled the caper when the crime-fighting bunny was busy with another case in Ellicott City.Barry Gibson, a dental technician, donned long ears and a bushy tail to promote his wife's shop on Main Street. But Mr. Gibson's bunny ears were definitely up when a couple entered the shop, the Forget-Me-Not Factory, two weeks ago. He saw the woman tuck a wooden Christmas ornament into her purse.

Just being able to communicate directly with the Easter Bunny was a treat as sweet as a chocolate rabbit for a group of children at the Glen Burnie Mall.When the pupils in the county's program for the hearing impaired at Shipley's Choice Elementary School approached the fuzzy bunny they were greeted by someone who spoke their language."Do you remember me from last year?" Matthew Harvey, 11, of Pasadena signed to the white rabbit."No," the bunny signed back. "But everyone knows my name."The bunny appeared courtesy of the Glen Burnie Lion and Lioness clubs, which started the program last year.

Westminster mall to feature magician, Easter bunny visit TownMall of Westminster will welcome the Easter bunny in an evening of magic and family entertainment Friday in the food court. Starting at 6 p.m., magician Tom Crowl and the Mrs. will ask children to participate in Build-a-Bunny by offering suggestions on how to turn a person into a bunny. The show also will feature a live rabbit, puppets and a trained Vietnamese pot-bellied pig. Afterward, the Easter bunny will greet children and pose for pictures.

The Easter Bunny made an early appearance in Annapolis yesterday -- in handcuffs. A drug defendant on probation who was late for a hearing in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court bolted from the courtroom when he heard that a judge had issued an arrest warrant, said Sheriff George F. Johnson IV. Courthouse deputies chased him into the nearby Maryland Inn and found him in a storage room -- climbing into a white bunny costume used for Easter brunch....

One of my favorite Easter stories comes from a friend whose toddler was attending a progressive nursery school. Because the school was fiercely nondenominational, it was careful about celebrating holidays but got caught, as schools do, wanting to acknowledge various events without emphasizing the religious origins. So the school told parents that their children would have a visit from the "Spring Rabbit." On the day of the celebration, my friend told her little boy, "Today, the Spring Rabbit is coming to your school."