alieh

I have looked at CentreParcs so many times but I am struggling to pull the trigger as it just seems sooooooo pricey. We're looking at a weekend over Easter with my parents too, so 4 adults and 3 kids. It is coming up as like ?1200-1600 for a 3 night weekend. We're splitting the cost with my parents so might be able to swallow it, but is it worth it at these prices? The children are 8, 6 and 3 so the thought of having lots of age appropriate activities and especially the pool is very appealing. Realistically, it is getting harder to entertain them for a holiday at a normal self catering cottage and a bit of a hassle to get everyone in and out of the car all weekend to visit various local attractions. So the ease of the CentreParcs approach does appeal!

Personally, for one very small baby I would look for a nanny share. For me, this offers the best balance of cost and flexibility if the child is ill, etc. You can take turns hosting at each other's house so you get a mix of having the easy (but probably messy) days at your house, and taking them to someone else's some days. In this area there will be tons of people with similar aged babies that you could hook up with. Good luck!

For an all-over colour to cover greys, I do mine at home. Maybe go to the salon a couple of times/year to get a decent job! I think the key with home dye jobs is to avoid the warmer colours because those tend to go orange over time. If I use a medium brown, mine comes out fine. Don't really notice a difference between getting it done in a salon. Depends what colour your hair is!

You can try Football Magic. They might offer 1:1 coaching: http://www.footballmagiccoaching.co.uk/

I think Football Magic do football after school at Peckham Rye for reception aged children, so perhaps a 3 almost 4 year old would be okay. Check it out here: http://www.footballmagiccoaching.co.uk/dulwich-courses/

Come and enjoy a festive day out with the family at our lovely school at the top of the hill! Fairlawn Primary School Christmas Fair Honor Oak Park Road (near the top of Forest Hill Road), SE23 3SB Sat Dec 10th 12-3 pm Santa's Grotto, mulled wine, hot food and refreshments, arts and crafts, music and entertainment, etc, etc. Tickets for sale on the day! See the Flyer attached.

Yes it's 12-3!

I love the Naty ones - they are a bit more expensive than the brands like Pampers but are the only ones that didn't give mine a rash. For cheaper ones that are great (but sometimes gave my kids a rash - very sensitive skin) the Little Angels ones at Asda.

Just sharing this post from Football Magic for the indoor football camp they're running at Xmas. We've used Football Magic many times and think they are great. Xmas is a tricky time to find camps/childcare! _____________________________________ Last Minute Christmas Shopping? Why not leave the kids with us for four days of fun packed football! Boys and Girls aged 5-12 years are welcome to come and join in the fun 10am - 3pm ?30 per child, per day Indoor Facility - only 25 spaces available per day Dates: 21st, 22nd, 29th and 30th December Location: Charter School, Red Post Hill, Dulwich, SE24 Book now at www.footballmagiccoaching.co.uk

Santa's Bag app for organising gift shopping!

We have a high quality engineered oak, with a very thick layer of real oak on top of the engineered part. Ours with white-oiled, so needs the oil topped up about once a year or so. Looks new again after re-oiling! You can do the oil yourself - just like mopping the floor, but with special hardwax oil.

Try Balmer Lawn in the New Forest. We really liked it! They have lots of different room configurations.

We went to Katschberg in Austria, which I highly recommend! There is a nice very family friendly hotel where you can walk on and off the slopes called Hotel Cristallo. There is a free nursery too. Amazing pools and saunas! All food included with an incredible buffet, very high quality food. We went at Easter and were pretty lucky with the snow, but it would definitely have been better earlier in the season. We have 3 children too and the room set up was perfect. I think the nursery only takes over 3s, but we paid for a 1:1 nanny for a few mornings to stay with our youngest.

Just to add to the recommendation for Fernando! This is the second time he has worked for us and he is great. He showed up exactly on time, worked hard all day, and did a great job. He did a very tough patch of weeding for us (a very steep clay slope that hadn't been weeded since last summer) and cleaned all of our paving stones very well. He fit us in very quickly after getting in touch with him. Highly recommended!

We have a nanny who is beyond brilliant - we found her through Simply Childcare 3 years ago. Her sister is also a nanny and she is actually looking for a new role - I can't remember the exact timing but if you PM me your email address I could ask her to send you her CV if it sounds like the timing may work out.

We've booked a sort of Kinderhotel type place. Hotel Cristal in Katschberg, Austria. I booked EasyJet flights the day they released them plus got a good deal on the hotel. It is still way more than I would usually pay for a holiday but about 1/3 the price of any of the package places I checked or catered chalets. No ski school or ski hire included but the hotel does have free childcare for over 3s (plus pool, soft play, etc). Hotel is full board in this case. Haven't gone yet so can't tell you if good!

The skating rink at Streatham Leisure Centre is huge and way cheaper than the other Christmassy places, but not particularly festive I guess!

Does anyone know if the Peckham Adventure Playground is open tomorrow? It usually is in half term? Notwithstanding the other thread about potential closures of the adventure playground down the line!

My 7 year old just got Hot Wires for his birthday and it is brilliant. He needed help from my Dad to get started, but I think an 8 year old would be able to follow the directions to build different models/experiments once they'd been show the basics.

Fairlawn is Saturday December 5th from 12-3. Come one come all!

Not sure if this counts as a "team" but Football Magic run classes in Dulwich Village that are great. There is also a team for this age group that practices in Honor Oak but I can't think of the name at the moment.

Mine have never needed the total amounts the books say - at 21 months, I'd say she needs 12-12.5 in 24 hours. Unlike my sons, she seems to do better with an earlier nap. If I wake her up by 1:30, she'll still go to sleep by 7:15 or 7:30. I try to put her down around 11:30 or 12:00.