Park Time

 After a couple days of rain, a day of the sun shining was a blessing. The girls worked hard in the morning to complete their school work and then it was off to the park. It was great to have some friends from church join us. We are really enjoying this park!

Indian Creek Geocaching

 Since our normal Friday was cancelled for this week, I decided to take the girls on a fun field trip to a local park. This park has a walking/trail with several geocaches along the way. I decided this would be a great nature walk and a fun way to get in some exercise. Some of the girls brought their scooters and this path was perfect for it.

We found this new fruit on the ground and thought it was so interesting. I came home and found out it is:

Maclura pomifera, commonly called Osage-orange, hedge-apple,^[1] Horse-apple, Bois d'arc, Bodark, or Bodock^[2] is a small deciduous tree or large shrub, typically growing to 8–15 metres (26–49 ft) tall. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on different plants. The fruit, a multiple fruit, is roughly spherical, but bumpy, and 7–15 cm in diameter. It is filled with a sticky white latex sap. In fall, its color turns a bright yellow-green. It is not closely related to the orange: Maclura belongs to the mulberry family, Moraceae, while oranges belong to the family Rutaceae.^[3]
Maclura is closely related to the genus Cudrania, and hybrids between the two genera have been produced. In fact, some botanists recognize a more broadly defined Maclura that includes species previously included in Cudrania and other genera of Moraceae.
Osajin and Pomiferin are flavonoid pigments present in the wood and fruit, comprising about 10% of the fruit's dry weight. The plant also contains the flavonol morin.
It was once thought that placing an Osage orange under the bed would repel spiders and insects. This practice has declined with the rise of synthetic insecticides. However, scientific studies have found that extracts of Osage orange do repel several insect species, in some studies just as well as the widely-used synthetic insecticide DEET.^[4]

 These are the trees they come from.

 The girls found several inch worms.

 We found two out of four caches that we wanted to find.

 We got back to the car and got out our lunch. After lunch, the girls were going to play on the playground equipment but the equipment was too hot so instead they waded in the creek near by.

Phyiscal Education

 Today, we started with a kids dance DVD.

 The kids were pretty excited by this.

 Then we moved outside for volleyball skills.

Physical Fitness

 This morning was very successful. My guess is that a really early bedtime helped for very happy motivated kids the next day. They finished all their independent work before 10am. This allowed time for some group activities. I decided to start our physical fitness program. On Friday, we will be getting together with our friends for group games and fitness tests. During the rest of the week, I want to be preparing the girls for Fridays.

 We started with some sprints.

 Then jumping jacks followed by some more running.

 Then moved onto sit-ups.

We ended with planks because the girls haven't quite mastered the correct posture for push-ups and then stretched out. It was a good first day. I am hoping to improve the girls' endurance and strength this year.

Picnic at the Pool

We ended a great first week with gym class at the pool. We met another homeschooling family while there. It was so awesome to have just three families at the pool. The kids took a break in their 5 hours of swimming to have a picnic poolside. We are absolutely loving hanging out with our friends again.

Soccer

For seven weekends, we enjoyed watching all four of our girls learn how to play soccer, interact with their teammates, and improve their skills. The Upward program is such an awesome way to introduce your children to sports. I love that everything is Christ centered. There are devotions during practices and games.

Ladybug and Dragonfly would always jump at the chance to kick the ball in when it went out of bounds.

One Saturday, Dragonfly's team was a teammate short and Ladybug was allowed to fill in. She had already played a game so she was pretty tired but still managed to score a goal for the team.

Dragonfly was so excited when Ladybug scored that she ran over and gave her a huge hug. Dragonfly almost scored right after Ladybug's goal but it hit the side pole.

Butterfly was so exciting to watch. She had so much energy on the field and scored one amazing goal.

Upward Soccer

 My players

 It was a beautiful day and all the games happened as scheduled. They all had so much fun and played so well. I had four exhausted girls when all the games were finished.

 Dragonfly was most excited about getting her named called out and run by all the parents.