Any ideas for a 7yo DD and 5yo DS? What did you get last year that was played with a lot. What is still lurking in the corner, hardly out of the box?

[MmeLindt]

AIBU to want them to actually play with their presents longer than 2 days?

I have no idea. DD has muttered about a DS but I am not keen on getting her one. DS - no idea.

Oh, that is a Nintendo DS that DD would like, not another little brother.

That would be highly unlikely.

Last year I got my dd7 the following:

Piranha Panic game (she asked for this)
High School Musical 1 and 2 film DVD (HSM)aand also both the soundtracks too
HSM Mic
Sticker Refill Cello
HSM drinks bottle
HSM Sticker book
3 Jewellery sets from Monsoon (necklace / ring/ hair clips)
HSM Flip phone
Top Trump HSM
20 Q Gadget (she asked for)
Makeup case with makeup in
Aquabeads
HSM Annual
42 books (all Enid Blyton - she loves reading)
HSM costume
Rainbow Fairy Jigsaw book and 4 reading books
HSM Nail set
HSM Dance mat
10 other HSM reading books

Other presents she shared with her sister (5)
are
digital camera vtech zoom
Box set of disney shoes (they both asked for)
Dressing Table (asked for)
Pink Monopoly
Polly Pocket Jet plane
Disney Pop up chest
Helly Kitty Boombox
Musical Pom Pom HSM

Mys other 5 year old dd had her own presents (approx 16)

All this sound a lot but their birthdays are aalso on Christmas Eve and 19th Dec so I tend to spoil them a bit.

Also in their stockings were HSM watches, Keyrings HSM balls, toothbrush holders, Aautomatic pencil sharpener, socks and sweets.

Out of all of these, the boombox which I got from Smyths was the best. They use it all the time. The camera is very good too. The love all the soundtracks of HSM. Shes got through a lot of books already. Aquabeads were good too.

One good idea was that I bought both of them a locket and necklace from Monsoon and put their other photos in there so dd7 has dd5 in hers and dd5 has dd7 in hers.
When she has friends round, the Dance mat and Piranha Panic comes out. Also the Monopoly set and disney shoes.

Make up sometime used and also 20Q when she remembers to play them.

The worse one was the Polly Jet which I paid £30 for and bought 3 that day (2 for other friends).

Now this year, I am stump.......sorry so long, hope there are a few ideas in there!

Forgot to add that the automatic sharpener was a hit as well. There are forever sharpening their pencils and its great that its automatic.

dd age 7 loves her puppy in pocket playsets she got the hospital, puppy place, jungle treehouse and couple of other jungle in my pocket toys. She has looked after these toys amazingly well (I thought they would last 5 minutes) and plays with them most days, often for hours on end.

Also one of my best presents for my dd5 was a hula hoop which she asked for. Both my daughters fight to use this, even the 7 yr old. Its very popular in their school. However I did get a proper prefessional one which is weighted inside so the hoop stays up longer. Last time she took it to school, she did over 200 and its get exercise for them.

twolittledarlings
Thanks, lots of food for thought there. Not that DD is getting as much as that, she is getting a bike for her birthday in April so we will scale down a bit on Xmas things. She is keen on Hannah Montana at the moment, so perhaps something on that line.

The pencil sharpener sound like a hit, she loves doing art stuff. As does the hulahoop. We bought cheap ones last year and they played loads with them until the broke. Will look for better ones.

Puppy in my Pocket - she has a couple of them already but I am not sure if she would play so long wiht them, and she is always leaving them lying around for our RL puppy to chew.

Oooops, forgot to say thankyou.

Thanks

ooh - tell me about the automatic pencil sharpener. dd is forever over the bin with bits of pencil shavings.

I looked at the reviews on Amazon. The one I bought was by Tobar but I compared the prices to other websites and found the cheapest on Ebay but exactly the same as the Amazon one. These are brillant and there are never any shavings all over the place. I got two for them and kept one downstairs and one upstairs. Well recommended.

Second the idea about the camera- I got dd a vtech pink one last Christmas (part also of one of those fab Littlewoods 3x2 and then 30% off your first order, so had about £180 worth of stuff for about £70- I wonder if they will do that again this year...must create some new email addresses ready!) Anyway- she takes photos every single day- the camera has more than paid for itself, she is never without it.
This year's main obsession for us is the In My Pocket thingies, so will be stocking up on those I think.

DD got a camera a couple of years ago but the photos are seriously shite and the screen is just a blur. I thought about getting her a new one, but not sure if a child's camera is really worth it.

Will check out the pencil sharpener. That sounds really good.

Thanks all.