Normally this time of year I’m buying a batch of Summer Survival Gear Treats. I like to buy a new CD for the driving back and forth to lessons and camp; a new outdoor toy or two; a new board game; some craft supplies; maybe a new video game.

This year, we seem to be all set. We’ve bought all the CDs, and/or the kids are too old for them now. (I’d like to get The Book of Mormon soundtrack because they’ve loved the few songs I’ve shown them on YouTube, but the lyrics to a lot of them are…not ones I want them singing absentmindedly next year in school.) We already own a Stomp Rocket and a plasma car and a hula hoop and some jump ropes and a scooter. We’ve got Skip-bo and Wits & Wagers and Scrambled States. Our video game shelf and craft bin overfloweth, and I just got a big bag of kid books from the library book sale.

I did buy one thing:

Webkinz Deluxe Membership (screen shot from GanzEStore.com), which gives access to a bunch of otherwise-locked games and merchandise and so forth on the Webkinz site. The tipping point for me was a sale: normally it’s $45 for a year’s membership, but June 10th-13th it’s on sale for $33.74. (If you want to get the 3-month one so it’s just a summer thing, it’s $11.24.) The year-long one comes with the ability to add other accounts for $5 each, so I got it for myself (*embarrassed cough*) and added the three kids who play Webkinz. It’s hard for me to explain how thrilling this has been for us, and in fact I find I’m reluctant to try to persuade you that this isn’t a very foolish thing to spend money on, and maybe we should just change the subject. But it was Very Exciting for four of us at my house, and the year-long subscription also comes with a free Webkinz pet (online version only, no plush version), a fawn I kept for myself. It also comes with a monthly batch of virtual money, so I am saving up for a Sun Fox. …Okay, NOW I’m too embarrassed to discuss it anymore. (SUN FOX FOR ME!)
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Last week I talked about the gifts we were getting/considering for Edward, who is turning 8 next month. This week it’s Elizabeth’s turn: not “girl gifts,” but gifts for a child who is, as it happens, a girl.

Owl apron (photo from Amazon.com). The one I bought her was from Home Goods and has an all-over pattern of owls, but I can’t find it online and this one is cute too.

Personalized street sign (photo from Amazon.com). She’d expressed enthusiastic interest in it a number of months ago as a gift idea for a friend’s birthday party, saying she’d want one for herself, too. But then we realized with the shipping time it wouldn’t arrive before the friend’s party, so we gave up on the idea. When Paul and I discussed still using the idea for Elizabeth’s birthday, we got hung up on not knowing what the quality of the sign would be like, and not even knowing if she’d still want it now—especially if her friend didn’t have a coordinating one. Plus, I know this is a gift for HER and SHE likes the pink, but if _I_ were getting a personalized street sign I’d want it to be GREEN. And I’m not sure that shade of pink would go well with her magenta walls. So anyway, we’re not getting it for this birthday. But maybe I’ll mention it to her again and see if she still wants it at Christmas.
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My youngest baby is turning 6 next month. Let’s not talk about how strange that feels; let’s just talk about what I’m considering getting him for his birthday. Perhaps you have a similar child turning 6 (or 5 or 7), or perhaps you have a birthday party to go to.

Penguin bank (photo from Target.com). We give our kids a bank and their first allowance at their 6-year-old birthday party. For my first two kids, I chose a bank for them; but with the younger three, it’s worked better to let them choose one. I discuss it with them casually while at the store display a few months before the birthday, and then go back later and buy the one they liked. Henry chose this penguin. (I would have rooted for this owl if they had it in the stores.)

Webkinz lion (photo from Amazon.com). After last week’s post, it will not surprise you to hear that he is getting a Webkinz. Every other family member (well, except Paul) has or has had one, and now Henry wants one. He said “lion” immediately when I asked what animal, but then later on he said, “Wait. Do they have sharks?” (They do.) So there may need to be more deliberation.
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A couple of weeks ago I bought myself a Webkinz fox (photo from Amazon.com), after seeing the kids play Webkinz and feeling envious. I felt a little silly, but I shouldn’t have: for less than $10, I have had evening after evening of games. NO THEY ARE NOT BABY GAMES, SHUT UP.

And it could have been even less than less-than-$10, if I hadn’t been so picky about getting the fox. But I WAS picky about getting the fox, so it was $9.90. (I also considered the hedgehog.) (Photo from Amazon.com.)
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There are things that I hear people talking about for ages, about how great those things are, and I’m too Anxious About New Things to try them. And then one day I DO (or else someone does it for me, as when I was 21 and my dad signed me up for an email account, knowing I wouldn’t have done it until my thirties otherwise), and my life is REVOLUTIONIZED. My parents use the expression that something “has improved the quality of our lives.” And while that sounds like the kind of thing people might say about a new vaccine or an economic upturn, they use it for things such as a new shower caddy.

Ever since I had my second child (and, perhaps more importantly, moved to a house no longer within walking distance of the post office), I’ve been whining about how hard it is to go to the post office: the lines, and the limited hours, and hauling children in and out of the car for what ought to be a 2-minute errand, and why don’t they have a DRIVE-THROUGH?? My dad kept saying and Saying and SAYING that I could get a pre-paid label online and have my mail carrier pick up the package, but I felt like…maybe I couldn’t. Like what if that cost more money? what if I weighed it wrong? what if my mail carrier hadn’t heard of it and thought I was being presumptuous? what if I had to print it on special label paper instead of regular? what if there was a pick-up fee, or or or?
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I didn’t get too fretful reading that if I’m going to use reusable bags I’d better spend $20 or more on each one or else I’m doing Something Bad—especially when it seems to me that the ones TRULY SUFFERING when I buy a reusable bag for $1-5 are the companies that sell the same thing for more than $20.

I did however feel some concern when I read about how very, very, VERY many reusable bags will be purchased in a fit of Earth Day spirit (or given away as advertising) and then will not in fact be used—so that we still have the original problem of plastic bags stacking up underground like the neverending leaves of deciduous plastic trees, PLUS the problem of all these REUSABLE BAGS. One store I shopped at this week was giving out a reusable bag to each customer without even asking if the customer wanted one; I wonder how many of those bags were pitched out as soon as the customers returned home?
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All year long, I clip those little “Box Tops for Education” thingies, and the kids bring them in to their school. I didn’t know it until this school year, but the Box Tops program also has something called “Marketplace,” where certain online stores donate a percentage of your purchase to the school.  I’m doing a lot of shopping right now ANYWAY, so this is a nice way to help the school without having to volunteer to help out at the Winter Fair (*shudder*). Plus, as it turned out, it was an excuse to do a little giveaway, and I really like doing giveaways.
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My co-blogger here at Milk & Cookies just wrote a post about favorite places to do online shopping, and today’s post is related: what are your favorite shopping blogs or product review sites? Places you go to find gift ideas — either for other people or, you know, for YOURSELF? 

I love shopping/review blogs (so much so that I ran my own until recently); here’s a list of some of my faves, as well as some new-to-me picks recommended by other folks:
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I’m sure some children’s rooms are perfectly decorated to be a magical fairyland of wonder and joy, but in our house the kids’ rooms just seem to be cluttered repositories for toys, books, piles of clothes — both laundered and dirty — and the lingering nose-assaulting remains of poopy diapers. There’s some artwork on the walls, but not much. The vibe is less Pottern Barn Kids and more . . . well, Messy Storage Area Where the Highchair is Stuffed in the Corner and a Box of Outgrown Clothes Gathers Dust.

I love the idea of a kid’s wall hung with wonderful artwork, though. Maybe someday I’ll decorate our boys’ rooms more than they currently are. Or maybe I’ll just keep a dreamy collection of kid’s art bookmarks along with my folders of gourmet kitchen appliances, built-in wooden bookshelves with integrated library ladder, and marble bathroom vanity tops.

If you like collecting things from Etsy artists — and who doesn’t? — here are some amazing prints that would be perfect for a nursery or little kid’s room:
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So it’s your lunch break at work, or you’re at home and the children are (THANK YOU JEBUS) napping, and instead of jumping on your next office project or tackling the never-ending laundry pile, you sit in front of your computer, and . . . well, what are you looking at?

Other than personal blogs and embarrassing, brain-rotting things like People.com and CNN.com, I’ve got a few favorite websites I like to check in with when I have some downtime. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours, okay?

(Heh.)

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