Birthdays — Gifting — Kate's Take

I love to give gifts and spend an obscene amount of time daydreaming about them. Children’s gifts are my absolute favorite and lucky for me we have quite a few nieces and nephews to spoil. I have the easiest time sourcing gifts for kids 7 and under specifically because I have experience with those age ranges but find the tween - teenager age range a bit more challenging. Our eldest niece is turning 11 later this week and I wanted to send her something fun and unique based on things that she loves. Read on for my TAKE on a Tween Birthday Toolkit.

Our niece loves to make friendship bracelets so that really set the theme of her gift as I wanted to send her some supplies in a unique way. As a self professed organization freak, I went on a hunt for a storage box reminiscent of my youth. I found the perfect storage box aka “toolkit” made for embroidery and filled it with some vibrant DMC embroidery floss. My older kids helped me organized the floss and detangled a few knots as we wrapped the floss around the bobbins. I wish I had thought to write the color numbers on the bobbins so she could better keep track of the colors in her collection. I definitely didn’t do that as a kid but it’s genius!

I filled the remainder of the “toolkit” with washi tape, candy, safety pins and some birthday balm dot com from Glossier. I’m still not over my love of personalizing everything so we added our nieces name in alphabet stickers to the top of her toolkit and wrapped it in a bow. Finally, in addition to her friendship bracelet kit we sent a long a Narwhal Jellycat lovie because thankfully, she hasn’t outgrown her love of Narwhal’s quite yet! I hope my niece loves her gift and my oldest daughter is already asking me to make her a “toolkit” for her birthday so I’m thinking I’ll soon be making these on the regular for friend and cousin birthdays alike!

Toolkit Contents

I can't believe it's almost been a month since we celebrated Maggie's 1st birthday. It was such a fun day and was so fun to plan. Perhaps, we made a bigger deal of her birthday than we normally would but we will only get to celebrate her first birthday once! Maggie is our third child and as such she is often the benefactor of hand-me-down clothes and toys but for her birthday she received some generous new gifts. Which got me thinking about some of my favorite gifts for a baby's first birthday and my favorite picks for subsequent children's first birthdays. Is there a difference, you ask? I think there is. With your first child you're starting with nothing in the toy department and by your third child (as in my case) they literally only need diapers. Enjoy my TAKE on first birthday gift ideas!

My Fave First Birthday Gifts for your First Child

Learning Activity Walker (Wood +/or Plastic)
Activity Table
Hopping Horse "Rody"
Push Car
Ride On Wheelie Bug
Baby Doll +/or Baby Doll Stroller /Luggy Basket
Tractor + Trailer
Personalized Frame
Personalized Chair
Stacking Toy
Walk-A-long Pull Toy
First Pair of Walker Shoes

My Fave First Birthday Gifts for Subsequent Children

Children's Museum or Zoo Membership (In Your Area)
Personalized Plate + Bowl
Personalized Beach Towel/Personalized Hooded Beach Towel
Grimm's 12 Piece Nesting Rainbow Puzzle
Teepee
Floor Drum
A New Outfit (Boy/Girl)
A New Book (Boy/Girl)
Personalized Photo Board Book
Monthly Bow Subscription
Munchkin Inflatable Swan (Fun for the tub or outside)

The gift ideas above truly work well for any child's first birthday but if it's your first child I would prioritize the gifts in the first grouping against those in the second. We try not to go overboard with birthday presents so we try to stick to giving our kids three gifts. Generally, we stick to the rule of thumb of: something to read, something they need and something for fun! This was pretty easy to do with Maggie as her older siblings have all of the classic first birthday gifts. For her birthday she received a set of Little Feminist Board Books, Grimm's 12 piece Nesting Rainbow Puzzle, a Personalized Plate and Bowl and a completely unnecessary but adorable new lovie. I hope these ideas have been helpful and enjoy celebrating!