San Diego, CA
San Diego Moms: Easter Gift Guide 2025
Overview:
Scrambling to find unique and fun Easter basket gifts for your little one? Check out our annual guide.
Easter is a few weeks away and you may be thinking about how to fill your kids’ baskets with unique and fun items. Check out our annual guide for affordable gift options that will keep your little ones smiling and busy.
For the littlest bunnies
For the youngest Easter fans, we love the offerings from GUND. The brand offers snuggly cuddle toys that are also fun to engage with! Check out the Peek-a-Boo Flappy the Elephant, an animated plush elephant, with floppy limbs for on-the-go fun, the Oh So Snuggly Cow, a premium-soft plush with a quilted security blanket and the Disney Knit Collection that are perfect for any fans. We also love GUND’s Sustainably Soft Ring Rattles.
Bring warmth to your little one this Easter with Warm Pals. These clever plushies feature internal packs that can be either warmed or chilled to provide soothing comfort for achy days. Simply snuggle up with a refreshingly cool Warm Pal to instantly calm bumps, bruises, fevers, and insect bites on summer days.
For the school-aged bunnies
Hop into spring with the new Littlest Pet Shop Springtime Fun. Choose between the sweet Bunny or the charming Rooster, or collect both for double the fun! Each set includes one adorable pet with their signature bobblin’ head. If your little one loves the “surprise fun” trend, check out the Mini Surprise Plush Pets. Open up to reveal one of 12 snuggly pets, including a Panda, Cat, Pig, Cow, Bunny, and more.
A Moriah Elizabeth fan? Check out the Limited-Edition Easter Plush Collection. There are 6 different characters to collect, including Easter Pickle, Easter Derp, Easter Cathy, Easter Lemon, Easter Chicken Chicken, Easter Poopy! Each plushie comes in a blind box for surprise unboxing fun.
Get interactive with the Knotz Animal DIY kids’ toys. Unwind the yarn-ball blind capsule to find everything needed to create 1 of 12 soft pals with lots of personality. Follow the included step-by-step instructions to knot, twist, and style a cute animal out of bendable faux fur stems and accessories.
The endless fidgety fun Lite-Brite Touch Mini is a portable twist to last year’s award-winning Touch! This compact Lite-Brite lets you light up your imagination with just a simple touch – featuring 25 light-up buttons in seven different colors.
The new Bluey Hide and Seek Game makes finding lovable Bluey a challenge and that’s all the fun. Start a lively game by hiding Bluey anywhere inside and starting the “Hide and Seek” timer. Every few seconds, kids hear Bluey’s voice giving them clues and giggles as they race to reveal her hiding place.
Get up and be active with Skip It. This revamp of the 90s toy has all the fun of the original – but with the addition of sounds, lights, and a digital counter! Slip the padded ring around the ankle. Flip the on switch and press the button to start a new game.
Encourage imagination with SpinMaster’s new CrystaLynx Dragons. Inside each crystal mystery egg is an articulated dragon with stunning colors & highly flexible joints that make it easy to twist, bend and pose it in various shapes like a fun fidget toy. Plus, you can mix & match joints from other dragons to create your very own unique creature.
Get those young brains moving and grooving with a quality puzzle! Mudpuppy offers an assortment of fun puzzles to engage little minds. We love the Springtime Puzzle To Go, Bunny Bouquet 48 Piece Scratch & Sniff Shaped Mini Puzzle and Garden Bunnies 25 Piece Floor Puzzle with Shaped Pieces. Also, check out Mudpuppy’s Bow-Wow Bunny Board Book.
The Master of Disguise Kit is your passport to a world of secret identities and endless fun. With over 40 accessories, you can create countless unique disguises and let your creativity soar.
Inspired by latte art and designer cookies made in stylish coffee shops and social media videos, Art Café introduces this pour & pull paint technique to arts and crafts. Beautiful designs emerge in magical transformations with this simple pour and pull technique.
Embark on a delightful bidding adventure with Strawberry Shortcake, a lively card game filled with charm and excitement. Engage in fun bids for cards featuring beloved characters and items, and use straightforward placement rules to craft lucrative collections! Fun for the whole family!
The Rainbow Mini Pack from CONNETIX introduces STEAM learning through a vibrant selection of magnetic tiles in various shapes and colors. This pack enhances creativity and building potential, allowing users to create a wide range of designs, from rockets to mandalas, while benefiting from stronger magnets and a signature bevel design.
For the tween and teen bunnies
Flipslide is a fast-moving, electronic handheld matching game! Master the moves to beat the blocks in this addictive, fast paced puzzle game of skill. Flip to find the color and slide to match the lights.
Based on The New York Times bestselling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, the Worst-Case Scenario Card Game is perfect for a game night among family or friends. Players must ask themselves how they would compare living through a pandemic to being chased by a gorilla, losing your memory, or being lost at sea.
Bring some affordable adventure to your kid’s world with Sky Viper drones. The Sky Viper Dash Nano Drone is a 2-inch compact sized drone that is great for flying indoors. This ultra-durable drone features auto launch and land, and one-touch stunts. Or, light up the room with the Sky Viper Aura Drone, which features eight pulsating LEDs on its spinning frame to project kaleidoscopic light patterns on the ceiling and the floor at the same time.
Have an artist? The Buddha Board is a long-lasting gift that will inspire creativity. Or bring some more color to your artist’s world with the POSCA markers and Uniball pens.
Snag some great puzzles for your tween or teen with Galison. The brand offers an assortment of quality, engaging and truly beautiful puzzles. We love the Michael Storrings Easter Candy Shop 500 Piece Puzzle, Michael Storrings Easter Egg Hunt 1000 Piece Puzzle and Michael Storrings Easter Parade 500 Piece Puzzle.
Do you have a content creator? Check out the Podcast & Vlog Kit from Studio Creator, which brings your video and audio quality to the next level. The kit includes everything you need: a fold-up tabletop tripod with a smartphone holder, LED light, and microphone. The compact design makes it so easy to record digital content at home and on the go!
Finally, welcome Spring with Everyday California’s collection of vibrant outdoor essentials! The local brand offers the perfect Sundaze Towel for beachside picnics or poolside gatherings and other springtime adventures.
Have a suggestion for the Easter Gift Guide? Tell us about it in the comments section.
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San Diego Moms is published on Saturdays. Have a story idea? Email hoaq@timesofsandiego.com and follow her on Instagram at @hoawritessd.
San Diego, CA
San Diego health officials monitor hantavirus situation as cruise ship passengers return to U.S.
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — American passengers from a cruise ship hit with a hantavirus outbreak are back in the United States.
San Diego County health officials say they are monitoring the situation and there is no need for panic.
“The risk to Californians is really low and especially here in San Diego. Since the year 2000, we’ve only had 4 cases of hantavirus and the majority of those were in travel related cases so not even acquired here locally,” Ankita Kadakia, deputy public health officer for the County of San Diego, said.
According to the CDC, hantavirus is spread through contact with infected rodents.
“The virus can be in their saliva, feces or droppings,” Kadakia said.
San Diego County does see cases of rodents infected with hantavirus, but the strain seen locally is not the same strain connected to the cruise ship outbreak.
“The vast majority of strains of hantavirus are mouse or animal to human transmission. Not human to human transmission. So the Andes strain, which is found in Argentina, there is evidence that there is human to human transmission,” Dr. Ahmed Salem, a pulmonologist at Sharp Memorial Hospital, said.
Salem treated hantavirus during the 2012 Yosemite National Park outbreak.
“One of the ways you die from hantavirus is you get a collapse of your cardiac system and your pulmonary system and you have to go on something called ECMO. It’s one of the most aggressive forms of life support that you can do. So I do remember that case, and unfortunately, that person passed away,” Salem said.
There is currently no cure or vaccine for hantavirus. Health officials stress that for those who were not on the cruise ship, the risk of contracting the virus remains low.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Here’s some instant reaction from the Padres’ wild 3-2 victory
It seemed like the same tired story.
Instead, it was the same thriller.
The Padres pushed their offensive lethargy as long as possible without paying for it Sunday, tying the game with two outs in the ninth inning on Nick Castellanos’ two-run homer and then celebrating after Manny Machado’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning gave them a 3-2 victory over the Cardinals.
“Getting it done,” Machado said.
That’s it. That is all they are doing.
And at what is essentially the quarter mark of the season, the Padres are 24-16 and tied with the Dodgers atop the National League West.
The shocking component of their having the major leagues’ fifth-best record is that the Padres rank in the bottom three among MLB’s 30 teams in batting average and OPS.
They split with the Cardinals despite having 14 hits, their fewest in a four-game series in franchise history. Their 61 hits over their past 10 games are the fewest in a stretch that long since 2019, and they are 5-5 in those games.
“It sucks; we need to hit; Machado said. “I mean, you know, look, it’s obvious. We’re not hitting. It’s obvious, but we’re getting things done, man.”
Sunday was the Padres’ 12th victory this season in which the decisive run was scored in the seventh inning or later. That is exactly half their victories.
It was their fourth walk-off victory, their second in extra innings. It was the seventh time that a run scored in their final offensive half-inning decided a victory.
So it is no small thing to proffer that Sunday was possibly their most dramatic triumph. Because it was possibly their most unlikely one.
Not only were they a strike away from defeat, but they began the ninth inning having gotten two hits all day.
The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning on their first two hits off Walker Buehler — a single by Alec Burleson and a home run by Jordan Walker with two outs. Buehler pitched six innings, allowing just one more hit before Ron Marinaccio worked two scoreless innings.
But the Padres were unable to make anything of their seven at-bats with runners in scoring position over the first eight innings. They had walked five times but had just Jackson Merrill’s third-inning single and Xander Bogaerts’ fourth-inning double to that point.
“Really good teams find ways to win games when they’re not doing their best,” Gavin Sheets said. “… We’re not clicking on all cylinders by any means. And I don’t think any of us would say that he’s on a roll right now, but we’re getting hits in a timely fashion and it’s someone different every night.”
Almost.
The Padres have game-winning RBIs from 10 different players. They have go-ahead RBIs from 13 of the 14 position players who have been on their roster this season. Sunday was Castellanos’s third game-tying RBI.
His home run, on the ninth pitch of his at-bat against Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien, was something of a clinic by a veteran hitter who is in his first season as a role player.
Castellenos, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning and remained in right field, came to the plate with Bogaerts at first base with two outs.
Bogaerts’ single leading off the inning had been followed by two strikeouts, and Castellanos fell behind 0-2 before working the count full and then sending a 99 mph sinker on the inner edge of the plate almost to the ribbon scoreboard fronting the second level of seats beyond left field.
“The first pitch started, and I was probably looking to do what I did,” he said. “And then I ended up getting 0-2 and chasing. After that, just took a deep breath and tried to shorten up as much as possible and just compete. Just find a way on base. And then found myself in a full account and was able to get the job done.”
It was the first home run allowed by O’Brien this season.
With closer Mason Miller not available after throwing 29 pitches over 1⅓ innings on Saturday, Jeremiah Estrada got the first two outs of the 10th. With runners on first and second, Adrian Morejón entered the game and got an inning-ending pop out on his first pitch.
Gordon Graceffo was on the mound for the Cardinals, and Ramón Laureano was the Padres’ automatic runner in the 10th. The Cardinals intentionally walked Merrill at the start before Fernando Tatis Jr. whittled a 1-2 count into a walk to load the bases.
The game was over one pitch later, when Machado sent a fastball to right-center field and Laureano slid across the plate well in front of right fielder Jordan Walker’s throw.
It was a somewhat subdued but still enthusiastic celebration along the first-base line, as teammates bounced around Machado.
“It’s hard to win a game like that,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Their pitchers pitched great, and they’re bringing in one of the best closers in the game. And we just stuck with it. It just speaks to how those guys believe in themselves and how they believe in what we’ve got going on as a team.”
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