Good morning, Palmetto Parents!
We had such a great time with everyone who joined us for our Family Fun Day at Odd Duck Market! We absolutely loved meeting more of our readers in real life, and for me especially (Courtney), it meant so much to hear that this labor of love has helped your family discover things to do, new restaurants to enjoy, and ways to make the most of events in Summerville. You can read more of my reflections on our two-year anniversary in the Palmetto Piece.
After a bit of a bizarre week in Summerville with some oddly cold weather and days of not being able to use tap water, if you’d like to get out and have a reset as a family and kick off the weekend, there will be a free (with admission to the park) outdoor movie night at Ashley River Park tonight. Bring a blanket and some chairs and enjoy watching Zooptopia 2 under the stars at 7:30pm.
We have a super exciting couple of weeks going on in Summerville! With next weekend being the Flowertown Festival and the weekend after being Easter weekend, we hope this newsletter gives you a lot of the details you need to enjoy it all with your family!
If you enjoyed meeting Charlie T. RiverDog at our event last weekend, the good news is you can see a lot more of him this season. Single game tickets for the Charleston RiverDogs are officially on sale, and a day at The Joe is one of those outings the whole family just loves — great baseball, ballpark food, fireworks nights, and a play zone in the outfield. Grab your seats here.
TO DO
Upcoming Easter Events
Gif by BearishAF on Giphy
Easter weekend is coming soon, and we wanted to give you a preview of some of the fun events happening for families around town! If there’s an event you know about that isn’t listed here, please reply and share it with us so we can share it next week.
Saturday, March 28th | 10am-2pm | Landscape Depot, 1038 Yerby Rd, Summerville | $18 pre-sale / $23 at the door (kids); adults free
A massive spring egg hunt with 3,500 eggs, bounce houses, face painting, a digger zone, and golden egg prizes by age group (including ride-on toys and gift cards for older kids). Every adult who attends is automatically entered to win a Sabal Palm tree installation or a year of turf care.
Tuesday, March 31st | 10am-12pm | Ashley River Park | Free (pre-registration required)
An inclusive, sensory-friendly Easter egg hunt designed for individuals with special needs, featuring beeping eggs, PEC cards, sensory bins, magnet fishing, a petting zoo, and more. Eggs are placed off the grass and at varying heights to accommodate limited mobility.
Friday, April 3rd (10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm) | Saturday, April 4th (10am, 12 pm, 2pm) | West Farm | $15/child, $8/adult (add $2 at the gate); advance purchase strongly recommended
Organized, chaos-free egg hunts with farm animals, cow barrel train rides, Easter Bunny photos, food vendors, and arts and crafts. Each child swaps collected eggs for a gift bag at the end.
Friday, April 3rd | 6pm | West Farm | $15/child, $8/adult (add $2 at the gate)
The night kicks off with a foam party — dancing, music, and waves of bubbles — then transitions into a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt across the farm. Bring a flashlight, a towel, and a change of clothes.
Saturday, April 4th | 9–11am | Sip N' Slide Play Cafe | $25/child (sibling discounts available); pre-registration required
Easter Bunny photos, open play, coloring, and age-split egg hunts (0–2 and 2–5 year olds) at this local play cafe plus coffee for the grown-ups. A great pick for the littlest ones.
Saturday, April 4th | Session 1: 10am-1pm | Session 2: 2–5pm (egg hunts begin 15 min after the hour) | We Rock the Spectrum, Summerville | $25/child; includes open play, snacks, and drinks; registration required
Two sessions of Easter egg hunting plus open play at this sensory-friendly gym, with an Easter photo backdrop by Tiffany Ann Photography on site. Each child gets 10 eggs.
EVENT
Flowertown Festival Kickoff & Festival Tips
This one is for the parents who want to get a jump on festival weekend before the crowds arrive. The Flowertown Kickoff is a street party held the Thursday evening before the main festival. This is something we just found out about, and we hope to check it out this year!
The event runs from 6–9pm on E 3rd N Street near Coastal Coffee and Godwin's, with a street closure starting at 3pm. It's walkable, open to everyone, and sets the tone for what's coming that weekend. You'll get the energy of Flowertown without the 200,000-person crowd showing up all at once. Strollers move freely, kids can run around on a closed street.
The full Flowertown Festival — with thousands of arts and crafts vendors, fair rides, food trucks, live music, and a large kids' section — follows that Friday through Sunday, March 27–29 along Main Street and Azalea Park. Admission and parking for the full festival are free. The festival is open 9am-6pm on Friday, 9am-6pm on Saturday, and 9am-4pm on Sunday.
If you can only make one day, Sunday morning before the noon rush tends to be the quietest. That's not usually an option for us, so last year we arrived about a half hour before opening on Saturday morning and walked from the kid zone all the way to downtown Summerville for the Farmers Market kickoff. It was a surprisingly calm way to see a lot of vendors who were already set up and ready to go. If crowds aren't your thing, aim for an off-peak time whenever you can. No matter what, bring a good stroller or wagon, plenty of drinks and snacks, and plan for some patience. We're lucky enough to live within walking distance, so with little ones we tend to spread it across multiple days so we don't feel like we have to do everything at once. Flowertown is one of our favorite weekends of the year in Summerville — it just pays to come prepared.
RESTAURANT
Mei Thai
We ended up at Mei Thai on a date night, and within about five minutes of walking in, we were already talking about when we could come back with the kids.
The vibe is cheerful and genuinely warm. The servers were attentive and the dining room is partitioned in a way that makes you feel like you have your own little corner of the place. There were plenty of other families there when we visited, and honestly, you'd never feel like your crew was out of place.
The menu is enormous in the best way. Thai, Filipino, and sushi all under one roof. The restaurant is owned by Mervin Jones and his wife, who ran the original location in North Charleston for years before moving to Summerville in early 2024. They renovated a former car wash off Old Trolley Road into what is now a genuinely solid neighborhood restaurant. We started with the lumpia and crab rangoons, both worth ordering. Daniel went with the pad thai and a dynamite roll and I had the lemongrass chicken. Everything was deeply flavorful, the kind of meal where you're still talking about the spices on the drive home. We also had enough left over for lunch the next day, so the portions are generous. One note: if you like heat, mention it when you order. The pad thai came out mild at first, but our server had extra spice ready to hand him when he asked for it.
Mei Thai is at 605 Old Trolley Road, Summerville and is open Monday through Saturday 10am–9pm and Sunday 10am–8pm. More info at meithaisummerville.com.
PALMETTO PIECE
Two Years of Palmetto Parents
I’m writing this from our sunroom, the very same spot where some of the first Palmetto Parents newsletters came to life. Back then, it was just me, a laptop, and my two-year-old playing outside while I hit send to about 50 subscribers, hoping it might help even one family find something fun to do.
In many ways, not much has changed. I’m still in this sunroom, still writing, still chasing little ones… except now I have a four-year-old and another two-year-old. But in so many other ways, everything has grown.
What started as a simple idea has become something so much more meaningful than we ever expected.
Over the past two years, I’ve fallen even more in love with this community. I’ve learned so much about Summerville, about parenting, and about how powerful it is when families feel connected. And that’s always been our goal: to give you tools to connect with your family, to find your people, and to truly enjoy all that Summerville has to offer.
One of the greatest joys has been meeting some of you in real life and turning readers into friends and building relationships that go beyond the newsletter. Those connections, the ones where we support each other through the highs and lows of parenting and life, mean everything to us.
As we look ahead, we’re excited to keep growing in that direction and creating more opportunities to gather, connect, and build community together in person.
Thank you for being here, for reading, and for being part of what makes this community.
Love,
Courtney, Daniel, and the Berk Boys
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