Hi Friend,

We spent the weekend in Asheville visiting David's aunt and uncle, who live on an actual working farm with chickens and horses. Jamie was in heaven. He chased chickens, pointed at every horse like it was the first horse he had ever seen in his life, and point blank refused to leave the barn for two straight days.

Also at this farm: Jamie's older cousins, who apparently find a toddler picking his nose to be the funniest thing on earth. They laughed every single time. Jamie noticed. Jamie has now decided nose picking is a bit, and he is workshopping it in front of anyone who will make eye contact with him. We are three days post-farm and I have made peace with the fact that this is our life now.

Back in Charlotte, it's a packed Saturday, some good library programming, and a store I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't know existed until last weekend.

🌱 What We’re Doing

Your week in Charlotte, planned.

There's a lot going on this Saturday, and half of it is Christmas in July. Rea Farms is projecting Polar Express onto a video wall at 8:30 in the morning for their Christmas in July edition of Cartoons & Coffee, and over in Huntersville you can get your kid's picture with Santa at a tortoise sanctuary, a sentence I did not expect to type today. Sunny's Market has 100+ vendors set up at Suffolk Punch if you want a non-holiday option.

If Saturday feels like too much, Wednesday is quieter. Wild Wednesdays are back at Mint Museum Randolph with a real live animal and a scavenger hunt, and there's a tomato planting class at The Bunny Hive that I'm tempted to sign myself up for.

✨ A few standouts:

• A live author reading at Park Road Books for the new picture book Hide, Fish, Hide!
• An Elsa & Anna meet and greet at Birkdale Buds, along with a Bella Ballerina pop-up and a visit from the Davidson Women's Basketball team
• The Sandlot playing under the stars at Fourth Ward Park, popcorn for the first 100 people

👉 Check out all 37 events here

🚨 On Our Radar

Quick hits you'll want to know about.

• Coffee Among the Roses is back on July 22. No agenda, no presentations, just coffee and conversation at McGill Rose Garden from 9-10am. Bring the baby, bring the stroller, coffee's available for purchase on site. This is the low-key mom hangout you didn't know you needed on a Wednesday morning.

• If you're expecting (or hope to be soon), Oula is opening a Cotswold location in August. I'm touring it in a couple weeks and will report back on what it's actually like inside. If you're not familiar, keep an eye out, this is worth knowing about before you're deep into picking a provider.

• The Whitewater Center is doubling down on kids this September. Phase II of Wildwoods is opening with an elevated treehouse village, a mining cave, a settler's fort with a working blacksmith, and a barn with chickens, sheep, and goats for education (not petting). The goal, per Whitewater CEO Jeff Wise, is basically to build every five-year-old's dream. More details closer to the opening.

• Altar'd State Kids at SouthPark Mall is officially open. I went to the grand opening and spent way more money than I meant to. Their stuff is super cute with sizes from ranging from newborn to kids to women, and the team was incredibly helpful, go see for yourself before your wallet does too.

• Pineville Regional Library Update: The Pineville Regional Library is still closed due to damage from a car crash. Please be sure to check the library’s website for updates on their reopening before you plan a visit

Review: Cozy Kids Furniture & More

I've lived in Charlotte for years, have a toddler, and am currently furnishing a nursery. Somehow I had no idea we had an actual kids furniture store here until last weekend. Bunk beds with slides. Every stroller you could want. A staff that actually knows the difference between gliders instead of just pointing at price tags.

I have a lot of thoughts on this one →

What Jamie's Into

Spotify Kids podcasts, specifically Gardenkeeper Gus. It follows a kid named Gus and his squirrel best friend puttering around a garden doing calm little chores like harvesting vegetables, and it is the most soothing thing we play in this house. The intro jingle has been stuck in my head for days now. 

We've also been rotating in Circle Round and Rise Little Earthling, both rated for age 2 and up. Circle Round adapts folktales from around the world into short audio plays with a great cast, it runs about 19 minutes which is perfect for our longer errands. Rise Little Earthling is barely 5 minutes, a little mindfulness routine that works well when we just need Jamie to reset before we walk into somewhere.

The real win here is the car, which used to be a literal war zone. Jamie is deeply particular about which book he wants to read and has zero problem saying a hard no if I offer the wrong one, so the backseat floor was permanently covered in discarded rejects mid negotiation. And god forbid he actually finish reading all the books he demanded before we arrived, that was its own crisis. The podcasts have replaced all of it. Twenty minutes of Gardenkeeper Gus and nobody is throwing a board book at the back of my seat.

Help The Sprout grow. If one idea made your week easier, please forward this email or tag @thecharlottesprout so more Charlotte parents can find us. 🌱