child labor

I recently started getting emails again from Freecycle.  There are so many emails each day that I've since cancelled email notification again, but during my brief return, I lucked up on the Holy Grail of Bungalow DIY--a free pile of old bricks.  A family in Va-Hi was giving them away in hopes of keeping them out of the landfill (or possibly to avoid the cost of having them hauled off).  They had had their foundation replaced since they wanted to add a second story to their house and the pile you see behind the girls is only part of what was available.  We made two trips (one with two cars) and on the first trip, we took the girls along.  I somehow thought we could leave them in the car with the a/c on, while we quickly threw some brick into the car.  Turns out they lived really close to the shops of Va-Hi, so parking was non-existent.  We had to park in their driveway, which was pretty steep and the bricks were behind the house, so no chance of leaving the girls in the car.  They told us we could bring the girls around to the back where there was some shade, so we did.  As you can see, they weren't dressed for hauling brick, but then again, I'm not sure work gloves come in size 18 mos.  At any rate, the girls decided they weren't the kind of babies to just sit around while Mommy and Daddy load bricks in a wheelbarrow, so it turned into the girls' first DIY workday.  I did try to encourage them to stay out of the way, but 1) there's not a lot of reasoning you can do with a 13 month old, much less two of them, and 2) I didn't think to bring any outside toys for them to play with and it was hard to keep them off of the family's toys...since we were already hanging out in their yard, I figured we were better off letting them play with the brick.  Although the homeowners were probably having a heart attack inside and waiting for us to have an accident and a lawsuit.  Not to mention wondering what kind of parents haul 13 month old twins along to get brick.  But whatever. 

We think we have enough to enlarge our little patio in the back.  When will we have time to do this, you ask?  We have no idea.