Easter Sunday – Such a Wonderful, Life-Changing Day! Jesus in her Heart!

Easter is a special day each year (2010, 2011 and 2012) and it clearly shows the changes in my sweet little girl.  This year was extra special and it will be our best Easter ever!  More about that part later.
Almost the moment Hannah opened her eyes she remembered that it was Easter and she hopped out of bed as I scrambled for the camera and ran after her.  Her bed head just made her all the more adorable!

The start of her hunt.  Could she be any sweeter?

Finding the dollhouse stash
Spotting her Easter treats

‘Fwip Fwops’ are new to Hannah and she makes me giggle as she sits down and does this with her toes to get them on.  LOL!
It’s fun to see how she organized her treats.
This video made me giggle.  Shhh…the eggs are hatching under the pink hay!

Happy Easter my sweet bunny Hannah XiaoFen!  You are the most precious little girl and mommy loves you SO much!
And now for the VERY BEST PART of our Easter!
After the hunt we went to church where Hannah has begun to sit with me in ‘big church’ during the first part of the service and then I take her to Sunday School part way through.  This day as expected focused on the resurrection of Jesus Christ!  She was paying close attention and had many questions.  We whispered back and forth a bit during church and then talked later.  I also read her the book, ‘The Easter Story’ by Patricia Pingry that we’d found the week before.  It talks about the real reason we celebrate Easter.  The death and resurrection of  Jesus. 
Hannah had been asking lots of questions over the past couple of weeks and I was doing my very best to answer them in ways that a 4yo could understand.  Later that day as I was in another room I could hear her chattering while she coloured.  This is oh so normal for her but this time it was really neat to hear her telling the Easter story!  She was saying things like, ‘Jesus died on the cross but He didn’t stay there.  Mary went to find him but the stone was moved and He wasn’t there!  He was alive!’  It overwhelmed me to hear my sweet baby girl recounting the Easter story with such passion in her words.
I pulled her into my lap and we talked about what she’d been learning and I asked her if she wanted to invite Jesus to live in her heart.  My sweet little girl said, ‘Yes.’  Mommy did her best to stay calm and not cry when I said, ‘Honey, let’s pray together.  I’ll say something and then you pray it after me.’ 
What happened next showed me that in her 4yo way, my little love knew exactly what she was doing.  I prayed, ‘Dear God.’  (Expecting her to pray the same.)  And yet her sweet words were ‘I’m sorry for the wrong things I do.’  Yes, she understood.  We finished the prayer together and Hannah now has Jesus living in her heart forever!  We called Grandma immediately and shared the exciting news with she and Grandpa and then told Nana the following morning.  Over the past couple of weeks she has told people, ‘I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart’ while she’s with me and she has also told me she as shared with others like her Preschool teacher. 
She is 4 and may not understand as an adult understands but she understands with a child’s heart….a child’s heart with Jesus living in it!
Yippee Jesus!!!

“Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:14 (NIV)

An Easter Trip to the Safety Village

This year I was keeping my eyes open for a new Easter activity and was happy when Norma mentioned something was happening at the safety village.  There was no gymnastics due to Easter so Hannah and I were able to share a rare relaxed Saturday morning together and then make our way to the village.

There were some cute little games like toss the beanbag at the bunny tail plus a few others.  The day really is designed for toddler – age 8 and it was such fun for Hannah!

An egg hunt is always a treat.

Hannah is a gal who enjoys getting her face painted so it’s a treat she enjoys every opportunity she gets.  This time she was a cute (and serious) little bunny.

Riding the jeep was a treat for sure!

Watch out Mommy!  (Yikes!  A peek into my future 12 years from now?)

We had a fun morning together and it was nice to find something new to do at Easter.   The other thing I appreciated was that because it was at the safety village there were lots of opportunities to learn too.  There was information from Neighbourhood Watch, the firefighters and we also found out later that there was a good bike helmet demo that we missed.  |Norma said all 4 of her grandchildren went home and immediately adjusted their bank helmets based on that they’d learned.  We’ll look for that next time for sure!

When we left the safety village we headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s to enjoy our family Easter dinner.  First up was the egg hunt.

At Grandma’s house the kiddos go out based on age.  Hannah is the youngest so was first out and I love how this video demonstrates her thought to leave some of the eggs for cousins who were coming behind her.

It was quite funny since there was still snow on the ground due to our long delayed Spring yet it was a little warmer so my niece was wearing shorts.  Ah – teens!

The girls enjoying their candies.  This Easter we were happy to have a couple of Rebecca’s friends join us for the afternoon.  I love that my niece and her friends are still young enough to enjoy this fun tradition even though they will be going to high school next year.

When we got back home that evening we continued a cute tradition that we started last year.   (These pics also showed me how far behind our spring is this year even though it was only one week later last year).

Step 1:  Plant jelly beans  

And the next morning…

More Easter fun to come.