POP BRIXTON – “POP FRIGHT”

26.10 – 01.04

Things get goolishly good at Pop Brixton this Halloween with Pop Fright’s spooktacular events line-up.

All Hallow’s Eve gets the worldwide treatment with a Mexican Day of the Dead themed celebration spanning the whole half-term week of 26th October. The entire site will be transformed with Day of the Dead decorations and spooky tunes setting the tone.

There’s a whole host of fun for adults and kiddies alike with Day of the Dead themed workshops – Skull Making by Make Do and Mend and Mexican Bunting Papel Picado by Maria Sabina.

Thursday 29th Popbox sees a free screening of “Hocus Pocus” for the little ones.

Friday 30th sees Donostia host a pumpkin carving workshop in the main square and Saturday afternoon offers the young ones a chance to have their face painted before bobbing for apples with patisserie Supercute and watching a dance performance by Norwood School.

Traders will bubble bubble toil and trouble lots of festive menu additions. Foodie favourites like Kricket will be serving pumpkin based dishes and “freaky cocktails” with Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen conjuring up Okra spook aka soup, Hells Fire Beef Shoka(owww) and Akara Frigthers. Fish and Chip supremos Hook will have a trick or treat “Hell Dish Challenge” – sure to fire up the foodies. Queen of the Harpies will be offering free ginger bread skeletons with every purchase and Mama’s Jerk will be keeping it Brixton with jerk spiced pumpkin soup! Even japan gets festive with pumpkin curry via Kyonohca, their in house sushi supremos.

For a full schedule of events visit: http://www.popbrixton.org – family-friendly highlights below:

Thursday 29th

Popbox ‘Pop Fright Cinema Experience’

16:30 – Free screening of “Hocus Pocus”

18:30 – Make Do and Mend – Sugar skull making workshop

Friday 30th

14:30 – Pumpkin Carving Main Square

Saturday 31st

Trick or Treat with our Traders – All day

12.00 – 14.00 Face Painting

12.00 – 15.00 Candy apple bobbing

14.00 – Norwood School Street Dance Performance

14.30 – Make Do and Mend – Sugar skull making workshop

16.00 – Rugby World Cup Final

Sunday 1st

14.00 – Papel Picado Mexican Bunting Workshop by Maria Sabina

Love West Dulwich Christmas Fair

Saturday 28th November 2015 – 10.00am – 5.00pm

Following the success of the Love West Dulwich Spring Fair in May and Christmas Fair in 2014, plans for the Love West Dulwich Christmas Fair are in full swing. The Love West Dulwich Christmas Fair will take place on Park Hall Road, Croxted Road and Rosendale Road in West Dulwich on Saturday 28th November from 10am to 5pm and promises to be a wonderful way to support local businesses and get your Christmas shopping all wrapped up whilst enjoying a fun day out for all the family in our special area of London.

Across West Dulwich there will be:
• Special in-store activities for all the family to take part in.
• Santa’s Grotto and face painting at Wigwam Toy Shop
• A visit from Miss Christmas
• Christmas trees for sale at Alleyn Park Garden Centre – 10% off and book free delivery.
• A Find Santa treasure hunt and storytelling session at Dulwich Books
• Arts and crafts market on Rosendale Road.
• Street food market on Croxted Road.
• Entertainment tent on Croxted Road.

In addition to this many local businesses will be running unique family friendly events, experiences and promotions throughout the day.

For more information visit: http://www.Facebook.com/LoveWestDulwich

Parklife

@ilovestreatham got in touch to say, now that Spring is on its way (obviously an optimist 😉) they fancied venturing a bit farther afield than the local common and asked for my thoughts on parks in south London. Turns out this is something I know a fair bit about! So I thought  I’d pop my tweets into one handy blogpost. A few are (shock horror) not in south London, but I reckon they’re worth the travel.  I’d love to hear about your recommendations and will add them to the post. Here are my thoughts in 140 characters or thereabouts:

Battersea – beautiful and vast, by river, farm, cafe. Oddly can’t remember the playgrounds. Website

Belair Park (W.Dulwich) – not huge, but ok playground, pretty space with stream. Decent local alternative. Website

Brockwell Park – fab park, great playground, lovely waterplay area, secret garden, miniature train at weekends, good cafes & a LIDO! Website

Burgess Park – cool playgrounds with huge slides, waterplay, good little scooter/bike track, nice cafe. Website

Crystal Palace – good playground, sand, dinosaur trail, mini farm, lake, nice cafe, right next to train station & parking. Website

Danson Park – good playground & fab water play in the summer. OK pub in the park near playground & kiosk & loos by playground. Website

 

Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens is wonderful. Loads of different zones, massive pirate ship, sand & water, good cafe. Website

Dulwich Park – lovely as a local park, but prob underwhelming at the mo if you travel from afar as building works ongoing. Website

Greenwich – 💓 this park, LOADS of playground stuff, beautiful grounds, views, cafe and close to tons of ace free museums. Website

Hall Place & Gardens has loads of space to run around (free), good cafe and interesting changing exhibitions (have to pay). Website

 

Hampton Court – the grounds are beautiful and free to enter outside the palace walls. Website

Morden Hall Park – is National Trust but free, has a cool natural play area, beautiful grounds and lovely cafe. Website @MordenHallPkNT

 

Olymipc Park – another firm favourite, interesting and cool playgrounds, waterplay, cafes, travel to or park at Westfield. Website

 

Peckham Rye – loads of different corners to explore – arboretum, Japanese garden, wildlife garden👍, cafe and playground ok. Website

 

Ruskin Park – my kids love the playground and nice paddling pool in summer. Friendly little kiosk by the playground. Website

Victoria Park – several excellent playgrounds and waterplay, great cafes, lake. One of our favourites 🙂 Website

Half-term in London is simply spook-tacular!

London really spoils us in terms of fun stuff to do with our kids, don’t you think? If you haven’t got half-term sorted, check out Time Out’s half-term guide and MyKidsy’s ideas for half-term for inspiration.

Win some chocolate! Mimosa’s Easter Egg Competition

Are you looking for a fun Easter holiday activity for your child? Mimosa’s Children’s Egg Colouring Competition starts on Monday 7th April. Mimosa has held this competition annually for the last 10 years and it has a developed an enthusiastic following in the local area.

How does it work?

Pick up two complimentary white eggs for each child at Mimosa Deliactessen, 16 Half Moon Lane, SE24 9HU.

There are two options to ensure your finished decorated eggs last till judging time – Either boil your eggs for 10 minutes so they fully cooked or prick two holes either end and blow them out- blowing out your eggs ensures they can be kept indefinitely. Then let your child be creative with their eggs- anything goes….

There are three chocolate prizes to be won – for Most Creative, Most Colourful and Most Intricate.

All Children aged 3- 12 years old can enter.

All entries must be handed in to Mimosa staff by noon on Good Friday
Judging takes places on Easter Saturday. Please ensure your contact telephone number and name are written clearly on your entry.

Every year the creativity and imagination is amazing and Mimosa is looking forward to seeing this year’s entries.

Good luck!

Cinemas for parents

If you think this is an odd blog-post title, it’s been a while since you had a baby or toddler 🙂 . Catching a movie was something I missed as a new parent, until I discovered the brilliant thing called baby cinema.

Lots of cinemas show day-time screenings of grown-up films that parents and carers can take their under ones to. But The Clapham Picture House has gone one further, three further in fact, by supplementing their Big Scream parent and baby screenings with parent and toddler, kids’ club, and ‘school gate’ screenings.

For parents with under-ones they have the twice-weekly BIG SCREAM. Details can be found here

This year they have started a twice-weekly club for parents with toddlers called TODDLER TIME. Details can be found here

Then as the kids get a little older they have the weekly KIDS’ CLUB. Details can be found here

They have also recently started scheduling one show every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at a specific time so parents can watch a film in time to pick up their kids from school (The finish time will always be 14.45). These are known as their ‘School Gate‘ shows. Details can be found here

The Ritzy in Brixton also has the Big Scream and Toddler Time and the Peckhamplex has Watch with Baby.

Let us know of other family-friendly film screenings and we’ll add it to this post.

Zombie disco!

Friday 25th October 3.30pm at Rye Books, 45 Upland Road, East Dulwich

This Friday afternoon (25th Oct) from 3.30 pm – Rye Books has teamed up once again with the Clock House pub to create some very scary goings on…so if you want to make some spooky things, have your face painted spooky fashion, hear some Ghostly tales or dance your bones off at our Zombie Disco! This is where you should be!

And here’s what you need to do (if you think you’re brave enough):

Go along to Rye Books in East Dulwich for 3.30 pm and have your face painted…maybe like a witch, maybe a Vampire, or a Ghoul, or anything real scary!…And then do your best Zombie walk (remember to be very scary) around the corner to the Clock House pub (on Barry Rd) for 4.30pm where the real fun begins!

This is a free event for ages 3 and up… but everyone is welcome!