These guys are great! I was so excited to find a specialty cake store in Canberra. They have a huge range including cake tins (and special types of tins such as teddy bears, footballs etc), fondant, piping bags, huge range of cupcake papers and some party decorations, cooking demonstrations, and the more hard to find things such as egg white powder and edible metallic powders. Highly recommended! The reason for four stars and not five is that it would be even better if they had even more range (e.g. really precise digital scales that measure very small quantities), but as it is it is still very good and far better than anything else I've found in Canberra.

We had lunch here with our two kids (1 year and 3 years old). My husband had fish of the day and I had Lamb Linguine. It was very yummy and the staff were friendly and happily provided a high chair for our daughter. We would be happy to go there again and recommend it.

Approximate cost: $15

This is a great little children's shop. It has furnishings for the nursery such as a fantastic range of wall stickers, bedding sets, bookends etc. There are beautiful little toys that are also unique and a gorgeous range of books. I love it and don't think there is anything like it in Canberra. It's nice to see something that doesn't just have all your typical brands that you can find in the big stores. My only gripe is that I wish it was bigger with even more range! (But there is a really good range as it is).

I have found YMCA Playschool in GUngahlin to be excellent. My son has always been clingy but it only took a couple of weeks (he goes two days a week) for him to completely settle in and I think that's a great sign of how wonderful the ladies are. He loves all of them - Rosanna, Caroline and Janet. He tells me how he loves playschool when I pick him up which is just fantastic. It's perfect for us because it's only 3hrs a day and you can go as just one day a week or four (assuming there's room) depending on what you want. We found two days is perfect. They do lots of activities like painting, puzzles, dancing, playing and have an indoor and outdoor area. There aren't a crazy number of kids either. Love it! A term is ten weeks and the cost is $292.50 for the term for each day that you send them. So we pay $585 because we send our son two days a week.

I love Dr Carmelo and his team and can't sing their praises highly enough. All are super friendly and he is clearly knowledgable and I had complete confidence in him. He has really cool technology too which can produce 3D xrays of your teeth :) He gave good advice and said what he would do if it was him or a relative in my situation (I had a complex issue with one of my wisdom teeth). I feel completely safe with him and am so glad to have gone there. He is also very reasonably priced compared to other dental surgeons. I highly recommend him and his team.

I love Manuka Vet. They are friendly and caring about our fur babies (2 cats) and have been so helpful in helping us ready them for their move overseas. They are accredited by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service and so can prepare your animals and help you understand what you need to do so that they can be taken overseas. They were also excellent in their advice regarding one of our cats who needed a scale and clean due to gingivitis. I highly recommend them. Be warned it is expensive to get your cats ready for overseas - the rabies shots are well over $100, the blood tests to ensure the animals have created antibodies are $400 and that's not everything. But we thought it was worth it :)

My husband and I had a date night here. It was fantastic and our waiter was very funny and friendly. It was a fantastic night out and we loved it. We would definitely go again.

Qld Ultrasound for Women is a fantastic place to get clear ultrasounds of your unborn child and they also do 3d and 4d imaging. The staff are very friendly and put you at ease straight away. We were a little frustrated with how long we had to wait in between our scan and seeing the obstetrician who talked to us about the results, especially since for about 15 of those minutes he was talking to the receptionist, however the experience overall was still worth it and waiting is just part of the game when it come to medical things, I suppose. An really great experience and they can also do a DVD of your scan as well.

We are so happy with Pindara Medical Centre that we drive from Brisbane down to it at the Gold Coast when we need to have a check up or see a doctor. The doctors are professional but also put you at ease and the nurses are fantastic - especially with small children who are getting vaccinations. I feel the doctors and nurses are people I can trust and more importantly, can trust to look after my child. They also bulk bill small children (I'm not sure what the age cap is, but my son is 20 months old). I highly recommend the Pindara Medical Centre.

My favourite optometrists. They are a very friendly couple who know what they're doing. Although we no longer live in Toowoomba, we still have them send us contact lenses which they are more than happy to do for us. He is experienced and helpful and can offer plenty of advice on contact lenses which I hadn't worn before but wanted to for my wedding. I really liked these guys and would continue to see him for my check ups if we still lived there. I highly recommend Moffat & Wagner.