Good morning!

This week’s lineup feels like summer walked into the room, kicked off its shoes, and immediately asked where the bounce house was.

We’ve got a Strawberry Festival for anyone who believes fruit tastes better when it comes with vendors and a reason to wander Main Street.

Kinetic Park is celebrating its grand opening, which means there’s officially a new place for everyone to say, “We should check that out sometime,” and then actually check it out.

And Frankie Martin’s is throwing a Summer Kick Off Bash with bubbles, bounce houses, face painting, live music, and enough kid-friendly energy to require at least one iced coffee.

There are also food trucks, live music, goats, yoga, a new bakery soft opening, and a local news update that will make every homebuyer in Wentzville suddenly care a lot more about basements.

Let’s get into it. 👇

End of the School Year Party
📍 Cottle Village, Cottleville
⏰ 10 AM–3 PM
Cottle Village is celebrating the end of the school year with food, desserts, drinks, dirty sodas, Kona Ice, bounce houses, and family-friendly fun.

Food Truck Frenzy + Car Meet
📍 Sports Park, O’Fallon
⏰ 5:30–8:30 PM
Food Truck Frenzy is rolling into Sports Park with food trucks, classic cars, a live DJ, and free admission. Bring a chair and enjoy a retro-inspired summer night.

Sunset Farm Tour and Yoga with Sound Bath
📍 Lucky Dog Farm, Wentzville
⏰ Friday, May 29, 6:30 PM
Enjoy a sunset evening at Lucky Dog Farm with a farm tour, cow yoga, and a relaxing sound bath with singing bowls. Price is $25.

PK at Frankie Martin’s Garden
📍 Frankie Martin’s Garden, Cottleville
⏰ 7 PM
Plastic Kings will be playing an outdoor, family-friendly show under the stars at Frankie Martin’s Garden.

SOFT OPENING DAY!!
📍 Kris Miss Real Food Sweets, Lake St. Louis
⏰ 9 AM
Kris Miss Real Food Sweets is opening for a soft launch in Lake St. Louis with gluten-free and vegan bakery treats made without artificial dyes or flavors.

Kinetic Park Grand Opening
📍 Kinetic Park, Dardenne Prairie
⏰ 10 AM
St. Charles County Parks is celebrating the official opening of Kinetic Park with a grand opening event showcasing everything the new park has to offer.

Never Say Goodbye Farewell Party
📍 Anchored Soul Boutique MO, Troy
⏰ 10 AM–2 PM
Anchored Soul Boutique is saying goodbye with one last shopping event featuring $10 off, raffles, light drinks, treats, and a chance to celebrate the shop’s final chapter.

BeaWell Beauty & Wellbeing Grand Opening Celebration
📍 BeaWell, O’Fallon
⏰ 12 PM
BeaWell is celebrating its grand opening with local vendors, wellness experiences, food trucks, family-friendly fun, bounce houses, balloon art, and giveaways.

Holistic Vendor Faire @ The Chakra Healing Room
📍 The Chakra Healing Room, Wentzville
⏰ 12–4:30 PM
The Chakra Healing Room is hosting a holistic vendor faire with crystals, tarot readers, energy practitioners, aura photography, reiki, meditation, candles, local art, wellness products, and more.

Amazing Creature Show
📍 Wildlife Command Center, Wright City
⏰ 2–3:30 PM
Wright City Parks & Rec is bringing back the Amazing Creature Show for a free family event with an up-close wildlife experience.

Live Music at Friendship Brewery Fli-Hi
📍 Friendship Brewing Company Fli-Hi, Wentzville
⏰ 7–10 PM
The Riddled Liver Band will be playing live at Friendship Brewing’s Fli-Hi location. Grab dinner, enjoy a drink, and settle in for a casual night of live music.

Barks, Brews, and Blooms
📍 Flower Coffee Collective, Wentzville
⏰ 10 AM–2 PM
Flower Coffee Collective is hosting a morning of coffee, flower bouquets, and adoptable dogs with Diamonds in the Ruff Rescue. A portion of select drink sales will support the rescue.

Summer Kick Off Bash
📍 Frankie Martin’s Garden, Cottleville
⏰ 11 AM–2 PM
Frankie Martin’s Garden is kicking off summer with a bubble van, bounce house, face painting, kids vendors, photobooth, live music, and Dirty Soda & Lemonade.

Painting with Goats
📍 Imagination Pottery Studio, Wentzville
⏰ 4–6 PM
Imagination Pottery Studio is hosting an afternoon of pottery painting and goat snuggling, with proceeds benefiting Alpacas of Troy. Reservations are required.

Annual Wentzville Rotary Charity Golf Tournament
📍 Bear Creek Golf Club, Wentzville
⏰ 8 AM–4 PM
The Wentzville Rotary Charity Golf Tournament returns to Bear Creek with check-in at 8 AM and a shotgun start at 9 AM. Registration includes lunch, drinks, and range balls.

Polly and the Pocket - Jammin’ Concert Series
📍 Civic Park, O’Fallon
⏰ 6:30–9 PM
O’Fallon’s Jammin’ Concert Series continues with Polly and the Pocket playing favorite 90s hits. Admission and parking are free, and food trucks will be on site.

FRIENDS Trivia
📍 B&B Wentzville Tower 12
⏰ 7:30–8:30 PM
FRIENDS Trivia is coming to B&B Tower 12. Free to play, open to all ages, and prizes are available for winners. Teams can have up to six players.

Bike Night Season Opener
📍 St. Charles Harley-Davidson, St. Charles
⏰ Thursday, May 28, 6–9 PM
Bike Night is back with the season opener at St. Charles Harley-Davidson. Expect slow races, stunt shows, meet and greets, food, drinks, vendors, and live music from Glixxr Brah.

Ruby Leigh
📍 Lindenwood University J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts, St. Charles
⏰ Friday, May 29, 7 PM
Ruby Leigh, known for her powerhouse voice and appearance on The Voice, is performing live with special guests The Friends of Bluegrass. A great pick for anyone who loves country, bluegrass, and big vocals.

Strawberry Festival
📍 Saint Charles Market on Main Street, St. Charles
⏰ Saturday, May 30, 7:30 AM–1 PM
The Strawberry Festival is taking over the Saint Charles Market on Main with fresh berries, local vendors, and strawberry-themed fun. Basically, it’s your sign to start Saturday with something sweet.

Wentzville Approves Basement Requirement for New Residential Developments

Here’s one of those local updates that might make you say, “Wait, really?”

Wentzville has approved a new requirement that new single-family homes in new residential developments include basements. The measure passed during the Board of Aldermen’s May 13 meeting and is aimed, in part, at giving residents safer shelter options during severe weather.

The change could affect future buyers, builders, real estate listings, and anyone keeping an eye on all the new subdivisions popping up around town. Because around here, “does it have a basement?” is not just a storage question. It’s also a Midwest storm-season survival question.

Some parks announce themselves with splash pads, playgrounds, and a parking lot full of minivans.

Matson Hill Park just hands you 475 acres of woods and says, “Good luck. Have fun.”

Tucked away in Defiance off Stub Road, Matson Hill Park is one of those places that feels much farther from Wentzville than it actually is. The roads get windier, the trees get thicker, and suddenly you’re in that part of St. Charles County where every turn looks like it belongs on a postcard someone bought at a winery.

The park itself is rugged, heavily forested, and built for people who like their walks with a little bit of “are we still on the trail?” energy. It has more than 6 miles of natural surface trails, plus gravity-flow mountain bike trails for anyone who looks at a regular hike and thinks, “Cute, but what if this involved more speed and danger?”

Basically, it’s not the place you go when you want a perfectly flat sidewalk stroll while holding an iced coffee.

It’s the place you go when you want woods, hills, roots, rocks, wildlife, and the possibility of becoming just slightly more outdoorsy than you were when you woke up.

The trails are the main draw, especially if you like a hike that feels peaceful but still asks a little something from your legs. The Matson Hill and Oxen Trail Loop is about 5 miles and is considered moderate, with enough elevation change to remind you that Missouri is not, in fact, completely flat.

So yes, bring water.

And maybe the friend who insists they “love hiking” but somehow always forgets that hiking occasionally includes going uphill.

There are also picnic areas, wooded scenery, and plenty of room to make a morning of it without turning it into an all-day expedition. It’s the kind of park that works for a quiet solo walk, a dog-friendly outing, a weekend family adventure, or a “we need to get out of the house before we all start acting weird” reset.

And then there’s the barn.

The Barn at Matson Hill is one of those “wait, this is at a county park?” surprises. It has a rustic, open-air feel with farmhouse-style tables, wooden chairs, and barn doors that open to the outdoors. It’s available for events and has space for up to 200 people, which means one minute you’re walking through the woods and the next you’re mentally planning a wedding, graduation party, family reunion, or very dramatic birthday dinner.

The park opens at 7 AM and closes half an hour after sunset, which makes it a great weekend escape when you want something quiet, pretty, and just far enough away to feel like you did something.

So if you’re looking for a peaceful hike, a new trail to try, a place to take the dog, or just an excuse to drive through Defiance and say, “We really should come out this way more often,” Matson Hill Park is worth putting on the list.

Just maybe don’t wear your nicest shoes.

That’s it for this week!

Whether you’re chasing strawberries, checking out a new park, kicking off summer with the kids, or simply trying to find one event where everyone in your family agrees to leave the house at the same time, there’s plenty happening around town.

As always, send this to someone who likes knowing what’s going on before everyone else does.

See you next Thursday,
Skyler