Happy Birthday Ashley! AB, you have a lovely family, and Ashley looks gorgeous with her new hairstyle which goes so well with her oval face. Looks like a razor cut, is it? I did quite a few of those cuts during the punk era, and I always wanted to try a similar cut, but was afraid I'd end up in the emergency room if I attemped do it myself, and never trusted anyone else to do it for me. So Ashley wanted cash for her birthday? If it'll make you feel any better, Sammi wanted a gas card for hers - What Le F? Makayla and Bruvver are still precious, but growing up way too fast. Quit it. Sol

My DD is that age. She loves Bath & Body Works stuff -- a gift card might be nice if she has a store nearby. Or The Body Shop, or what's that other store...Lush? She likes fun patterned socks. She also loves anything "fuzzy" -- socks, fleece tops or pj's, throw blankets. She wears flannel pj pants around the house a lot. Abercrombie Kids is a new favorite of hers. She likes a lot of their sweatshirts/hoodies. If your niece likes arts and crafts at all, she might like a collection of fancy duct tape (if you're not aware of the new designs in duct tape, you may be surprised!) or washi tape. Or Sculpey modeling clay. My DD and many of her friends love Vera Bradley stuff, too. She even has a VB quilt on her bed and on her Xmas list she has a VB throw blanket, slippers, and robe! I think a lot of girls are getting into jewelry at this age, too. Mine is just starting to wear necklaces once in a while, and she has pierced ears so she wears earrings every day. She still likes small stud earrings, though I did recently buy her a pair of small hoops that she was thrilled with.

We love to give and get books in our house. The toddler board books are fun for little ones, and almost indestructible. DD always like the rhyming ones and the ones that were fun to read because they had different textures or pull tabs. I would recommend Dr. Seuss and Sarah Bornton (Pajama Time and Snuggle Puppy were favorites). Leapfrog reading books were also a big hit with DD. Melissa and Doug wooden play food, blocks, large threading/lacing wood pieces, and puzzles are fun too, and were great for DD who had some balance and hand eye coordination issues and was going through physical therapy to develop her motor skills. DD learned her colors, letters, numbers, shapes, and US states at an early age just from playing with her puzzles! I'll never forget when she was no more than 2 years old and corrected her older sister by telling her one of the pieces was not a moon shape - it was a "crescent" :) I don't think DD realized that pretty much all of her fun toys prior to age 4 or so were educational! She's now a straight A honors student in middle school, and I like to think all of our early learning play together gave her a good start :)

This gift would be dependent upon your relationship with the child and how much you are willing to spend.. This would be great for a family member. I would recommend an American Girl Doll. My daughter and several of her friends each had one and LOVED them. My daughter got her first one a 6 years old and played with it for three years. They are expensive. If she already a doll, the AG books are good too. I donated dd's to her 5th grade class because she was done with them. They stayed checked out. Does she still use crayons? The big box with tons of colors were the envy of my kid's classmates. My dd loved the art books for painting and drawing. She filled up several of them. What about getting her a scrapbook and pens and paper? Or a nice journal and some pretty pens?