Using demo/examples as a reference guide to some graphics packages:

library(leaflet)

rand_lng = function(n = 10) rnorm(n, -93.65, .01)
rand_lat = function(n = 10) rnorm(n, 42.0285, .01)
categories = LETTERS[1:10]

df = data.frame(
   lat = rand_lat(100), 
   lng = rand_lng(100), 
   size = runif(100, 5, 20),
   category = factor(sample(categories, 100, replace = TRUE), levels = categories),
   value = rnorm(100)
)

RdYlBu = colorFactor("RdYlBu", domain = categories)

m = leaflet() %>% addTiles()
m = m %>% clearBounds()


RdYlBu = colorFactor("RdYlBu", domain = categories)
m %>% addCircleMarkers(data=df, ~lng, ~lat, radius = ~size,
   color = ~RdYlBu(category), fillOpacity = 0.5)