Henry is going to a birthday party in a couple of weeks. I asked him what the birthday boy likes, and he said “NINJAS!!” So we are looking at ninja ideas.

Ninja costume (photo from Amazon.com). I bought this costume for Henry, for Halloween next year. It might also make a fun gift idea. But when I bought it for Henry, it was marked down to $8.50 on a post-Christmas clearance; now it’s $16-something. I find it difficult to pay more for things I could have gotten for less. Also, I’m not at all sure about the quality: the reviews are quite mixed, and for me it was worth the risk for $8.50 and for my own kid—but I feel more nervous spending $16+ and giving it to someone else’s kid.

Matryoshka ninjas (photo from Amazon.com). This was the very first search result, which is good because I never, ever, not in a dozen years of ninja birthday parties, would have thought to look for such a thing. And yet—this is exactly the sort of toy I would have found enduringly interesting as a child. Hm. Well, we’d be unlikely to be duplicating someone else’s gift!
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One of my favorite days of the year when I was a child was Valentine’s Day. Decorating the cereal box mailbox with doilies and hearts and stickers was one of my favorite crafts. And the concept of “If you bring valentines, you have to bring one for everyone” must have been established by then—or in any case, I don’t have any traumatizing memories of not getting as many valentines as other people. There was the inevitable “Someone got a BETTER and/or more SIGNIFICANT valentine”—but deciding what makes a valentine good/significant is Big Fun for some of us. (Fortunately, classroom valentines are over by the time there are serious hormones to consider.)

Little Owl valentine cards by Letter C Design on Etsy (photo from the shop). We are fond of owls at our house. It is nice to have on-trend tastes: there is so much merchandise available.

Superhero girls and boys by LuckyLu Creations on Etsy (photos from the shop). The trouble with something hand-colored is that you pay extra for the hand-coloring when maybe you would have been just as happy with the color coming from the printer. Happier, perhaps. But I would have a lot of fun getting a set each of girl and boy superheros and trying to match hair color to as many kids in the class as possible.
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My eldest child has outgrown Halloween. Or, more likely, he’s between the stage of trick-or-treating/dressing-up and the stage of re-discovering it in crowds of teenagers who make everyone clench their teeth as they go to door gathering free candy dressed in a garbage bag.

The other four kids are still interested. We have a loose costume policy, which is basically this: I vastly prefer they choose a costume from the bins of clearance costumes I’ve acquired over the years. But if a child earnestly and fervently wants a different and particular costume, I am willing to consider it.

What we usually do is start with the Thinking About It stage, which is where we are now: the children are considering what they might want to be, and I’m looking up costumes and going “THIRTY DOLLARS PLUS SHIPPING? For something you’ll wear ONCE??” I wish it were easier to know THE YEAR BEFORE what costume the child would want to wear the following year. I KNOW I saw Star Wars costumes on practically-giving-them-away clearances last year, but last year none of them were into Star Wars.

William would like to be Luke Skywalker (image from Amazon.com). Unfortunately, William is 5′4″, so he will probably need the adult-size costume, which is even more expensive than the kid one. Also, when he saw the image I just posted, he said, “If possible, I want to be the black costume, when he’s a Jedi.” At first I was dismayed, as we scrolled through page after page of Jedi costumes and all of them were “No, that’s Anakin.” But then we did an image search to see what LUKE’S Jedi outfit looks like…and it’s black clothes. It’s really just black clothes, plus a light saber. And William thinks he can make the wrist thing out of cardboard and tin foil. So that’s manageable: I can buy the light saber and make sure he has a black shirt and that’s it.
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I have a child turning three at the end of this month, and all he likes is DINOSAURS.

Little Dinosaur print by Marmar on Etsy (photo from Marmar). Henry is my fifth child, so I’m happy whenever I can come up with a non-toy gift idea. A dinosaur print for his wall is PERF: he’ll love it, but it decreases the toy haul by one. I bought a narrow black frame at a craft store for about $5 and it looks great.

Playskool Stompers Triceratops (photo from Amazon.com). This is what my parents are getting him. Henry has the Playskool Triceratops Hatchling already, and carries it around in a blanket calling it his “baby” and feeding it pretend leaves. I think he’s going to lose his mind over the bigger version.
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