Ultimate Toddler Gift Guide

TA-DA! Toddler gift guide...just in time for Black Friday & Cyber Monday!

Favorite Toddler Toys (ages 2+)

A list of my kids' tried and true favorite (and most played with) toys! At first I was going to sort the list by girl and boy toys but both of my kids love both boy and girl toys so really any of these would work for any 2+ toddler!

$15 & Under

Baby Doll // Tool Set // VTech Laptop // Stroller // Doctor Kit

$25 & Under   

Toy Food // Cash Register //  Remote Control Car //  Dump Truck // Vacuum

Over $25

Magna-Tiles // Lincoln Logs 

Outdoor Toys

My favorite toys for the kids are the ones that I'm not going to trip over 30 times a day in the family room. If they can be played with outside it's a double win in my opinion -- keeps them out of my way and gets the kids outside! Here are some of our most favorite outdoor gifts that our kids looooooove to play with.  

$20 & Under

Bunch-o-Balloons // Scooteroo Bike // Donut Sidewalk Chalk Set // Bubble Machine // Bubble Mower // Tee Ball Set // Soccer Ball

$35 & Under

Water Table // Pop-Up TeePee Tunnel Set //  Slide // Basketball Set // Scooter

 Big Gifts

Playhouse // Bounce House // Balance Bike // Radio Flyer Wagon // Push Car // Ride-On Truck

Boooooooks!

My kids loooooooove books and even though we have piles and piles of them I am always looking for more! We own some of these books or check them out often from the library, and Santa is also bringing a few too.

Duncan the Story Dragon // Pete the Cat Books (any of them!) // Secret Pizza Party // Dragons Love Tacos // Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast // Princesses Wear Pants // Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls // Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site  // Frances the Badger (any of them!) // Have You Filled a Bucket Today? // The Day the Crayons Quit // Berenstain Bear Books (any of them!) // Where is My Truck? // Trashy Town // Spoon // I'm Dirty!

Looking for more meaningful gifts? Check out this post!

***And PLEASE do not forget to use ebates for all your online shopping this year!!! It's FREE cash back just for doing your shopping online! Sign up here if you need a referral.***

Holiday Gift Guide + Stocking Stuffers for Him

I cannot believe it's time to start shopping for the holidays. I like to get my shopping done as early as possible and the hardest boxes to check off my list are always the guys in my family. If you struggle with man gifts too, I've got just the guide for you...

1.  Modern Bluetooth Turntable with Speakers. Definitely among the top 5 gifts I've ever surprised Matt with. He has been dying for a Harvey Specter style record player for his new office and is absolutely obsessed with this one. To top off the gift I included The Ultimate Frank Sinatra vinyl to start his record collection.

2. Amazon Echo Dot. A voice-controlled device for playing music, making calls, ordering pizza, texting and more!

3. Amazon Fire TV. Enjoy over 15,000 apps, games, and Alexa skills including access to over 300,000 TV episodes and movies on Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, Hulu, and more. We use our fire stick every day!

4. Nest Thermostat. Want to control your thermostat from your phone or tablet? You need one of these! We have two for our home (upstairs and downstairs) and no longer have to play rock, paper, scissors to decide who has to get out of bed to adjust the thermostat. Nest automatically turns itself down when nobody’s home to help save energy too!

5. Tile Mate Key Finder. For the man in your life who constantly loses his keys, wallet, phone, etc. This magical Bluetooth tracker easily loops onto keychains or attaches to anything you don’t want to lose so you can find it fast.

6. Bluetooth Headphones. Sweatproof tangle-free ear buds that last up to 8 hours on full battery charge. Great for running, hiking, biking, gym etc.

7. Sound Bar. We loooooove our sound bar and use it daily for our TV and for streaming music from our phones.

8. TV Projector. Watch movies or stream TV in your backyard under the stars with this mini projector. We love streaming football games in our backyard with our projector!

9. Fire Pit. And don't forget the marshmallow roaster set too!

10. Grilling Tools Set. This deluxe steel grill set is also a great housewarming gift!

11. Moccasin Slippers. These are seriously the coziest slippers ever. Matt gets a new pair every Christmas!

12. Titleist Pro V1 Golf Balls.

13. Wireless Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker. One of Matt's all time favorite golf accessories, this speaker is perfect for clipping to your golf bag -- rain or shine!

14. Laser Rangefinder. Not just for golfers but for hunters too!

15. Fulton & Roark Grooming Products. The best, and I mean the best high quality grooming products designed specifically for men. Matt keeps the wax-based and shatterproof solid cologne in his gym bag (Ltd Reserve: Sterling), a bottle of luxury face wash by his sink and the shampoo + body wash in the shower. Use code CHARM at checkout to save 15% on your order through 12/31!

16. American Crew Pomade. The secret to Matt's perfectly styled hair. Also a good stocking stuffer.

17. Dolce & Gabana Light Blue Cologne. Ahhh, my favorite man fragrance!

18. BurgaBox of The Month Club. A monthly subscription box shipped to you with simple instructions and fresh ingredients to cook right in your own kitchen! 

19. Yeti Tumbler.

20.  Sipping Stones. Chill your drink without diluting it!

**BONUS ITEM** Matt insisted that I couldn't publish this guide until I included the Minimalist Wallet -- "the ultimate man gift." You can frequently find Matt showing off this super compact wallet to his friends. He is so picky about his wallets and finally found one that he is truly obsessed with. He claims you cannot feel this wallet in your pocket at all when you're sitting down, it fits 8 cards plus cash and comes with 12 built in tools (bottle opener, tool driver, wrenches and flathead screw driver).

GIFTS & STOCKING STUFFERS
Survival Kit in a Can // Golf Tees // Just a Drop // Star Wars Socks // Metal Collar Stays // Pocket Ref // Pocket Knife // American Crew Pomade // Survival Pocket Tool // Portable Charger // Sipping Stones  // Moscow Mule Mug // Fake Lotto Tickets // 50 Caliber Bullet Bottle Opener // Fulton & Roark Grooming Products // Table Topics // Gift Cards // Candy // Gum // Car Wash Coupon
 

Other Wish Lists:

The Wish List for Her 

The Ultimate Toddler Gift Guide 

Christmas Tradition Gifts 

Gifts for Her under $35 

Toddler Bath Time Gifts 

Summertime Gifts for Kids

Five on Friday!

 Happy Friday!  

 

 

 

one. We spent last weekend at Matt's parents' mountain home to celebrate his dad's birthday. I snapped a few adorable pictures of the kiddos running around in the fresh mountain air!

 

two. About a month ago Matt and I finally upgraded our iPhones so we could actually rely on our phones. We've been out of contract forever and my friends would often make fun of my dinosaur aged phone. Anyway, I realized that my wi-fi camera card wouldn't sync up to my new phone and learned it wasn't compatible. So I wanted to share the new model I purchased and LOVE -- the EyeFi Mobi SD Card. If you carry your DSL camera around and want to easily sync your photos to your phone you need this!!!!

three. I have to thank everyone who posted their favorite Trader Joes's cheap red wine recommendations a few weeks ago on this post. I scooped up almost all of the red recommendations and can now say we've tried them all. I actually liked every single one but ordered them by favorite from left to right. The Moon X actually would have won first place but the dang bottle doesn't fit in my wine rack which annoyed me. Also, the orange Griffone bottle used to be our go-to red that I'd stock up on but as you can see you all have steered me to new and better bottles, so thank you!

four. Three of our friends celebrated first birthdays for their little boys this past week! It has been such a joy watching all three of these little men grow over the past year. For their birthdays we gave each of them two of our very favorite things: A copy of our favorite book, You Are Special by Max Lucado, and our favorite Bible Songs CD. If you don't already own this book you must buy it. Fair warning, you won't get to the end without tearing up but it is SO worth it. Caroline has many of the pages memorized and it's her and Thomas's favorite bedtime book.

five. HelloFresh Meal of the Week winner: Rapid Butternut Squash Agnolloti with Kale in a Sage Brown Butter Sauce. Also, I have three new promo codes for free boxes to give out to a few first timers! I'd be happy to send the first 3 people to leave their email address in the comments a free week of HelloFresh to try! 

Want to try HelloFresh? Use promo code MG8GKD for $40 off your first box! 

 

Valentine's Day Gifts

Valentine's Day is next week! So today I'm sharing my go-to Valentine gifts for teachers, classmates and the men in your life if you need some ideas!

Printable

Last year Caroline gave her classmates mini boxes of raisins as Valentine gifts. This was so easy and fun that I'm recycling this idea again this year for both kidddos.

Bubbles Printable // Socks Printable

When the kids were in the infant class I gave their teachers cute socks. The infant class is a "shoe-less" room so they liked this gift.

Printable

Another teacher gift idea I recently through together -- a jar of hugs!

Printable created in word (not saved, sorry!)

And another candy idea -- except this gift comes with the possibility to win some moneyyyyy!

Bubbles Printable

Last year for both kids' teachers we did bags of Boom Chicka Pop and it was a huge hit. The teachers loved this little treat because who doesn't love this delicious popcorn?! You could also add a redbox code to your card if you wanted to add a little more to the gift.

Popcorn Printable

On to the much harder gift -- the dudes...

First, I can't thank everyone enough for their gift suggestions on this post. I decided to scrap the MyPillow idea after reading all of your reviews! Instead I picked up this (which is kind of joint gift for at home date-nights) and a pair of these (currently on sale) for Matt. I can't say much more because he reads here but I just have to give a fair warning that the reviews on the second gift are absolutely hilarious and sold me immediately.

Also had to share this Moscow Mule gift basket I did one year for Valentine's Day. I think this has been one of Matt's favorite gifts! This kit is really so easy to put together too. In a basket I threw in some Tito's vodka, a ginger beer, a lime and a copper mug!

Lastly, since Valentine's Day is all about LOVE I have to share my most favorite gift -- The Meaning of Marriage! Matt and I love this book and it was such a good read for us!

 Want more guy gift ideas? Check out this post!   PS - I haven't even though about gifts for the kids. Think they'll notice if we skip this year? Ha!