Joel....my favorite seven year old.

I love Joel. The picture above is a great representation of him. I even tried to bribe him with ice cream to take a decent picture, but....nope, only weird faced ones from Joel.

I love all of Joel's uniqueness. 

When asked what he wanted for his birthday, he repeatedly said he wanted to take a trip to the dump. He loves finding garbage and making things out of it. Unfortunately, I often have to scold him in parking lots, and lecture him about picking up just any garbage, but however odd it is, I have to say that going to a junk yard sounds pretty fun for my own birthday! lol

I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

Joel is a self-titled "Fruitatarian".  

So he wanted fruit cakes for breakfast on his birthday. 

John made him this fruit cake, with lots of fruit inside and on top...and of course John made it the size of the plate! 

It was pretty delicious, and although Joel can put away an incredible amount of food, he couldn't finish it.  You know Luke was just waiting to eat Joel's leftovers in this picture. 

I sent Chloe and Luke into the dollar store by themselves, to pick out four presents for Joel. One from each kid. They did a terrific job! Joel, who is an animal lover received all bug/animal related presents from his siblings. 

Eva was not so happy that she didn't get to open the presents, so Joel wrapped up some of his shorts for her...random yes, but they were the first thing he could find, and no, they weren't the ones he was wearing. 

Joel is the middle child. Sometimes I can tell. He loves attention for being funny, and he does have an adult-like whit, but he often gets overshadowed by older siblings, and less attended to than younger ones. 

He, like so many little boys, has a difficult time focusing and sitting still, but he's incredibly smart. 

I call him my nutty professor. He's the kid who does 3rd grade math in kindergarten, but can't seem to put his clothes on right....ever!

He's incredibly caring, except if you're his sibling and then he teases and bugs you relentlessly. 

One night he got out of bed and I was overwhelmed and crying because I had so much to do and the house was such a mess. He said, "I'll clean it for you mom". and he went and got Chloe and Luke out of bed and they all cleaned and cleaned....until it was done! 

Joel is amazing like that!

Later in the day, we went to watch Chloe cheer and Luke play football. 

Luckily this was the (one) game where Chloe cheered for Luke's team, saving us from sitting through two games.

That afternoon, John took Joel to pick out a fish, while I stayed home and made our fruitatarian his birthday cake.....which was actually fruit pizza, requested by Joel, of course. 

I know, the pan looks gross, I haven't figured out how to get Pam cooking spray off yet. 

This was one of Joel's birthday presents that they picked up. Her name is Blanketee. (I have no idea why). 

Joel is an animal activist you could say. I have no idea how he became this way, considering both his parents are from farming families, and really don't think twice if someone's going to go hunting, or kill a cow for beef. 

However, Joel won't even kill a spider. He "escorts" the spiders that are in our house outside by picking them up and setting them outdoors....(before I can get to them!)

For a family movie night, Joel picked out a BBC movie about.....you guessed it, ....animals. Here's our basement lounge.  

So there's a recap of Joel's 7th birthday. 

Just for future reference I wanted to make a list of what Joel likes to do and what he's good at, at this point in time. 

*  Joel is a fantastic artist!

* Joel has just realized how much he loves running....and we realize how good he is at it. He can run 3-4 miles with his aunt Suzie (who is training for a marathon) and keep up to her pace....with no problem.....in Crocks! 

* Joel is the best "sharer" I've ever seen.

* Joel loves to wrestle his dad.

* Joel gets board when his big brother Luke leaves.....really they do spend about every waking moment together.

* Joel loves to bug the heck out of his big sister Chloe. 

* Joel loves to boss his little brother Zach around, but he is also a big help with him, and he also really encourages him.

* Joel loves to love and take care of Eva....and she loves him too and hugs him a lot. 

* Joel is a super-smart kid. If you can get him to focus, (which he can do), he can do math that's usually 3 grades above him, and the crazy things is, he can do lots of it in his head. 

* Things that are tough for him are writing letters and numbers the right direction, and as I mentioned before...putting his clothes on the right way. They are often inside-out and backwards. 

* He loves to talk about gross, shock-value things, like owning a "Gross Buffet" with boogers, snot and worms. 

I know God has great plans for this guy! 

--Katie