Welcome to the first issue of the WVK View, West Village Kids' monthly newsletter. I hope to provide you with information on the Hot Picks of the Month, the season's trends, new designers, answers to your questions and tips I have learned along the way, which I hope will save you time and money.

This month, I focused on what to think about when giving the perfect outfit as a birthday gift. As a mother of two girls, I spend much of my weekend at children's birthday parties. Between my two girls, I have been to over 40 parties this year already.

In celebration of Mother's Day, I am offering all WVK View subscribers a 10% discount on all purchases until May 13th. Just Type MOM in the check out area.

I hope you find the first issue of the WVK View to be informative and entertaining. I would love your feedback and ideas for future newsletters!

See you next month!

When thinking about the perfect outfit, the first thing I do is ask my girls about the birthday girl or boy. I need to know if their girl friend wear dresses all the time or is she/he into cars, trucks or sports. This line of questioning has paid off. I can't tell you how many times, mothers of my daughter's friends have come up to me to thank me for "the really hip shirt" or say," Wow - the quality of that T shirt was incredible," or "how did you guess that my son loves the color red."

When shopping for girls, I always consider, is she a girlie girl, like my daughter Sydney or does she dress like a tomboy, like my daughter Gabriella. For the girlie girl, anything pink is a great option. When you type "pink" in the search feature on the website, you will get plenty of items to choose from. You can also look in the skirts and dresses area in the girls section to find what you are looking for.

Some of my favorites are the High Tea Geisha wrap dress, the patchwork skirt from Cakewalk, Chipie's embroidered skirt and the Pura Vida tulle hot pink skirt. Let's not forget the Jean Bourget denim overalls with fabric layered ruffles in the back. You have never seen an overall, look like this.

Some of my favorites for the hip tomboy girl are IKKS' capri denim and camouflage pants . Gabriella wears them to her ankle or rolls them up as capris.

T Shirts are always another great option. We have so many amazing options available, it's hard to pick a favorite. All of these options are comfortable & will look great on your tomboyish trendy girl.

To compliment either of these gifts, you may want to consider pairing it with the book. My favorite book for my girls is Pinkalicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann. It's about a girl who makes pink cupcakes & turns pink.

There are a couple of things to consider when you are shopping for boys. I always try to find out, is he into sports, more of a rock n roll kid, a surfer dude or does he just love to play with trucks and cars.

We have T shirts for all boy types. They are affordable and all have great designs. They can be worn with jeans, shorts or dressed up with a pair of nice pants.

One of my favorites for the boy that is into sports is this Jean Bourget T shirt. For the rock n roll kid, we have great guitar T shirts from Mish Mish. This surfer dude T shirt from Jean Bourget is great, I just love the color & the illustration. Just type "surfer" in the search field & you will get other great options for the surfer boy. We can't forget trucks & cars - IKKS has some great stuff.

If you aren't sure which size to purchase, I often suggest purchasing a larger size rather than smaller one. That way, the child will be able to grow into the outfit rather than causing your friend to return the item. Size charts from most of our manufacturers are posted on our site, and I always try to provide sizing information in the description area if an item run's smaller or fuller.

We also offer gift-wrapping, a gift registry service and gift certificates to help make your gift purchases as easy as possible. Every gift comes with a FREE gift card, so you don't need to spend additional money on a birthday card.

If you are unsure as what would be the right gift for a child, you can always email me directly at Michelle@WestVillageKids.com. I hope I have given you some useful ideas to think about when giving the perfect gift.