This year my son and daughter in law finally moved into a house after several difficult years in a 2 bedroomed flat with 3 children (long story). I bought the children a play house for the garden (oh, my poor credit card!) but explained to the children that after spending so much on the house I would only be able to get them something small for their birthday and Christmas presents for the rest of the year. Naturally, I want them to have presents that they'll really enjoy so I've had to really think about what they like.
The oldest was easy - she's the dressing up queen of St. Albans but she's got so much bling there's no room for another necklace, bracelet of tiara. She's got some jewelled tattoos. All those little shiny stones are going to fall off her and need a lot hovering up before the baby eats them.
The middle one is autistic so I seriously considered some maths books but rejected them in favour of a battery operated bubble gun with an extra litre of bubble mixture. My son is going to spend half his life wiping the marks off the TV from where the hundreds of bubbles have burst.
My littlest one is getting a turtle to go in her bath. She can press a button on its tummy and it will syphon water from the bath and spit it out all over her. And the harder she presses the button the further across the floor the water will go.
So, I have managed to find presents that will make all the children happy AND give my son and daughter in law hours of happy cleaning up, all for about £5 each!
Can anybody do any better?