Here is a little photo essay about all of the things that have happened in the past couple of months. Kiddos' schedules and conference planning and loan closing frenzies and whatnot have us a little busy, so our apologies for letting so much time pass! Ella wrote her first five-paragraph essay and chose the ocean's plastic vortex as her topic. She got a very good score and high praise from her teacher, particularly for her good examples. In the paragraph about how we can make sure less plastic gets into the environment by reusing things, she suggests keeping plastic shopping bags in the car, "in case you have to throw up. Just make sure the bag doesn't have a hole in it." Sage advice. Plastic Vortex = Disaster! Ella also got selected for fifth grade honors choir! We are so proud! Annie (last week she announced she wanted family to start using her nickname again) is reading entire books out loud to us. Our awesome readers. Swords add an element of d