Picture of the Week - 7/29/2021

 These 2 boys...  I am so happy they have each other!

It's not news to anyone reading this that we have our 4 boys in 2 pairs with a bit of a gap in between.  I've shared in the past how much I love this arrangement.  It just works for OUR family!  

The difference between the first pair and the second is that Zane and Beck still spend nearly every day together and have pretty much the exact same activities and interests at least 80% of the time.  They have what I have always assumed is a more typical "brother" relationship than Spencer and Quinn (who also have a great relationship - not taking anything away from them...)  They play and they fight and they imagine together.  They support each other - and make each other SO mad!  They know exactly which buttons to push to get a rise out of the other.  It's impressive, really!

They have, of course, spent time apart (camps and such) but over the course of their lives, I would say they have EASILY spent 90% of their days together - and sleeping in the same room.  This week, that all changed.  We moved Beckett out of their shared room and for the first time since we have lived in this house, that bedroom over the garage houses only 1 Bovy boy.  

Once I got over the amount of trash under the bed and we finished transporting far too many t-shirts across the hall, it set in that this little home-improvement project had some pretty BIG implications.  

My boys are growing up...  

And they are so excited about all the changes.  I am so proud to watch them go through all this amazing growth and change.  I know they are all ready for all the stuff about to come their way with the start of a brand new school year this week.  More on Back-to-School next week...  and you'd better believe I'm over-the-moon excited that Spencer is going to be home for a new, obligatory First Day of School picture!  LOL  

This week we started football practice.  Next week Spencer comes home (for 9 days) and we start school and fall wrestling.  Oh and Bob is taking Quinn to Pigeon Forge for a wrestling tournament too.  Pretty wild week!

PS: It's been less than a week since Beck moved out of Zane's room and he's already spent a night on the floor in there having a "slumber party" after they watched a creepy movie.  I just love them!

PPS: We MADE my goal of getting this bedroom thing done before school started!  Woot!!  We still have bookshelves to clean out and some stuff to hang up, but the fact that there is a universal paint shortage happening right now (serious, so over covid...) meant that we couldn't paint either Beckett or Zane's rooms just now - which significantly sped the process up.  Painting will have to wait...

Picture of the Week - 7/22/2021

 I thought I would share a few pictures of the progress on "operation bedroom swap 2021"

We have Quinn's new room in the basement just about ready to go!  The closet is finally done and he moved his stuff down there right before he left for the week to attend InsideOut Daytona (more on that later*).  We still have to hang up pictures and put together an organizer shelf above his desk, but it's looking pretty cool!  And yes, he DOES have the nicest closet in the house...  by far...

Next step is to paint a wall in Quinn's old room/Beck's new room and get him moved in there.  I'm still hopeful we can get that done by the time school starts - which is 2 weeks from TODAY.  Yikes - the summer is almost *poof* gone!  I think it's doubtful we will get Zane's room repainted and spruced up before football/wrestling season is over.  Oh well...  guess that can be a spring project now.  LOL

(Football starts next week and we will be at Midway Park 4 nights a week if you need us.  The scheduling Gods helped (?) us out though and we have Tuesdays football-free so we can go to wrestling practice on those nights.  Bout to step onto the merry-go-round here!)

*InsideOut Daytona is a trip our church put together with all the other Northpoint affiliated churches for all the high school students participating in small groups.  Quinn's small group has stuck together unusually well as most of the groups really shrink in size by the time they get to senior year.  (Everyone remember that we have ANOTHER Senior in the house this year??  #classof2022)  This group is still BIG and they meet every week - and did through most of the pandemic.  I love that he has these young men - and the 3 leaders who have been with them for the last 4 years too! - to lean into.  They are good kids and have been a huge part of our "it takes a village to raise a child" family.  16 of Quinn's group attended the trip this year.  Mind blown!  There are over 2000 students in attendance this week and hundreds of volunteers and staff.  They have been poured into and if the text and messages being shared are any indication, many lives have been positively changed forever at the beach this year.  Here's a picture of the opening night session and of Quinn's group - the guy in the middle is his leader and Quinn is on the right side behind some of the others.  

Funny - Quinn is the shortest one in this group of tall, mostly athletic boys.  Out of over 400 teams his group's team was in the semi-finals of the beach volleyball tournament.  When I asked if he had played he said, "Mom, I'm 5'6".  I'm the DJ!"  So cute!

Have a great week everyone!  Enjoy the last of July!!

Picture of the Week - 7/15/2021

 Man vacation week goes so fast!  Too fast!

We had a great week at the beach.  We had a different location on the island this year, which honestly we didn't love...  but it was a great week to relax and reconnect and get away from reality for a while.  I think it was especially timely after our crazy June!

We did, of course, miss Spencer a ton.  It was weird not having him there.  I definitely had this "why take pictures without everyone" mindset - so I took hardly any pictures the whole week.  It may have also been an intentional effort to get off my phone more.  I did get this awesome shot of Zane and Beck in the "big waves" from Tropical Storm Elsa - which really didn't impact our weather much at all, but made for a few days of angry ocean!

This week the boys did a wrestling camp at the high school - which was fun for them and easy for us!  Quinn has been so busy this week between volunteering at the camp, working and tackling some SAT tutoring - oh plus socializing!  I haven't hardly seen him since we got home - exactly the way a 17 year old summer should be!

Spencer has had a big week too.  He transitioned from the 10-person ExCEL portion of his summer to the 220ish-person Citadel Success Institute portion.  For the ExCEL kids, it's not been a huge change...  they moved to a new barracks and have a LOT more meetings and things they need to do.  I think they are getting  a lot less sleep too, but they aren't going through the shock that the other CSI kids are dealing with.  I think around half dozen kids quit the program within the first 2 days.  There's a reason they call The Citadel the "road less traveled".  It's not an easy path.

This weekend - we are back to tackling the bedroom move project - I'm pretty sure we can get Quinn moved this weekend assuming our new rug from Wayfair gets delivered on time.  I'm determined to get as much as we can done this weekend because football starts in like 10 days - and there goes our evenings and weekends again.  LOL  It's our crazy life and I love it.  

Have a great week!  We only have 2 more full weeks left before school starts - where does the time go???

Picture of the Week - 7/1/2021

 Poof - just like that June is gone!  I'm not sure how your June went, but our FLEW by and felt like it lasted about 5 minutes.

July seems like it's going to have a bit more of a relaxed schedule.  Still fun summer things planned, but not as many camps and not nearly as many trips.  One fun summer trip, however, launches this weekend!  We are off for our annual beach trip on Saturday.  It will be super weird that Spencer won't be with us.  I'm trying not to think about that too much.  

And before you get TOO upset about Spencer not getting to go with us next week, he has some pretty awesome plans for the weekend!  Along with his ExCEL classmates, he will get to do a tour of Fort Sumter, a bridge run over the Cooper River bridge, and a July 4th celebration at Patriot's Point.  I'm fairly confident he will be JUST fine!

In fact, if his remaining summer weeks in Charleston go like the first week, he may never want to come home.  All is well at The Citadel.  He's doing great!  (I still don't have an address for him.  He will get one on Aug 12th at the latest.  Thanks to those of you who have asked.  I'm sure he'll love mail, but for now there's no way to easily get it to him.)

The other boys have all had great weeks too!  Quinn had a great time with his Wrestling family in Orlando last week at Disney Duals.  He bounced between a couple of hotel rooms and I think probably didn't exactly hate not having parents around.  I'm not taking offense...  I know how this gradual separation thing works...  he's just prepping for his own turn to leave the nest next summer.  (gut punch)

Zane is at Woodlands this week and Beck is at Wet & Wild camp.  If you are paying attention (and not sure why you would pay THIS close attention) this is the same combo of camps we did a few weeks ago - but the kids are reversed.  LOL  I'm sure Zane is having fun - Woodlands has always been a highlight for all the boys.  It's funny really because I just registered Zane up for 6th grade retreat with his Transit church team and the leader spent a long time prepping parents who might be sending their kids away for the first overnight experience like that.  I'm glad our boys have had an opportunity to grow up with Woodlands.  In addition to a wholesome, summer week at camp - it's also given them great exposure and experience for a bunch of other stuff along the way.  I love that camp!

Here are some fun pictures of Q, Z, and B.  (Yes, that's Quinn pinning a kid!)  I don't have any pictures of Spencer.  Hoping maybe I can talk him into sharing some soon...  

Have a super happy (and safe) long holiday weekend!  Happy 4th of July - and God bless America!  (there may or may not be a POTW next week...  don't worry if you don't see one - just means I'm having too much fun to pull out a laptop!)