See, Lily it’s still holding up well and how many toys can we say that about? Hehe, and Mr.Tupper thought we’d be excited about bowls, silly man. 
When I did the Tales to Go program we used to visit home daycare providers. At one daycare there was an adorable little boy there about a year old. We were cautioned that we should only give him soft foam-rubber balls to play with if he was in the playpen. That seemed a little strange…until I saw what distance he could get hurtling the balls out. That kid is going to play for the red sox in about another 15 years…Anyway, an assortment of soft balls that won’t break anything might be a good gift. one-year-olds are at the “I’ll make you pick it up when I throw it” stage, so why not give something appropriate for throwing? Beats having them throwing a spin-and-say.
Is this their first child?
I have two children. My daughter turned 3 in May and my son will have his first birthday in October.
I am drowning in stuffed animals. They take up a huge bin in the girl’s room, the entire top bunk of her beds and two shelves in the boys room.
Clothes? Don’t make me laugh! My 3 year old wears a size 5/6 and my 9 month old wears a 2T. I got lots of clothes that were the wrong size/season or were too involved to be bothered with. Whoever thought an outfit with more than 3 buttons was appropriate for dressing a squirming toddler in needs to be injured with a very large stick.
Blocks are good as it is hard to have too many of them since they get lost a lot.
Art supplies are great because they are disposable. I’ve gone through tons of crayons. Paper and coloring books are always good since little kids color by scribbling on a page for 6 seconds and then turning the page and repeating the process.
Since it is nice weather you could get some bubbles and balls and maybe some pool toys.
Bath/pool toys are great because it doesn’t take long for them to start showing signs of being too wet for too long and they need replacing fairly regularly.
We have tons of books and I love them and my kids do too. Just make sure she doesn’t have 6 copies! I suggest if you get a book to scour around for something that was your favorite as a kid. I got a bunch of little golden books that are now out of print at a used bookstore. We have great fun with them because we also talk about when mommy was a kid.