Easter

WARNING: Parental discretion is advised. Some content may not be suitable for young children.

Easter was so much fun this year! But let me start out a couple of weeks before Easter. Two Saturdays before Easter, I got all of the shopping for Mya's basket done. That night, I put it all together to see if it looked like plenty in her basket and just left it in our storage room - where Mya never goes unless she goes in there with one of us. The next morning, we were hurrying to get ready for church. I went in our basement to iron my shirt and Justin ended up coming down to find Mya's sweater in the dryer. Neither of us noticed that Mya walked down the stairs and went into the storage room. She came right out just beaming with the biggest smile and carrying her basket full and said, "DAD!!!" She was so excited. Justin quickly took the basket from her and put it back and carried our devastated, now crying, little girl upstairs. I ended up getting her a treat from her basket and told her the surprise was for another day. She quit crying and was satisfied with her treat and we went to church.

So with that starting our Easter season off, we didn't mention much about an Easter Bunny this year. But in a way, I'm really glad because she can tell you why we have Easter and tell the story of the resurrection. I had to give the Easter lesson in Nursery, so that's the story we went over again and again and that's the story she can tell you (I ask her questions and she answers them or she fills in blanks as we tell the story together):

We have Easter because of Jesus.
When Jesus died, they put his body in a tomb.
They put a big rock in front of the door.
After 3 days, angels moved the rock
because Jesus was alive.
When Jesus came back to life, he was resurrected.
Mary was the first to see Jesus after he was alive.
Since Easter was on conference weekend, she got to wear her dress the week before. She was so excited and actually picked out her dress. She looked so cute...too bad that night she got permanent marker on it and I've yet to get it out completely.

The day before Easter, we went to D'Lynn's (my sister-in-law) work for their annual Easter egg hunt. Mya had a blast and they even served a big breakfast afterwards. I so need to remember about it every year because it was awesome. She got a lot of treats!...but was scared of the Easter Bunny walking around - does not surprise me.We did leave empty baskets out for the last week before Easter (that way maybe she would remember less about the full basket she had previously found). Saturday night, Mya didn't want to go to bed and Justin told her the Easter Bunny couldn't come until she was in bed. She got so excited and had us hurry and put her to bed. At this point, we were talking about the Easter Bunny, but in case there was anything she remembered or recognized, I told her I left some things out for the Easter Bunny to put in her basket. I just made sure I put her basket together in a completely different way so it didn't look the same.

She was so excited Easter morning! As soon as Justin reminded her that morning, she quickly came and got me and kept telling me, "Come on mom, let's go!" She got flip flops, water toys, a kite, a new outfit, a new phone, headbands, an electric toothbrush (no more fighting at night to get her to brush her teeth!), and of course candy.After conferences were over for that day, we went down to Justin's parent's for their Easter egg hunt. Mya loved it, even though we all had a lot of fun.
We went to dinner at my parents house that night for dinner and had the traditional ham and cheese potatoes...I love that on Easter! We ended our night with chasing each other around the house squirting each other (Justin and Mya both got water guns in their basket). It was such a fun Easter!