Ah yes...when I was a little girl, I refused to leave the park unless I got some
Disneyland souvenirs (thus began my obsession with Disney watches)!!
You can find some really cute things that won't break the bank inside of DLR. As a collector, I have bought magnets, ornaments and little cheap toys and also big, expensive snowglobes and watches.
The shops I like in DL are the China Closet on Main Street, Disneyana on Main Street, the Emporium, Pooh Corner and the Gag Factory in ToonTown. The Gag Factory has a lot of cute little wind up cars and toys, fun magnets, keychains and things like that. Plus, it is very colorful inside, so the kids will enjoy looking at everything.
In DCA, if you go into Enginears, you will find the great Mr. Potato Head and his special Disney attachments. You can stuff a whole box full of everything you can squeeze into it for something like $18!! And all the kids should be able to enjoy playing with Mr. Potato Head. $18 is a bargain for all the stuff you get into that box!
Also, Off the Page in DCA is a great little shop.
The Fantasia shop in the DLH has a lot of things, and yes, World of Disney in DTD is a great store - but make sure to keep a close eye on all the kids as you can literally lose people in that store! It's true! That store is so large that I lost my friend inside of it.
But don't worry - there are tons of cute things all around DLR, in all the shops, that you can get if you just keep your eyes open, and they are not so outrageously expensive that you will run screaming into the night!! You'd be surprised! Some things are overpriced, that's for sure, but other things are quite reasonable. The other day I was just looking at some of my ultra-adorable Christmas cookie ornaments that I got at DLR and I saw that one of them was only $10, which I had forgotten, whereas I would have guessed it to be much more $$$ than that.