Happy Friday, Summerville!

We’re in full nesting mode over here, and our family is getting excited to become a family of five. We have plenty of things on our calendar for the next two festive weeks, but we know every plan comes with a little asterisk, pending baby boy’s arrival!

This weekend is packed with festive fun around town. If you missed last week’s newsletter, be sure to check it out here because we covered some really great events happening this weekend, including Boo Bash in Nexton, The Eerie Express at Ashley River Park, and a Family Fall Festival in Knightsville. And in case you haven’t seen it yet, Hutchinson Square in downtown Summerville is decked out with the Scarecrows on the Square. Go check out all the inventive scarecrows and vote for your favorites!

It’s looking like Saturday will be beautiful, and if you’d like to get the whole family moving in the morning, check out FIT4MOM’s Family Day (sponsored by us!). It’s a workout designed for moms, dads, grandparents, and other caregivers to enjoy alongside their kids. Join us at Gahagan Park at 9:30 a.m., and stick around afterward for treats and iced coffee on us! Sign up here to secure your spot.

The North Charleston Coliseum and the North Charleston Performing Arts Center have two great family shows on the calendar between now and next week. Whether your kids are Disney obsessed or Sonic superfans, there’s something here worth the trip.

Disney On Ice: Magic of Family
Now through Sunday, October 25
North Charleston Coliseum, 5001 Coliseum Dr, North Charleston
Tickets at Ticketmaster.com or the venue box office

If you’ve got little Disney fans in the house, this is the week to treat them. Disney On Ice presents Magic of Family brings the worlds of Frozen and Encanto to life on the ice. Kids can sing along to the songs they already know by heart while watching world-class skating, aerial acrobatics, and all their favorite characters live.

The show is really two adventures in one. Olaf narrates the story of Frozen as the skating whisks you off to Arendelle for Anna’s journey to find Elsa and break the eternal winter. Then it’s off to the mountains of Colombia to meet Mirabel and the Madrigal family in their magical casita for the story of Encanto. Along with Anna, Elsa, and the Madrigals, you’ll see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and even Stitch and Angel stirring up some mischief. It all lands on a message worth sending kids home with: everyone has their own gifts, and being true to yourself and loving the people around you is what makes you special.

Showtimes run Thursday and Friday at 7pm, Saturday at 10:30am, 2:30pm, and 6:30pm, and Sunday at 1pm and 5pm. Family-friendly pricing is available, and there’s an add-on Magical Pass option with premium seats, early entry, and a character greeting before the show if you want to make it extra special.

Sonic Live in Concert
Wednesday, October 28 | 7:30pm (doors at 6:30pm)
North Charleston Performing Arts Center, 5001 Coliseum Dr, North Charleston
Tickets at Ticketmaster.com | $10 Parking

For the gamers in the family, Sonic Symphony is an immersive live experience celebrating more than three decades of music from SEGA’s iconic blue hedgehog. A full symphony orchestra brings your favorite Sonic moments to life on stage, which makes for a genuinely cool night out for kids who’ve grown up with the games and movies. It’s a fun introduction to live orchestral music wrapped in something they already love.

One thing to know before you go: the Coliseum and PAC have a clear bag policy and are cashless for food and beverage, though diaper bags are allowed for families with little ones. Doors open at 6:30pm and the show starts at 7:30pm.

Screens Off. Safety Gear On.

Looking for something your kids will actually talk about on the ride home? iSmash Charleston on Folly Road offers three hands-on experiences under one roof.

Splatter Paint (ages 3+): Kids throw, squirt and fling glow-in-the-dark paint across a blacklight room, then take their canvas home. All the mess, none of the cleanup.

Rage Rooms (ages 8+): Fully geared up and supervised, kids smash glass, housewares and old electronics. It’s loud, it’s physical, and it’s surprisingly good at letting off steam.

Axe Throwing (ages 13+): A great pick for teens who think they’ve outgrown everything. Our staff teaches technique and keeps every lane safe.

Birthday parties are where we shine. We handle setup and cleanup, and every package can be customized to fit your group size and budget. You show up, they have the time of their lives, and you go home to a clean house.

Family outing, birthday, or a Saturday that needs saving, we’ve got you. Use code PALM15 to get 15% off your booking! See all that the experiences they offer and book your fun-filled family session here.

All three of these are in town, and they cover very different ages, so pick the one that fits your crew!

Kid's Night Out at RECC Club
Friday, October 30 | 5:30–8:30pm | Rollins Edwards Community Center, 301 N. Hickory St., Summerville | $15 per child, $10 for siblings | Ages 6–13

This one is for parents of older kids. Ours are still too little, so I'm passing it along. Summerville Parks & Rec is hosting three hours of favorite camp games like line tag, capture the flag, and dodgeball, with pizza and sugar-free Gatorade provided. Kids don't need to have done the summer camp to join, and costumes are encouraged. Send a water bottle and let staff know about any allergies. That's three hours to yourself the night before Halloween. Register here.

Junior Service League Ghostwalk
Saturday, October 24 | 6–9 PM
Hutchinson Square, 102 S. Main St., Summerville

One of Summerville’s beloved Halloween traditions is back, just on a rescheduled date. The Junior Service League’s Ghostwalk takes over downtown with ghostwalk story tours, a haunted house, games and activities, local vendors, and food trucks. It’s a festive evening for the whole family, and there’s a feel-good reason to go beyond the fun: proceeds benefit Dorchester District 2 and 4 schools. Note that several streets around Little Main will be closed from 4–10 PM, so plan your parking accordingly.

Arktoberfest
Saturday, October 31 | 6–8pm | Tabernacle of Praise, 228 N. Hickory St., Summerville

Just down the street from the community center, Tabernacle of Praise is hosting a Noah's Ark-themed trunk-or-treat on Halloween night. The listing on Visit Summerville's calendar promises decorated trunks, games and activities, a bounce house, hayrides, and candy. I love the theme for little ones, since animals two by two are a lot friendlier than skeletons when you're 2.

We took the boys to Summerville’s newest ice cream spot this week, and it was an absolute delight. Even on a Wednesday night, there was a steady crowd working through all the unique flavors, which tells you everything about how quickly this place has become a downtown favorite.

Swank Creamery is the new offshoot of Swank Desserts, the beloved specialty dessert shop on South Cedar Street known for its handcrafted, scratch-made treats (and that viral banana pudding). The Creamery, owned by Danetra Richardson, sits right next to its sister shop and brings that same from-scratch philosophy to ice cream. Every base is made in-house using local dairy, with real care put into building each flavor. We were told the apple pie ice cream is made fresh daily, and we’d bet the others are too.

Speaking of which, we tried the Granny Smith’s Pie, and it’s a standout. Creamy brown butter ice cream, warm fall spices, juicy North Carolina apples slow-cooked in brown sugar, pie crumb, and bay leaf caramel. It tastes exactly like fall in a cup. The boys both went for the Chocolate Fudge Cake, which is pretty much every kid’s dream: chocolate ice cream with chunks of actual cake mixed in, topped with sprinkles, of course. They offer a kid size that was the perfect portion for the little ones. Daniel added a peanut butter shell to his, and we all shared one of the famous Swank chocolate chip cookies.

The flavor lineup leans creative and seasonal, so it’s worth checking what’s in the case the day you go. Their viral banana pudding, the dessert shop’s most famous creation, has been churned into its own banana pudding ice cream, so if you’ve had the original, you know you’re in for a treat. The Granny Smith’s Pie we tried is a perfect fall flavor, and the Chocolate Fudge Cake is the go-to crowd-pleaser for kids.

Beyond those, the menu gets genuinely inventive. There’s a croissant milk ice cream layered with pieces of caramelized croissant and an espresso and cacao nib praline, plus flavors like mango sticky rice, sweet potato soufflé, black currant crisp, and milk and cookies. You can build your scoop up with add-ons like a hard chocolate or peanut butter shell, and since the cookies are made right there too, a warm Swank cookie with a scoop on top is never a bad idea. Flavors rotate, so following along on social media is the best way to see what’s fresh that week.

It’s nice to have an ice cream spot downtown that stays open until 8pm on weeknights (and 9pm on Saturdays), long past when most places close. Swank Creamery is at 110 South Cedar Street, Unit C, Summerville, right next to Swank Desserts. Go try a scoop before the line gets even longer.

The last couple of weeks in our house have been a little crazy, and we know things are only going to get crazier as we enter the newborn and postpartum season. Our boys will be adjusting to having a new little brother, Daniel and I will be adjusting to life with three kids, and we'll all be figuring out a new normal together. As excited as we are, we also know that the next few months will come with plenty of exhaustion, unexpected challenges, and probably a whole lot of moments where things don't go quite as planned.

Over the past couple of weeks, Daniel and I have both made some pretty innocent mistakes that ended up making life a little harder for the other person. I recently put his water bottle back together after washing it, but apparently missed a few important pieces, which resulted in water spilling all over the car. Then, when Daniel went to start our first fire of the season in the fireplace, something didn't go quite right and the house filled with smoke, leaving me to pack up the boys and get out of the house for a bit. Neither of us was trying to make the other's day more difficult, but we both managed to do exactly that.

It got us thinking about how often this happens in marriage, especially during busy seasons of life. We're both juggling a lot right now, and once we add a newborn and some serious sleep deprivation into the mix, I can only imagine how many more little mistakes we'll make. And the tricky thing is that even when someone's intentions are completely innocent, the inconvenience or frustration they cause is still very real. The car still needs to be cleaned up, the house still needs to air out, and someone still has to deal with the extra work that wasn't on the schedule that day.

But I think what matters most in those moments is how we respond to each other. It's easy to get frustrated when you're already tired, overwhelmed, or stretched thin. It's much harder to remember that the person who just made your day more difficult is probably feeling just as stretched thin as you are. We're learning that giving each other grace doesn't mean pretending something wasn't frustrating. It means being quick to apologize when we're the one who made the mistake, being willing to help clean up the mess (sometimes literally), and choosing not to make the other person feel worse about something they already wish hadn't happened.

I also think there's something really comforting about knowing you're on the same team, even when one of you accidentally creates more work for the other. We can't prevent every mistake, and we certainly can't control how smoothly the next few months will go. But we can control how we treat each other through it all. We can choose to assume the best, offer a little more patience, and remember that we're both doing our best in a season that asks a lot of us.

Love,

Courtney, Daniel, and the Berk Boys

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