An original joke - yes, he wrote it himself.

A French foreign exchange student named Henri went to America to live with a boy named Sammy. One day Sammy asked Henri if he wanted to play Monopoly. Henri said, "Oui." "Oh, I don't want to play Wii," said Sammy. "How about checkers." "Oui," said Henri. "Fine," said Sammy. "We'll play Wii." As Sammy was setting up the Wii, Henri said, "I don't want to play Wii, I want to play Monopoly or checkers." "Ok," said Sammy. "So you want to play Monopoly or checkers?" "Oui!"

Wolf Knight

Inspired by Michael's "Spookduckularhalloween" costume contest, Joel constructed the following costume.

Materials list:

-empty milk carton

-cardboard

-strips of old jeans (for scabbard)

-t-shirt

-silver, black, green and yellow duct tape

He probably spent about 4 hours total on this project. The only help mom provided was buying the duct tape and approving the t-shirt.

Questions ...

(Joel 'camping out' while watching a triathlon.)

"Dad, what makes a yawn?"

"If you pay Anna for babysitting, can you pay me for being the baby?"

"Why did you sign me up for scouts?"

"What makes a burp? ..... Where does the gas come from? ... He won't tell me where the gas comes from."

Duct tape shoes

You get tin foil and you wrap it around your feet. Then you take some duct tape and wrap it around the tin foil so it will stay. Then once you're done with that, take one long piece of duct tape and a little shorter piece and stick them together. Put the rest of the sticky part of the longer piece on the outside of the tin foil shoe below the ankle around the heel. Get another piece of duct tape to stick this to the other side of the shoe. This is how the shoe stays on.

WARNING!

Do NOT just use regular tape. I did that once and my brother Mark took me to the store. After a few minutes he had to carry me the rest of the way.

Recent quotes

While passing out presents for the family to open: "Being an elf is tiring."

After mom has told him more than once to stop doing his heelies in the grocery store. "I want Daddy." Oh, do you really miss him? "Well, I'm getting sick of someone."

King of Electricity

Paper plates. Duct tape. Tin foil. Paper clips. A crown.

"If you have a crown you must be king of something."

"I'm King of Electricity! I control electricity."

Hmmm. Left to his own devices ....

The X-50

A lot of hammering sounded from the garage, but that wasn't entirely unusual. Joel keeps his tool box and wood scraps out there and periodically creates things. One time as he passed through the house I asked him what he was doing.

"I'm building a go-cart." I smiled at the naive dreams of an 8 year old thinking he could build a go-cart. At least it's keeping him busy!

After several days he announced that he needed wheels. I really hadn't paid much attention to the project and decided to investigate. He HAD created a very simple go-cart ... and he DID need wheels! He showed Daddy that night and they planned to get wheels the next day.

"How did he get the bolt through the board for his turning mechanism," Daddy wanted to know.

"Oh, I just used a screw driver and hammered and then wiggled it around and hammered some more." Daddy helped him use a drill for the wheels, which he did admit goes faster. The finished product did not race down the street as fast as he expected, but we were all VERY impressed. (I guess it should make me nervous when he says he's building a hang glider!)