Trying to decide on b-day present for 7 yr old girl

[pianojazzgirl]

Dd has been invited to the 7th b-day party of one of her classmates. She doesn't know the girl all that well, but says that she's into "princesses and fairies.... which are practically the same thing anyway" (LOL!). My dd also says that this girl enjoys doing crafts.

My thoughts so far are:

Set of really nice paints
A beautiful book (amazing illustrations!) that I found that was sort of a fairy version of Cinderella.
Princess or fairy Playmobil set
Or... ???

What do you think - any thoughts on my ideas, or any other ideas for a gift that would appeal to a 7 yr old girl who is at least somewhat interested in princesses/fairies (this based mostly on the fact that she was a fairy princess for Halloween)?

[loveandkindness]

As the mom of a 7-year-old "girly girl" I think the paints or book would be great. (Not so much the Playmobil simply because my DD has kind of outgrown that.) There are lots of crafty things that are girly. What DD loved for her birthday this year: a stationery set in a pretty box that came with stickers and a fancy pen; a butterfly mirror craft set; a craft kit to make friendship bracelets; paint-your-own bobblehead cat dolls. If you have a good toy store they should have a good selection, or amazon has lots of crafty things too. I would think she would be happy with just about anything you choose!

[One_Girl]

The paints and book sound very nice. I would really recommend against Playmobil or anything else on the preschool isle, some kids that age may still secretly play with them and they are really cute but a lot won't. There are Barbie fairies and princesses that come fairly cheap, some stuffed doll fairies and princesses, if you have a JoAnne's Fabric store there are really cheap wooden coloring kits for kids that include many different things along those lines, there are also some really fun cheap art kits from crayola with different themes, the Jewel/Rainbow/Animal Fairy books are very popular items at the public library and she may like one of those also.

[sunnmama]

Are you crafty? At that age, we gave a lot of dd's friends (and cousins) handmade fairy wands. The wands are SO easy and were a huge hit:

buy a dowel at Lowes or Home Depot,
wrap with ribbon (glue on the end to keep it in place),
cut a shape you like out of felt for the top (we used a simple star shape--cut two stars out of felt and glued them together with the dowel in the middle),
decorate felt "topper" with glue and glitter,
attach ribbons to the base of the "topper" to flow when they wave it.

A handmade wand in bright colors might be a nice addition to a smaller gift.

[LynnS6]

any of those would be a hit with dd who will turn 7 in the spring and is in love with fairies (but NOT princesses).

What about a fairy/princess themed craft kit?

Or my amazon search brought up this:
Fairy Cooking

[rainbringer]

Dd liked the Enchanted Fairy Garden kit from Amazon and the card game Sleeping Queens for her 7th bday.

[pianojazzgirl]

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas mamas.

I'm surprised to hear so many of you think that the Playmobil is for younger kids. I know quite a few 7-8 yr olds in our group of friends here who are super into it. Maybe it's just a fluke! Anyway, thank you for the warning - because if we got it for her and she thought it was too babyish that wouldn't be good!

I'm definitely thinking of going the crafty route. I love the fairy garden, and the cook book (which I recently saw but didn't buy at an Usborne book "tupperware party" kind of thing.... doh!). I do need to buy locally because the party is in a few days. I'll see what our local toy stores have. If nothing better comes along I'll go with the Goache paint set and I'll pick up a couple of small canvases that I saw at the $ store (I know they'll probably be pretty crappy quality, but still cool for a 7 yr old I imagine).

Thanks again... and any other ideas happily welcomed - I won't be getting out to shop for a couple of days.

[pianojazzgirl]

Just did a little search to check out Sleeping Queens and that looks great! I'm going to see if they have it at one of the stores near me. I might pick up one for my dd's stocking as well!