HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE FOR LITTLE GIRLS

I am pretty excited for today's post.  Mainly because it's centered around Christmas! Now, let it be known that gift giving/receiving is not my love language. In fact, I have been known to be kind of a lousy gifter. It's even gotten to the point where my husband just asks me to make him homemade coupon books... BUT now that we have a little girly in the house who is holiday obsessed and writes santa new letters twice a week, I'm stepping up my game! I mean, this is a serious new leaf I'm turning here. #festivemomwannabe I have never done a gift guide series before, but I thought it would be fun to share some of the things that I am loving and getting for my kids this year. The tradition we started last year is that we give the kids Christmas gifts based on four different categories: something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.  We try to limit the number of gifts that we give because they receive so much during the holidays from friends and family. And because I hate cleaning up more toys that they don't need! Today it's Scarlett's wish list that I'll be sharing. I hope all of you little girl mommies see something that your little one would like.

Also, these pics posted were taken with Lulu and Roo. Our favorite comfys company who asked our fam to model their holiday line. You thought I decorated that tree? HA! I wish... But we do own those amazing red sweats, so that's upped the holiday festivity in our home! ;)

want:  Scooter | Tea Set | Move and Groove Game

need: Knee Pads | Helmet | Balance Beans Math Game

wear:  Piper Finn Dot Oxfords | Make-up Kit | Little Cottonwood Maple Dress

read: GoldieBlox | The Princess in Black | My Own Fairytale |  If IWere A Unicorn

1. Scooter: Scarlett has been asking for a scooter to ride around the neighborhood with "light up wheels" so this one is perfect for her. If you have a pre-school or early elementary aged child you should check out this one out. The wheels have LED lights that are powered by kinetic energy so that they light up when they push themselves. She's gonna love it!
2. Tea Set: Scarlett actually wrote santa that she wanted a skeleton tea set... My morbid girly girl. Turns out, those are kind of hard to come by! So this darling one will have to do.  I love that it's literally a little miniature version of a china set. I have a feeling I am going to be attending A LOT of tea parties in the near future.
3. Move and Groove Game: If you know anything about our family, you know that we LOVE music and dancing together. When I found this amazing game from ThinkFun, I knew we had to have it for our family. You roll the plush dice, then pick a card based on the color it lands on, and then you act out the dance move that is on the card. I especially love this game because it is something that we can play with Welles and it will help with his gross motor skills development. A double win in my book!
4. Helmet and Knee Pads: If we are going to have a new scooter in our house, we are probably going to need some protective gear to go along with it! Especially since my girl didn't get her nickname clumsy from nowhere... Scarlett is going to flip over the Hello Kitty Helmet. A must buy if you are getting your little girl a bike, scooter or roller skates for Christmas.
5. Balance Beans: I mentioned ThinkFun above and if you don't know about their toys you have to check them out! They create toys that really are focused on making learning and development fun. With Scarlett getting closer to Kindergarten we really are focusing on some skills to get her ready for school and Balance Beans is a great game to help with that. This game is a math and logic game all in one where you balance the beans on the seesaw and keep it from getting out of balance. Pretty cool. 
6. Piper Finn Classic Dots Oxfords: These little shoes make me want to have 5 more girls! Well, maybe not. But they're ridiculously cute little oxfords. I love all of the shoes that Piper Finn make, but I am especially loving these little Dot Oxfords. You will have to check this brand out. They have the cutest soft sole and hard sole oxford shoes that are perfect for babies all the way up through toddlers. Their soft sole shoes start at a size one and their toddler shoes go all the way up to a size ten.
7. Little Cosmetics Pretend Play Make-Up Set: Okay, so this one is a bit of a stretch for wear because it is not a real make-up set, but I couldn't resist including it. What little girl doesn't like to play with make-up? What mom doesn't hate the mess and scary-clown face that occurs when said little girls get in to their make-up? This is a perfect compromise. It has all the kinds of make-up that they see mommy put on, so they can get ready along side of you.... without any of the mess! Yes, please.
8. Little Cottonwood Maple Linen Dress: There are not enough heart-eye emoji's for This linen dress from Little Cottonwood. It is the cutest thing ever. I am obsessed with the Peter Pan collar and love this color for fall and winter. Little Cottonwood makes the cutest kids clothing (for boys and girls) and has the most amazing handmade wooden toys too. If you have not checked them out, you have to go right now and see what all they have. Everything is killer-cute.
9. GoldieBlox and The Spinning Machine: Have you guys ever heard of GoldieBlox? I hadn't and I just happened to be perusing the kids section of Nordstrom and found it. GoldieBlox is a little girl engineer who goes on adventures and then uses STEM skills to build things and solve problems. Each of the books comes with a building kit that lets you build along with the story.  Nordstrom actually has a really large selection of them and I'm loving the smart girl = cool girl aspect. And I know the problem solving will be great for Scar.
10. The Princess in Black Takes a Vacation: Scarlett loves The Princess in Black and this is the newest book in the series. She and I both enjoy following along with all of her adventures. Darling story lines. 
11. My Very Own Fairytale: These awesome books let you personalize the story for your child so that they are the main character of their very own fairytale. My little girl has a huge imagination so I'm really excited to see how she reacts to these stories.
12. If I were a Unicorn: Unicorns. Scarlett's favorite "animal". Seriously can not get enough of them and she is going to freak out over this book. 

Things are just things, but it sure is fun picking items that make your kids excited, active and that make them use their big imaginations. Maybe someone just needed me to be Santa so I could actually get into gifting. ;)