spanners45

I love the sound of these. Where did you get them? Online?

Hi hazelnunhead, could you give me the name of the drawing app? I like the idea of being able to save the pics and using them for thank you cards, grandparents' bdays, etc.

Congrats Bubblebob, great news! Nothing happier than the arrival of a new baby.

How lovely! I am a sucker for good old fashioned romance and and good happy news and that is about as romantic/happy as I've heard lately. Congratulations to you both.

Sorry, should have explained better. We go to the Horniman weekly as, like you, I think it is an amazing museum and always captures the kids' imagination. I was hoping to do something Easter-y and so wondered if their Easter activities were ok. Thanks for the comments

I am flying solo tomorrow with the kids and had thought about going to the Horniman to see their Easter Celebrations. Anyone been today and is it worth going? Thanks

There are some great tips/suggestions here. I find this thread super interesting as I am always thinking we spend far too much money in the shops. I started a while back making a weekly food plan and must say it makes life so much easier, but perhaps that has more to do with knowing what the kids will eat and not having to think about it at the last minute. When I feel particularly organised, I take a good look at my cupboards and try to 'schedule' two meals out of whatever we have there. Amazing what you can do with a bit of imagination. A few years back, when I was a bit tight on money, I came across a couple of books that I thought were very good. Both happened to be by the same writer. The Frugal Cook and Beyond Baked Beans by Fiona Beckett. She used to have a blog for the Frugal Cook with so many tips on smart supermarket shopping and great recipes on how to make the most of your shop and what you have at home but also what to do with left-overs. Ps. Love the sound of that veg soup and will make it next time for sure. Just remembered reading somewhere that in Italy and Spain they use cheese rinds (Parmesan,Manchuria, etc) to flavour soups. A good idea too!

Hi there, I used to work in events planning and management and although I know kids' parties aren't quite an 'event' I think some things cross over that could be helpful. The point of offering a service (whatever it is) is that you make things easy for the 'client' and however big or small a point is, you deal with it for them. What is involved in putting together a children's party? The basic stuff: find a suitable venue, invitations, food , drink The rest (perfection is in the details used to be my motto): theme, decorations, party bags, music (if appropriate), games/entertainment (and all bits and bobs needed for that), props, candles for the cake/sparklers, plates, cups, cutlery (no one wants to bother with washing up), napkins, etc etc. [you could scale this up/down depending on needs] You could have a selection of packages/boxes that cover all of that so that the effort required by the parents is minimal. If you wanted to go the extra mile, perhaps you could offer some extra options like taking care of invitations, booking venue/catering of set up/clear up. Depending on what kind of service you want to provide and how involved you want to be, you could set this up as a 'personal visit' (for those who want something more personalised) or a website where customers just tick the bits they want.

I am going to follow this thread carefully. We have always said we'd like three kids (at some point even 4) but some days I feel I have more than enough on my plate. Ours are boys (of the very energetic type) aged almost 3 and almost 1 and sometimes I think a close age gap would be the best so they can all grow up close together and other times I think that I need to give them (and me) a chance to get over the tantrum/over emotional stages before we bring another baby to the family. As said, I'll keep an eye on this one!

Tears rolling down my face!! Both husband and eldest boy had to come and check what was going on die to extremely loud and uncontrollable laughter.

Amazingly, I got home this morning for lunch with the kids and our 'wandering' bin has been returned! Someone's guilty conscience? Who knows, I am just glad it is back. Thank you to all those of you who offered one of your spare ones. I will be in touch if it goes walkies again. Happy weekend everyone!

Sadly not, Lambeth and I think they are a bit less flush!

Hi All. Our wheelie bin was stolen (yes, stolen and yes, a wheelie bin, beats me!!) over the weekend and I need to get a replacement one. Unfortunately that means dishing out the money as the council don't replace them for free. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on where I can get one at a good price. The council charge ?46.50 or so, which seems rather a lot especially since it was stolen and it's hardly our fault. Any help much appreciated!

To be honest, it is doable in a regular plain/rocking/nursing chair; just not the most comfortable thing. I think maybe I need to look at a large-ish armchair. I think the rocking aspect is maybe less important than fitting in the chair the 3 of us and having some nice quiet time before they go to bed after the non-stop running around of the day.

I have been thinking recently how much easier bedtime/story time would be if I had a large(rocking)chair. At the moment I have two rather chubby kids sitting on my lap and between milk, cuddlies and kids, I can barely read the book. I wondered if anyone has any suggestions. I know I could make the older one sit in his bed but we quite like that wind down time and the cuddles. Thanks.

Done! thank you for sharing this and encouraging everyone to donate if they can.

Pebbles, I truly hope your weekend away turns your insomnia around or at least re-trains your body clock a little. I just read your post and ended with tears in my eyes. I am amazed at how strong you are and how you have managed to build a family without any sleep! I take my hat off to you and your husband. AND you even put your awake time to excellent use with your gorgeous crafts. Wow, you are an inspiration! I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

Hahaha, some of this stuff has made me laugh. I was talking about this with a friend just the other day. I think it is so easy to just forget; you know, one more thing on the list but it's sort of non essential so it's slipps off (in my case, that is). Last time we tried we didn't even make it to the nudy stage before child 2 started screaming in his sleep and the dog came to sleep (aka snore) in our room. Result! We don't go out that much together although we are trying to make more of an effort in the last few weeks as my husband works stupid hours most of the time and we barely saw each other for a bit. The bbsitter thing is tricky sometimes - I actually wondered whether there was an idea in here to start an EDF bbsitter group. No idea how it works but with so many mums/dads on here, surely we would all have plenty of sitters available. On the 'date night' note - I went to this new place in Brixton last week called Wishbone in Brixton Market (same guy as The Bishop) - basically fried chicken and sides but pretty good and not too expensive. Oh, and I can vouch for the bourbon sours!

On the subject of the Shoe Box, that to me is hugely inspiring (and horribly hard to watch without welling up). I often think how extremely fortunate we are that we can actually celebrate Christmas and such other family holidays. For a few years now (even pre kids), I make a point of taking a couple of bags to a children's centre near us. Some are used things BUT like new (especially clothes as the kids grow so quickly), others are things that have never come out of the box but could be put to better use by someone else. I usually take food as well as there are many families who truly need help. ? Since the kids arrived, I have started a "policy" for Christmas. They get so many presents on top of what they already have that they barely appreciate them so each year I take a couple away (in time, I hope to ask them to pick two and slowly get them to develop a social conscience - not that I am saying this is the only way) and take those to the centre too.? I am making a mental list of what will go in our Shoe Box this year.?Thanks for making me aware of this initiative!

Thanks! Done. They were driving me insane today!

For some reason I was a popular lady today. I have been mobbed by cold calling. I am not exaggeratig if I say I had 10 calls, from the most random places, including a company wanting to sell me solar panels, funeral policy, etc etc. After the first few, I asked the person on the phone to tell me how they got my number - btw, all these were calls to my mobile, which I rarely give out. Consistenly the response was "from the National Consumer Database". Without wanting to sound completely stupid, what on earth is the NCD (and yes, I do get the literal meaning), how did they get my details (mobile number among others) and how can I get these details DELETED from their blooming database so these people stop calling me. Sorry if this sounds offensive but I have 2 kids that keep me busy enough and don't need ransoms trying to sell me even more random stuff. If anyone knows how I can get off the list, please please let me know. Thanks!

REALLY need to find something like this for my 2.4 yr old boy so if anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears. He is a lovely friendly boy but is certainly quite spirited, I'd say although I know the grass is always greener. Oodles of energy and I'd love to find an activity that can serve as an outlet but teach him something too. He is at a challenging stage and constantly pushing boundaries. Sometimes I can see his little body "shake" with energy while be is trying to work out what to do next - kick stuff, bang cutlery on table, sit on dog, throw things... Anyway, any suggestions on activities like martial arts but where they take toddlers would be most welcome!

Pebbles, this is GORGEOUS stuff!! I am forever inspired by people's talent. I really hope it takes off and that you enjoy doing it. I'll definitely keep an eye out. Love the butterflies but we're team blue here so might have go focus on god daughter instead!

Hi Administrator. Is there a way to delete one's own old posts so they don't become superfluous. Especially in the sell/wanted and family clasifieds there are a lot of these. E.g., things that have already been sold and collected or simply things that are no loger relevant. I am only talking about having 'control' over my own posts, not deleting other people's, of course. That would be plain rude and wrong. Thanks!

Footie sessions at Jags on Saturday and Sunday are BRILLIANT. We have beEn taking our very active boy for a while now. Danny - the coach - does shout and blow the whistle quite loudly but generally the kids find it funny and get that he isn't being mean or grumpy; he is just in charge and boy, do the kids respond to him! If you ask my son, he says very clearly "Danny says, wait for the whistle, mummy" and he'll do a pretend whistle sound. He really loves it and you can just go along whenever you want so it works for us. Very popular with boys and girls.