WELL, it's back to the grind of packed lunch making, uniform organising and school run dashing this week.
Roll on the next school holidays I say. The highlight of the break was a birthday bowling party at All Star Lanes and our trip to Kew Gardens. Kew looked amazing, with daffodils everywhere, it was a lovely hot day and we spent the whole time outside enjoying the gardens.
We didn't even venture near the dedicated kids indoor play area, Climbers and Creepers, as the weather was too good to be hiding indoors.
The kids took one look at the brand new adventure Treehouse Tower playground outside and decided to go elsewhere. As you can imagine, it was jam-packed and really better for the younger kids anyway - Kew's estimate of it being designed for children aged between three and 11 is a bit on the high side.
The kids in our group said it was more for three to seven-year-olds, but they did love the zipwire which was set away from the main area, so a bit quieter.
We loved Louis' birthday that was at All Star Lanes, a fabulous kitsch 1950s-style tenpin bowling alley and diner in Bayswater.
They had a really good Easter holiday offer of £10 for kids, including bowling, dinner and a drink. This will definitely be a place we go back to, so much nicer than the faceless tenpin bowling chains we usually go to.
The American-style diner food was excellent too - proper all-American burgers with all the trimmings was the order of the day. Check them out at www.allstarlanes.co.uk.
After writing in last week's column that the new Hillingdon Sports and Leisure Complex is a 'great resource for the community to use and enjoy', I've had some local mums contacting me to say it's not quite perfect yet.
You're always going to expect teething problems with a new venue but it seems the temperature of the main pool is a contentious issue.
When the pool first opened (and people signed up for membership) it was lovely and warm, but the temperature has been reduced so that it is suitable for the competitive swimming clubs that use it.
To compensate, the temperature of the small leisure pool has been turned up, but it's so much smaller than the bigger pool so can get extremely busy at times.
Additionally, the families point out that with very hot showers and just the one baby-changing table, families with babies and very young children are feeling left out.
I've passed this feedback on to managers at the pool and the council and it's good to hear that they're already on the case. The shower temperature was reset by an engineer last week to a more family-friendly level, and extra baby changing facilities are also on their way.
The heat of the pool is a more difficult one to solve, because there are lots of different users who need the temperature set at varying levels, and it can take a day for it to adjust.
The main sports pool is set at 28.5°C and the leisure pool is at 31°, in line with the industry benchmark. The powers that be have promised that they will look into it if enough people fill in comment cards or email with their views.
The address to email your comments to is sportsdev@hillingdon.gov.uk. The beautiful outdoor pool opens on May 17, although my hopes for some whizzy new-fangled solar heating have been dashed.
The pool is unheated, like it was when I used to go as a teenager, so let's hope we are blessed with a lovely hot summer.
If not, I'll be first in the queue for the really cheap wetsuits that Aldi and Sainsbury's start selling about this time.
