(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

William, Robert, and Elizabeth have all been invited to a birthday party this weekend, so I need to come up with three presents for a 10-year-old girl. She likes cats, and she likes anything cute or fuzzy. She likes Phineas & Ferb, and SpongeBob Squarepants. She likes crafts. She plays soccer. She’s William’s age and grade [at the time, this was age 10 and grade 5) and is mostly William’s friend, but she plays with everyone when she’s here. Normally I aim for about $10 for a party gift (in this case, from each of the three children) [and these days I aim a little higher than that], but I’d be willing to go a little higher because she’s a family favorite.

 

First candidate: Wild Republic Floppy Orange Tabby Cat. Most households already have more stuffed animals than they can handle—and yet, the sight of this cat reduced our household to “OHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!!!”s of cuteness.

 

Second candidate: Rory’s Story Cubes. These look fun—but maybe they’re the sort of thing that look fun to the grown-ups, but make the kids think of school. Still, William thought they looked neat.

 

Third candidate: American Girls Bears Sew and Stuff Kit. William found this and liked it. There’s also owls and raccoons, but William thought she’d like the bears best.

 

Fourth candidate: Toysmith Crystal Mining Kit. William got this for his 10-year-old birthday, and I think it was probably his favorite gift. There’s an assortment of pretty crystals buried in a block of “rock” (more like compressed sand/glue), and you chip away with little tools until you dig out the crystals. It makes a bit of a MESS, but the sand stuff is dry and easy to sweep/vacuum up, and then you have the crystals to keep in a little bag.

 

Fifth candidate: Plasma ball. This is getting more expensive than I had in mind—BUT, if two of the kids chose less-expensive gifts, it would average out to being okay.

 

Sixth candidate: Beanie Ballz: Guinea Pig and Beanie Ballz: Penguin. They’re grapefruit-sized, very very silky soft, and all the kids are losing their minds over how cute they are. I think we’d get these two (yes, yes, two Ballz, I get it, ha ha, very funny), but there’s also a monkey, a hamster, a panda, a dog, a pink cat, a bee, and a ladybug. [Follow-up: We DID get these, and they were such a hit when they arrived, the children could barely stand to give them to the birthday child. We now have the guinea pig at our own house, as well as the penguin in FOUR SIZES.]

 

Seventh candidate: Temporary tattoos: mini butterflies, Temporary tattoos: henna butterflies. We’d choose a bunch of different tattoo books.