3 Little Piggies Brick House

Wolf: Let me in or I'll Huff and I'll Puff and blow your house in. 
3Piggies: Not by the hair of our chinny chin chins.

I'm thinking that they got this idea after they saw me put bricks back into the house to cover the old range hood vent hole.
Yahvi said it was so cool what I was doing.

I never thought what I was doing was cool.  Just something that needed to be done.  Glad we have great neighbours for me to ask.  And I'll always be grateful for that.

So they took all the leftover bricks that we had from our window sills to build their own house.
This is version 2.2.
Version 1.0 was a disaster.  They built it on the driveway and it was a sloped foundation and they stacked the bricks wrong so it was very tippy and fragile.
I pointed out to them that they needed to stack it like the way the garage bricks are laid.

And I had them relocate their house to the corner of the pad and used another piece of something that I got from my brother for one side of their Brick House.  That way we can make the other sides taller and they can physically sit in their house.

They even made it homey.  Kieran took the vine clippings to soften the roof.



They have had crafting sessions, making art that they hung on one of the walls.
They took an old egg carton to make bug sculptures.
What kid needs TV or electronics when they have their own imaginations?
This is awesome.
They even put a house number on it.


Brick House #3735
The first evening they were in there till it was dark.  So I gave them some LED lights to use has they played the Game of Life.

They've even had meals in this house.

Video: Brick House


They even had a showing.
I'm gonna list this house on MLS.ca
Those are my bricks.







Version 2.0 was a success.
V2.1 has a truss to support the roof.
V2.2 has a zip-tied hinge door.  Kieran's packing tape to the bricks wasn't cutting it.

This house even has a garage.
It's a cardboard box on the other side of the house.
And get this, there's even a shower.
Of course it's not inside.
I made this yesterday.  I saved our old shower just for this purpose.
So the kids can play or wash up in the driveway on a hot day.

Video: Outdoor Shower

Of course there's only cold hookup.  I'll have to think about how to get the water warmer.  Maybe I'll look for a solar powered heater.

How to Train your Kid

It was Father's Day and every year there is a violin recital.

Busy day today.  Working on the kitchen,  recital to go to, and hope to find parking close to the church (there's Toronto's taste of Italy in the same College and Bathurst area).

Luckily for us, we found a spot, and squeaked in just before 1:30pm. Phew.

Time flies when you are busy.



But Claire said that they would have waited for Kieran.  Glad they didn't have to.



Kieran got to warm up with the group and he also practiced his solo in the morning.  So he was prepared.

His solo was after the group so he'll have time to chill and relax before his turn comes up.





It was challenging taking video and photos with the DSLR.  If the video looks to be drifting, that's because I had the little canon in one hand and the canon DSLR in the other.

And there was this frizzy haired mother sitting in front of me that kept moving in my way.   And she wasn't even taking photos.

The agenda is always the same.

The entire school plays together with the youngest, the youngest do their solos and then next youngest, and then the more advanced students go later. Doing longer and more complex pieces either solo or duets.

Some did beautifully.

While a few others struggled a bit.  Which happens.  They learn so many pieces that sometimes they get confused.  But Dorothy (on the piano) plays the notes so that she can remember where she is and continue.  They usually don't have any music sheets.  So it's all from memory.

Felt bad for her. She was in tears.  It was the frizzy haired mom's daughter.  She'll do better next time.

Kieran said he was nervous too.  Before he started.

But then everything was fine as he started playing.

The focus is on the violin playing and less on the audience.  It's just like practice.

And that's what practice is all about.

To make the performances seem routine.

He did really well.

Afterwards we went to go watch How to Train your Dragon 2.

Happy Father's day.





This girl was impressive.  Without sheet music and it was perfect.  Wow.



Dorothy's daughters did a duet, change in program.

Stinky visitors

These kids are looking to get sprayed.

We have 3 baby skunks living behind the garage next door.

We saw 2 little black and white baby skunks wandering by the garage making their way through the tall weeds.

We don't know where the mother is.  We think these babies are abandoned.  The neighbour at the back was handling them because they do not yet have the ability to lay a stink bomb.

You can see this little guy following the edge of the house.  Usually you do not see them during the day. But since they have no mother to teach them to only go out and forage at night.  We've seen these little ones wandering around in the middle of the day.