In order to bring more attention to their new products, owner Trish McVay and her mother/manager Kathy Mahan invited the Easter Bunny to hop into Tools for Learning to before his big weekend appearances.

Although kids were initially stunned by the larger-than-life Easter Bunny, Mahan said most children usually warm up to him after being in the store for a while.

But when Isabel Ellis, 3, and her two-year-old sister BeBe, walked into the store, they didn’t want to go near the almost 6-foot-tall white furry creature.

Even with their father and grandparents coaxing them with talks of “the nice bunny,” the two refused to sit next to the silent rabbit.

Instead, the Ellis sisters chose to stand outside the small fence, sure to be out of the bunny’s reach, as they took their free photo in the presence of the “wascally wabbit.”

Although some children were afraid of the rabbit, Andrew Thomas said he had fun doing a favor for McVay, his former fourth-grade teacher.

“She’s a good friend of my mom’s,” he said, “and she said she needed someone silly to be the rabbit.”

Since opening in December 2005, the store has undergone three renovations adding more “tools” to their learning arsenal and having a kid-friendly, cuddly Easter Bunny was the perfect way to get parents into the store.

“It’s our way of showing off the store so people can see what we have,” Mahan said, “We have products in here that parents can use at home too.”

When the store first opened, it was a front room full of product, an office, and a tanning room.

Now, the store has moved the tanning bed further to the back of the building, and transformed its former location into the “religion room” where Bible-themed products and bulletin board decorations are sold. They’ve also opened another room with shelves of math, reading, and writing workbooks.

“We’ve found that not only teachers are looking for new ways to teach, but so are parents, hospitals and churches,” Mahan said, “and they’ve given us a warm welcome. We appreciate everyone.”

Even though the store seems as though it would be filled to capacity with all the new items, there is still a large room in the back, which the two currently use for storage, that they are contemplating turning into more product space. But customers will just have to wait to see what additional construction is in store for Tools for Learning.