🌴 Candy Detox and Family Time, Anyone?

Good morning to 2,954 Palmetto Parents!

Parents — sigh — you made it to the weekend.

Congrats to you for making it through the marathon week of Halloween, candy detox, a time change, and kids off of school for election day. Like, WOW, that was a lot. We hope this weekend is filled with some slow moments, family connection, and time to breathe.

If you need a yoga reset this weekend, check out Happy Hour Yoga at Ashley River Park tonight from 5:30-6:30pm or the 9am Saturday morning yoga class at Bolts & Brews Beer Garden.

Coming up soon are our local gift guides for those that participate in Christmas gift giving. We will have a non-toy gift guide filled with ideas for gift certificates for experiences and delicious treats. We will also have a guide pointing you to local vendors that sell great clothing and toy items.

Please reply to this email if you’d like your business to be featured on the list. 😄 

By the way, if you’d like to include your business in our weekly newsletter to nearly 3,000 Summerville parents, we would love to feature you. Click here to learn about becoming a Palmetto Parents sponsor.

TO DO

Getting Christmas Crafty

Having grown up in Chicago, I’m still getting used to getting in the holiday spirit when it’s still hitting highs of 80 degrees outside. But holiday themed events are starting to kick off, so ‘tis the season to start having some “winter” and holiday fun! Here’s a couple crafty opportunities for kids around town:

• Tomorrow, 11/9, from 10-11am there is a snowman cookie decorating class for kids ages 5-14 at the community center! I’ve seen lots of offerings for adult cookie decorating classes but ones for kids are limited, so this seems like a great opportunity. Register today with this link.

• Pepper Jack Pottery is accepting walk-ins for their clay handprint and footprint ornaments (image below). You provide the prints and the professionals do the rest! It’s $35 per ornament ($95 for three). I know some of you parents out there are creative geniuses that can do it yourself… but that’s not me. I tried it with my firstborn and it was an epic failure, so I’ll be taking my baby boy and leaving it to the professionals to create a great finished product for me. 😂 Pepper Jack Pottery also has some amazing camps coming up for all ages during the Thanksgiving and Winter Breaks. Check out all the camp offerings and secure your child’s spot here. 

  

FROM OUR SPONSORS

Artificial Intelligence Actually Can Help Parents

Friend, if you’d like to support Palmetto Parents, I recommend checking out this awesome tool for parents by clicking the link below. We get paid for every click and it really does go a long way in helping us make this newsletter totally free for you, every single week.

Say ohai to an AI assistant...and bye to parental overwhelm

Introducing Ohai.ai, an AI assistant designed to lighten the mental load of busy parents. Ohai keeps track of the details that take up your time and brainspace – like managing your family calendar and to-do list, planning endless meals, remembering everything, and reading all those emails.

Ohai can help you:

• get organized

• coordinate tasks

• make meal plans

• order groceries

• anticipate upcoming events and conflicts

• and scan emails for key info.

Try Ohai.ai and use code FALL50 to get 50% off your first month.

LOCAL EVENT

FREE Touch A Truck Event at The Fire Museum

Tomorrow, 11/9, there is an amazing, FREE, event for kids in the parking lot of The North Charleston Fire Museum (read about our love for the museum here). Crisis Chaplaincy is hosting a Touch-A-Truck event which will include a variety of first responder and construction vehicles like a contender, state DNR truck, ambulance, fire truck, police car and more from surrounding agencies. The event will also have a DJ, bounce house, slide, crafts, and face painting all free for kids.

Food trucks will also be on site, including:

1. J.A.R. Chili Dogs & More

2. Jack of All Trades BBQ

3. The Kitchen LLC

Crisis Chaplaincy is an incredible organization that provides grief support for first responders, survivors of traumatic loss, and the community as a whole in the greater Charleston area. They are 90% volunteer based and provide a much needed service to those responding to or in the middle of crises. Read more about how to get involved with the organization or provide support to them. They work tirelessly to unite law enforcement and the community, and they work hard to sponsor events like the Touch-A-Truck event this weekend.

Want a free fall photo of your family? Join The Dream Maker Agent and Mercedes Perez Photography at Azalea Park (105 W 5th St.) on Saturday, November 16th between 10:30am-1pm to get your photo taken! You will get one free photo compliments of Ernest (The Dream Maker Agent) and Mercedes the photographer with the option to purchase an additional five photos for $100. All they ask is that you bring school supplies with you to donate to local teachers to participate in this event.

If you haven’t yet, consider joining the Palmetto Parents Community to chat with fellow parents in real time! It’s like a big group DM to ask questions, communicate about IRL meetups, get advice, and more. It’s small but growing. 😄

RESTAURANT

The Rustic Muffin

If you’ve been a part of the Palmetto Parents community for awhile, you know we love ourselves a good coffee/breakfast spot. For those in the Nexton/Cane Bay area, you have an amazing gem of a place, The Rustic Muffin. I am currently writing this newsletter from here!

The Rustic Muffin is much more than just a place to get a delicious muffin (although their muffins are jaw-dropping-absolutely-giant-I’m-drooling good). They have a large menu of breakfast sandwiches, lunch options, donuts, and other pastries. They even have delicious treats for dogs. As a a gluten free eater, I was ecstatic when they told me they had four different varieties of gluten free bagels (also they asked me if I needed a separate toaster, so my celiac readers can have some comfort 😉) and a gluten free blueberry muffin. The environment was very welcoming. The staff was kind, the decor was well thought through and charming, and the tables were filled with happily chatting, regular customers. It definitely felt like a community hub where people enjoy gathering. They were very well staffed so the wait time for my drink and sandwich was short. However, if you’re in a rush they do have a drive through.

Beyond a great cafe menu, they offer catering, specialty cakes, and event space rentals. They also have take and bake meals like lasagna, mac & cheese, pot pie, chicken parmesan, and more. For Thanksgiving, they have a take & bake Thanksgiving meal you can buy as well as a variety of pies and treats available for purchase. Follow them on Facebook for all their updates and seasonal menu offering and to find out where Muffy the Food Truck will be each week!

The Rustic Muffin has locations in Summerville (1915 State Rd.) Moncks Corner (202 N Live Oak Dr.) and also has “Muffy,” their mobile food truck that serves their delicious food and coffee all around Charleston.

PALMETTO PIECE

Wisdom from Mister Rodgers

Every now and then, we just need some wise words from the iconic Mister Rodgers. PBS Kids shared this post with four ways to be a kind neighbor. Being a great neighbor includes listening, talking about how we feel, looking for ways to help one another, and doing what we can.

This week was up and down for me and while I was doing some grocery shopping I was reminded how brief interactions with strangers really can brighten up or dampen your day as I had some of each kind during my shopping trip. A simple smile, compliment, or offer of help to someone who you pass by on an outing goes much farther than you would think. It’s easy for us to rush through our outings and not pay attention to what’s going on around us, but taking the time to pay attention to the strangers around you and make them feel special can makes someone’s day. Let’s be kind neighbors, Palmetto Parents fam, and make Mister Rogers proud. ♥️

Love,

The Berks 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 

P.S. If you made it this far, thank you x100000. You are the reason we write this weekly newsletter, and it would be nothing without you.

If you are one of the 2,954 who read Palmetto Parents every week, would you please consider sharing this newsletter? You can copy your unique link below, paste it on Facebook or in a text message or in your local neighborhood group — every share goes such a long way.

PLUS if you get just 3 referrals we’ll give you 25% off the Palmetto Parents Tee. Pretty good deal if you ask me 😁 Check out the Palmetto Parents shop now.