What Miss Sonia got for her birthday

Sonia turned 12 this month.

Which means that a year from now, 3/4 of my children will be teenagers.

(!)

Sonia is still her petite self, which makes it extra hard to believe that she’ll be 13 in just a year’s time.

Fortunately, teenagerhood at our house has seemed better than toddlerhood at our house in many ways, so I think a houseful of teenagers is going to be fine.

(All four of our kids will be teenagers at the same time eventually.   But only for about 6 months. 😉 )

Anyway.

You all are usually interested in what mindful shopping looks like at birthdays, so I thought I’d do a rundown of what we got for Sonia.

(Mindful shopping at birthdays basically means that we try to carefully consider what we buy, choosing items that are well-made, will really mean something to the recipient, and will provide lots of hours/years of enjoyment.   It’s not as killjoy as it initially sounds!)

First up:

Although Sonia already had a rolling backpack, it was a smallish Tinkerbell version (see the birthday she got that backpack here), so I knew that once Zoe got a super cool rolling backpack, Sonia was going to have serious backpack envy.

(I was right.   “Mom, what I really really want for my birthday is a backpack!”)

So before I bought Zoe’s, I made sure that there were two non-matching Jansport rolling backpack styles that I could buy, as  I thought matching prints could be confusing.

Jansport doesn’t make a lot of color options in their rolling backpacks, but I managed to find two fun prints, both dots, but each different enough to match their personalities.

Sonia’s (the Driver 8) is a little bit fancier (more compartments, mainly), but I got it for about the same price as Zoe’s, thanks to a 20% off introductory coupon code and 9% cash back through Upromise.

(I bought the backpack from eBags.   It’s the same price as on Amazon, BUT shipping is free and you can get a 20% off coupon code by shopping through this tell-a-friend link. So that makes it a better deal than Amazon.)

The Jansport backpack comes with a lifetime warranty, so as long as Sonia still digs green polka dots, she should be able to keep this backpack for many years to come.

We also got her a pair of owl earrings from Novica, which I bought when I had a coupon code.

And since Sonia has always loved gum, we visited Five Below (a dollar-type store) and bought her a large and random assortment of gum.

(Gum is not a mindful purchase sort of thing, except for the fact that it DOES bring Sonia great joy….)

Lastly, Strawesome recently announced their new turtle glass straw design, and as soon as I saw it, I knew Sonia, our turtle lover, would be delighted to have one.   So I ordered it right away for her birthday.

That wraps up what Mr. FG and I bought for her!

From her siblings, Sonia got a pack of watercolor notecards (blank, for painting her own designs), 4 Copic markers, a Spirited Away stuffed animal, and a Calico Critter dentist set.

You should see the teeny dental tools….so cute!   This would be a nightmare with toddlers, but at our stage of life, it’s perfect.

 

She got a nice mix of presents…edibles, toys, art supplies, and a some practical, but fun items, so she’s a happy 12-year old.

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P.S. In case you’re interested: Sonia’s Tinkerbell backpack, which is still in good shape, got re-homed with one of my nieces, who is quite over the moon about it.   She can’t really understand why Sonia didn’t want it anymore.   “Did she cry when you brought it to my house??”, she asked. 😉

This post contains affiliate links.   All items for Sonia’s birthday were purchased with our own money.