Hi debi,
Very late to this thread but as a mum of two children (youngest being 6), I'd say using the iPad as your camera whilst out at weekends just isn't going to cut it. I'd say it's too bulky, it's not as convenient as pulling out a compact camera or a mobile to take that shot.
I do some portrait photography as well as an IT job so I am probably a bit of a snob in terms of cameras (my compact camera is an olympus pen with a lens that's about £1000 lol) but putting image quality to one size, pulling that out of your handbag to video your child at the park will be inconvenient to say the least!
As others have said it's hard to guesstimate your size requirements from the lumix you mentioned you had. I personally have the 64gb wifi model but i shoot all of my pics (yes even my own kids at the weekends) in a larger file format called raw. Think of it as a digital equivalent of a film negative as opposed to a 6x4" print - it gives me more options on how I "finish" the end photo but the file sizes are considerably larger.
Sorry that's probably too much, but I personally don't think the iPad is a practical camera for a busy mum. YMMV of course!
Best of luck and whichever model you choose you will have a lot of fun with it!
