Gift ideas for Girls Ten and Under

I was excited to buy my niece a birthday gift this year. She is turning seven and I was at quite a loss at what to get her at first. I am not used to "girl stuff" as I have a son. I had to revert back to my days as a child. Then I thought again. No doubt the days of Holly Hobby and Raggedy Ann are gone. I decided to go to the toy store to look around. As soon as I decided to go my son decided to "help" me and went along!

I was quite surprised at the array of toys there are for girls anymore! There is so much cool stuff! With the Help of my son we looked at quite a few of today's toys for girls!

Lite Sprites were one of the first things that caught my eye. They are little creatures that live in the land of Lite-topia. These Sprites are kind of like fairies. They are nature loving creatures,. Most of the toys having to do with Sprites have a nature theme. Take the Lite Sprites Playset WIndmill, it is in the shape of a flower! This toy is unique because it interacts with individual Sprites with a light pattern. The Sprites playset windmill also got seal of approval from my son. After I read up on the Sprite windmill I found that it also interacts with the magical Sprite Lite wand. The wand is very cute! It looks like a vine with a light on top. The concept behind this wand is to share light. The Lite Sprite wand interacts with other Lite Sprite toys. This was a definite maybe for my purchase!

Webkinz are usually all over the TV anymore. I had tuned it out because I never thought about it for my son. These toys are cute little plush animals. There are sooo many of them to choose from. There are teddy bears, mythical creatures or jungle animals and a lot more! They are a little small, about 12 inches or so and very reasonably priced. As I read more about them I discovered they have on line personalities too. With the special code you can unlock your plush animals life on the Webkinz website. The activated animals can then play games, buy items for their virtual world and interact with their friend virtual animals. I am not so sure I like this idea. The inexpensive plush animals have a marketing scheme after all!

Zoobles are little animals that spring open.. They kind of put me in mind of a Bakugan. The toys open up from a ball. Zoobles come in many forms including dogs, cats and even elephants There are several Zooble worlds including a pet world, an arctic world and even a garden type world. Some Zoobles talk while other Zoobles are made to dress up in clothing! As you can imagine this toy is a definite collectors item.

The newest available is the Zooble Mama collection. The set below contains a mama Zooble, and 2 baby Zoobles. Also included are a diaper changing station and diapers. My son wasn't too impressed with this type of toy but I thought it was rather cute!

Squinkies are these cute little squish-able figures that come in plastic balls. Originally these toys were to be used as a reinforcer for good behaviors. The concept was simple. Reinforce your child's good behaviors by allowing them to get a Squinkie from the Gumball dispenser. There are a series of gumball dispensers out there tailored to girls and to boys. For example boys have a skull dispenser and girls have a cupcake Squinkie dispenser. My son was all over the skull Squinkie dispenser. Each dispenser comes with fake coins to put in it to get the Squinkies out. You can use real coins too! As you can imagine there are hundreds of these figures to collect. I originally had this in mind as a potential gift, but something else caught my eye!

I came across Fur Real friends. I have heard of them but never really paid attention to what they were. Motorized little pets that run on a track. They sounded like fun so I investigated further. Some of these critters make noise. Press the nose of one of the fur real friends and he makes a squeaking sound! In fact Tizzy Tumbles is her name! This critter will run around on the track and move backwards if it bumps into something The Scoot and Scurry Center provides ramps and a gate for Tizzy to run through. There are dress up accessories for Tizzy as well! This toy was getting a thumbs up from my six year old helper and I was very excited about this toy! It would be a great toy for my niece. ( hopefully her cat will leave it alone!) Tizzy Tumbles the Fur Real Friend and the Scoot and Scurry Center went into the shopping cart!