The Summer Days of June

While we're ending June with a yucky stomach bug, the other summer days of June have been hot, fun and a great mix of leisure and activity. 


Mary-Michael enjoyed her first overnight summer camp at Camp Wakefield with some other friends from church. Upon leaving her week of fun, she cried and declared she would be attending every year for as long as she could. 


Lauren was her junior counselor, and Mary-Michael really enjoyed her friendship and leadership. 

While Mary-Michael went to camp, Geoff and Leila traveled with this crew on a mission trip to Philly for the second time. They partnered with Philadelphia Dream Center which is an established and well-respected inner city mission organization. 


This team was busy from sun-up until after dark picking up trash in hard parts of the city, serving meals to the homeless, ministering late at night to women caught in human trafficking and serving and playing with kids in some of the poorest areas. Among many other things, they saw and learned a lot about heroin and the terrible effects it has on a community and its people.


While this guy was sorely missed from home, he was a favorite again with the youth, served as a driver for a slew of teenage boys and an undercover bodyguard for the team  (at least that's my perspective).


Daddy put this guy in charge, and he faithfully rubbed my feet while Daddy was away. 


My MUMS group wrapped up a great year with a celebratory dinner for our team and our amazing mentor mommas. These ladies are not just a great team to serve with but wonderful friends to do life with and lean on. 


I never thought I'd see this day - a lemonade stand on our road. Mary-Michael had the idea and made a plan. I was ready to text a neighbor if they didn't have any customers (we live in the country, people), but lo and behold, within a Friday afternoon and a Saturday morning, they earned a whopping $121. They worked very hard and had some very generous donors. 

School’s Out For Summer!

Leila's final elementary school field day with her class and 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Whittaker. 

Leila is an expert at gaga ball, regularly beating the middle schoolers, so I'm told.

It was so exciting to celebrate Leila's effort and hard work at her school's 8th grade graduation. She received a $1000 scholarship toward her tuition. The following was read, which was written by her 4th grade teacher.

Leila, keep working hard and don't ever give up. You are making amazing strides!

Frazier received all Ps for his 1st grade year. He also was invited to join the Gifted and Talented program for math. So proud of you, buddy!

My 2 little men. Frazier has made so much progress this year with Mrs. Sherman, and he has definitely become quite the reader, which he was not a huge fan of at the beginning of 1st grade.

And this girl received straight As all year and continued to excel in the gifted program. She is also a math whiz and received a Pass-Advance on her Math SOL. 

Great job, baby girl!


Mary-Michael's 3rd grade class on the last day, which was filled with mixed feelings for our sweet girl. She was very aware that today was a day filled with goodbyes as she and Frazier will be joining Leila at Aylett Country Day School next year. Ms. Allensworth has been a wonderful teacher for MM this year.


Summertime is here! Ice cream sundaes with the Senters and Youngs to celebrate the end of school!

A Wedding Celebration

What a special family weekend we had at Lake Anna celebrating the wedding of Geoff’s baby brother, Kameron (aka Kam) and his new bride, Hailey. Geoff was honored to be the best man and stand beside Kam on this special day. The couple and their families put on a beautiful celebration with lovely details, delicious food and lots of fun. The Lawrence’s (20) all stayed together for 3 days in a big home on the lake. The kids were completely entertained with one another, a water slide, a game room and a movie room. We are thrilled for the new couple and look forward to many adventures and memories with them. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kameron Lawrence

Joint effort sign: Hailey had the vision, Geoff created it, Keesha and I became vinyl experts.

I love these creative programs and wording.

The pastor shared a great message reminding us all that like when we have trouble with our iPhones we go to the Apple store (the manufacturer), we also need to first go to the manufacturer of marriage (God) when we have challenges.

So sweet.

Introducing the Mr. and Mrs.!


To the tune of the song from Tangled, the couple lit and released a lantern.

The original Lawrence's. Such a great picture of a great family.

The 4 Lawrence children all married!

Our kids had more fun than their faces show!

The Lawrence’s plus spouses and children.

The Lawrence’s extended!

Welcome to the family Mrs. Lawrence.

One of the highlights was definitely Geoff dancing with his sweet Aunt Terri.

Cousin time!

Just call us the vinyl experts. We had a lot of fun helping with those last minute details. 

Lake Love

We are so thankful to have the most hospitable friends that open their lake home to us all the time. There's nothing like friends that are like family that share a love for Jesus and a love for fun. They are allowing us to give great memories to our children and teaching them (and me) so patiently to wake surf, wake board, knee board, paddle board, etc. Fifteen+ children/young adults and 9 adults in a lake house makes for lots of fun, lots of food and not a lot of sleep. Oh wait, the not a lot of sleep is due to Benaiah. Sigh. He does not sleep well in other places. Regardless, Geoff grew up with very fond memories of Lake Anna, and I'm so glad we can give similar experiences to our own children.