Sophie and Evie's Fabulous Third-Birthday Shopping Guide

As hard as it might be to believe, the twins' third birthday is fast approaching! This post is intended for family members who are contractually obligated to spend money on the twins to celebrate this momentous event. The rest of you, feel free to skip this one. This post is just meant to give you a few ideas, should you need them. If you are inclined to send birthday gifts to the girls, and please don't feel obligated to do so, get them whatever your heart desires. They'll love anything.

Our favorite indoor activities these days include "cooking" in the play kitchen (Oompa.com has some lovely kitchen toys), building fantastic structures with blocks and magnets, caring for baby dolls and the doll house family, reading, and learning about letters and numbers. The girls have a particular love for puppies, hippos, zoo animals in general, aquatic animals in general, Kipper, Blue's Clues, and Dora.

Outdoor activities involve riding scooters around the neighborhood, visiting the park, and playing in the sand at nearby Loyola Beach. The girls are very much looking forward to going camping in July.

Some good resources for fun toys and activities include Oompa.com, the girls' Amazon.com wish list (I loaded this full of books I found on a list of essential children's books -- a lot of them are for older kids, but there are books for their age range, too), Highlights science and educational toys, and Our Green House natural toys.

Clothes: For shirts, dresses, and tops in general, the twins are wearing size 3T. However, these short, skinny girls can't quite fill the 3T pants (especially now that they're not wearing diapers), so go with 2T in that department. Shoe size is 8 for most toddler shoe brands, but go with 7 if you know the size runs big.

Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive. The girls will be delighted to receive anything. They're not picky.