Some real characters will be coming to life June 2 at the Ashtabula and Woodburn plantation houses in South Carolina's Upstate.

Meet the Pendletons, a chance to meet people who lived in the Old Pendleton district of South Carolina from 1800 to about 1908, who will mingle with the audience and talk about their lives back in the day.

This year, expect a visit from Manse Jolly from 1865, a man wanted for several murders. You'll also get to meet the Rev. John Adger, an owner of Woodburn in the 1850s, and Mrs. Angela Latta, the mistress of Ashtabula in the 1850s. She'll talk about the coming of the railroad and the war -- and how each is affecting her family. John C. Calhoun might even show up.

The audience can sit in lawn chairs and take it all in.

"The characters come up in costume and do a presentation of themselves. They talk about a particular subject that might be important during the time," said Ellen Harrison, the volunteer education director for both houses. "Each one is about four minutes long, to introduce people to the historical characters who were actually living here in that 100 years or so."

It'll run from 10 a.m. until about 10:45 a.m., with a charge of $3 a carload.

After the show, Ashtabula and Woodburn, the two homes operated by the Pendleton Historic Foundation will be open for tours until 4 p.m. Tours cost $6 for adults and $2 for 5- to 10-year-olds.

Ashtabula was built in 1825, while Woodburn was built in 1830. Both are now house museums furnished with antebellum antiques.

Another upcoming event happens May 26-27, when the houses will be open and volunteers will be demonstrating spinning and weaving. The demonstration runs from 1-3 p.m. May 26 at Ashtabula and 2-4 p.m. May 27 at Woodburn.

Both houses were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Asthabula and Woodburn have been operated as house museums since the mid-1970's and are located on the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor.

If you can't visit on those weekends, Ashtabula is open for tours from 1-4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Woodburn is open 1-4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.

Want to help your children get interested in learning about art masterpieces?

Throw in some candy.

A lot of candy.

At the Children's Museum of the Upstate in Greenville you can see reproductions of classics including Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," Grant Wood's "American Gothic" and Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earing."

Each of the eight large pieces of artwork is made with more than 10,000 jelly beans.

Artist Kristen Cumings created the pieces shown in the exhibit, "Masterpieces of Jelly Belly Bean Art," which is on display at the downtown Greenville museum through June 2.

During the exhibit, the museum is sponsoring some create-your-own mosaics fun activities for kids in the gallery on the museum's lower level. The exhibit also includes a video that shows how Cumings creates her masterpieces.

Mother's Day can mean homemade cards, breakfast in bed and hand-picked flowers.
It also can mean a road trip, a boat trip or finding the perfect garden to stroll through.

Here are suggestions for three options in South Carolina's Midlands:

Cruise beautiful Lake Murray aboard the Southern Patriot, a 65-foot double-deck cruise boat. The Mother's Day boat trip runs from 1-3 p.m. and include a luncheon. Reservations are required (803-749-8594) and tickets are $35.

Lake Murray is located just a few miles northwest of Columbia, and it's one of the prettiest lakes around. It's 41 miles long and 14 miles wide at its widest point, covering 78 square miles and 649 miles of coastline.

Check out the swans -- and the gardens -- at Swan Lake Iris Gardens in Sumter.
The 150-acre garden is home to some spectacular Japanese iris, which start blooming in mid-May and fill the garden with colorful blooms through early June.

But it's the swans that always catch our family's attention -- eight varieties, each with its own look and personality. It's the only public park in the country that features all eight swan species -- Royal White Mute Swans, Black Necked Swans, Trumpeters, Whoopers, Coscorobas, Bewick Swans, Whistler Swans and Black Australians. The gardens are open from 7:30 a.m. until dusk, and admission is free.

If roses are your mom's favorite flowers, she'll definitely enjoy a trip to the Edisto Memorial Gardens in Orangeburg.

The Festival of Roses is held the weekend before Mother's Day, but that means the stunning roses will still be in full bloom this weekend. And there are plenty of roses to see. About 4,000 plants representing at least 75 labeled varieties of roses are always on display in the gardens. It is one of just 23 official test gardens in the country sanctioned by the All America Rose Selections Inc.

Not a rose lover? the gardens are along the banks of the Edisto River, the world's longest blackwater river. The Horne Wetlands Park in the gardens takes visitors over a 2,700-foot boardwalk for a close-up look at the plants and wildlife found in the wetlands of this area. The gardens are open every day from dawn to dusk, and admission is free.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Start your engines

Looking for a Mother's Day Weekend outing? How about a trip to the spot that's too tough to tame -- Darlington Raceway.

"The Lady in Black," built in 1949, is known as NASCAR's original superspeedway. The engines will roar again on May 12 when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to Darlington for the Bojangles' Southern 500.

But the fun starts at 4 p.m. Thursday, with the Car Haulers Parade and Festival. At the festival at the Florence Civic Center, fans can check out the giant NASCAR Transporters and have their pictures take with team handlers. There's even a Kids Zone with inflatable bounce houses, mechanical rides, games and contests.

"It's really a carnival atmosphere. It's a great piece that kicks off the weekend," said Darlington Raceway's Dennis Worden. "For the parade everyone gets in their chairs aloing the parade route and watches. It's a cool experience for families."

At 6:30 p.m., the haulers begin to line up and at 7 p.m. they start the 12-mile parade to Darlington Square, where there will be food, entertainment and fireworks as part of Verizon RaceFest.

Throughout Friday and Saturday at the race track, there will be interactive displays for adults and kids, who also might want to stop in at the NASCAR museum on-site.

Part of the attraction for families -- along with the thrills of NASCAR -- is the discount ticket pricing for kids. Those 17 and younger are free on Friday and half-price in any reserved seat for the Southern 500 on Saturday.

"We try to make it more affordable for families," Worden said. "It's important for a father and mother to want to bring their kids out to enjoy racing."

"It's a real family-friendly, festive atmosphere," he said. "Maybe because we are so old school and we have been around so long, but thousands and thousands of kids attend races here."

And probably a lot of moms, too. Happy Mother's Day!

Ready to see a ring-tailed lemur leap? A white-spotted bamboo shark glide? A tomato frog jump? Or a hissing cockroach, well, hiss?

You can find all of those in Madagascar, the large island off east Africa that's home to more than 250,000 species, of which 70 percent are found nowhere else on the globe.

And you can also find them in Charleston, at the South Carolina Aquarium.

On May 5, the aquarium opens a new exhibit, Madagascar Journey, which will feature creatures like lemurs, a Nile crocodile, boa constrictors, colorful frogs, geckos and vasa parrots.

The exhibit, which will remain in Charleston for at least three years, is on the aquarium's first floor and is included in the regular aquarium admission.

The aquarium sits at the edge of Charleston Harbor and is open daily from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Along with the new Madagascar exhibit, the aquarium features thousands of aquatic animals from river otters to loggerhead turtles, representing the biodiversity of South Carolina.

The aquarium is next to the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center at Liberty Square, where boats leave for trips to Fort Sumter.