Growing Sims

You may remember Jean-Philippe moved back home into the apartment at the back of the family house and each time he tried to call former-girlfriend, Kay, she was out.

Well, he finally got in touch and invited her round.  But poor Kay is still a teen or college student (she was probably at school the whole time) so Philippe, as an adult, can no longer flirt with her.  That puts her out of the running.  Round one to Sonique.

J-P then tried to chat up a pretty blonde at Veronaville market, but when he invited her round she was also just a student (you can tell by the height) and he couldn’t flirt with her either.  Round two to Sonique.

I had run out of alternatives to Sonique (who is really too slutty for J-P).  So I created Heidi and Carla Heineken who live nearby.  Heidi met J-P while at the Crypt-o Night Club so they’re rapidly heading to friendship.  Good start.  We’ll see where it leads.

Meanwhile there are a few issues with the rest of the Champignon family.  Katelyn is starting to really annoy me.  At every opportunity she gets she primps herself in the mirror instead of doing what I’ve told her to do.  She managed to ruin a visit by the headmaster by mucking around instead of giving him attention.  Both Katelyn and Raoul wanted the twins to go to private school so the headmaster came over for dinner.  It wasn’t a bad score overall – 85/90, but obviously it has to be a perfect score to win a place at private school.  (Huntingdons take note.)  Raoul had to take over when Katelyn started ignoring the headmaster completely, but it was too little too late.  Another thing Katelyn does is insist on trying to go to J-P’s apartment even though he’s now locked it.  I’ll point to her fridge and try to get her to make dinner and she’ll try to go to his fridge, or she’ll make something in her kitchen and try to serve it in J-P’s apartment.  She wastes an awful lot of time while everyone starves and waits. Here they finally get some dinner:

Pierre has proved to be a grouchy bugger and likes to fight the nicer Francois.  

He’s also usually too grouchy to do homework so he’s in danger of being taken away.

Meanwhile the gardener problem continues.  Those garden borders might look nice but the gardeners hate them, complaining that they can’t get to the bushes to trim them so they waste a hell of a lot of time complaining and stamping while the weeds run amok.  So it looks like I’ll have to take the borders away so they can get to the bushes.  In fact I might take the bushes out so they don’t waste time trimming and get onto the weeding!  A pic would show the extent of the problem but there isn’t one (yet).  Instead, a night-time view of the house before J-P’s apartment was built.

Here’s a little flashback to the twins as playful toddlers.

Somehow I always manage to get a toilet somewhere in the picture.

Just a very brief post to show pics of Ben and Sharlene and their new baby (not twins!), Darlene.  (Have to keep up the family tradition of rhyming names!)

Back later with a Jean-Philippe update.

After Steve and Tash moved out the guys were left in the house with no girlfriends and Sinead was left alone in the house next door.  I thought she might be a good match for Rob but he didn’t seem that interested.  There was a little interest from Mike but he was difficult to woo as Sinead found out after inviting him over twice.  I needed an extra woman to lure at least one of the guys, so I created Cara who moved in with Sinead.

My plan was that Mike would have a blonde girlfriend, and Rob was to go with Sinead, but these Sims really do have minds of their own.  Their preferences didn’t indicate any obstacle to attraction (no red-hair turn-off for example and a preference for makeup which both had).

Well, Mike seemed immediately attracted to Cara so I let them go with it and persevered with Mike and Sinead.  In no time at all Cara had moved in with the guys and “woohooed” with Rob.

Sinead invited Mike over again but he refused to move in and didn’t even like smooching although he seemed to respond to charms and admiration and romantic hugs.  Grouchy bugger.  I didn’t think I’d made him grouchy but he obviously is.  He stormed off after a while.  Ho hum.

Meanwhile over at Steve and Tash’s…  They had a housewarming party and the guys jammed together in the basement.  A day or so later Steve and Tash decided to get married and invited people over for their wedding.  There were lots of people standing around in the tiny backyard toasting each other but doing little else.  I don’t think anyone actually ate any food – what a waste.  During the wedding I noticed that a blonde townie had the hots for Mike and wondered if I should try and get them together but found out later he doesn’t even know her enough to call her up.

I tried one more time, getting Mike to invite Sinead over and she stayed the night. The next day he asked her to move in and she agreed.  So the household was now a foursome, leaving the house next door empty.   Interestingly, Rob now found Sinead attractive enough to flirt with.  Fickle buggers!

The very latest news on the Kent front:  Tash is pregnant.

I hurriedly introduced some students at Sim State University in my last post, but as more has happened with these three guys I thought their own post would be better.

For want of a better name I'll call them the Kent family - although they're not a family.  It's three guys - Steve, Mike and Rob.  Previously I just posted pics of two of them.  Anyway their first pic:

Rob, Mike, Steve

They moved out of the dorm and into a house:

Steve cooking.

Mike writing his term paper.

Rob playing guitar.

It took a while to get them through uni and Rob and Steve graduated successfully, but Mike got a D and had to repeat his very last semester.  I found that strange because each time he went to do his assignment, a message said he was wasting his time because his class meter was full.  Perhaps they lied.  The others moved out and Mike was on his own for a short while.  It didn't take long to graduate so they all moved to Pleasantville where Mike rented a house and invited them to live there.  The house wasn't as big as the one they had at uni, but it was next door to a couple of "hot chicks" who wasted no time coming over to greet them.

Sinead and Tash

Steve was particularly struck with Tash and they clicked immediately.  In less than 24 hours they'd chatted, had a date together and Tash invited Steve over to stay the night.  Next thing she's moving in with the three guys after a particularly successful romantic visit:

Steve and Tash have now got engaged and moved out into a flash townhouse across the road!  Talk about fast.  The basement of the house has plenty of room for the musical instruments the three guys play so they can jam together anytime.

First of all, Randoms - I got Charlotte to teenhood and immediately had her go to university to be with Woody, her twin.

Here she is having a birthday.  She leaves 'older' teens, Terence and Connor behind, who still don't get on.

Connor thumping Terence but either one can start on the other.  One of them, probably Terence who is older, is going to have to move out soon.

Gordon actually giving some attention to Henry.

Meanwhile, over in Veronaville's Academie le Tour, Sonique has moved out of the apartment and into a dorm where freshmen Akira and Dan live.

Akira Takahashi, who I'm hoping will meet Hiroshi at some stage.

Dan eating breakfast. He's a bit of a Jesus lookalike, studying philosophy.

It doesn't take long for Sonique to come onto him.

Even in the Sim world.  Raoul came home one night to find toddler, Francois, sitting on the grass between the swimming pool and the back step of the house - in the dark...

Katelyn and Raoul decided to build an apartment in the back yard for Jean-Philippe on his return from university - just a one-bedroom apartment which opened out onto the swimming pool.  In preparation they had partly furnished it. Katelyn, for some reason, decided to feed Francois a bottle from the fridge in J-P's apartment.  She carried Francois there, put him down, gave him the bottle and disappeared back into the main house.  Francois was left there.  He crawled out of the apartment, past the pool and up to the steps to the house where he couldn't go any further.  He didn't cry but just sat there, rather confused and lonely.

Raoul found him and picked him up and put him to bed.  Katelyn, in the meantime, walked past, waved, and went into the apartment to clean up.  Very odd. During the day she's been so tired that she's left the twins to themselves, splashing in water from the toilet, and gone to bed.  The nanny had disappeared and even when Raoul called for another one, she didn't turn up either.

The large back yard is covered in weeds - the gardener can't seem to cope.  Useless!

J-P has now graduated and moved back home.  The twins have grown to school-age (just as well).  J-P's tried to call Kay but only ever gets her answerphone.

More later!

Well, Caryn grew into a teen and promptly left for college (where I dumped her, sad to say).  That left Gerd with blonde Jasmine wearing her pretty blue nightie.  Before I knew it the social worker came round to take her away because her grades fell to F - on the day Jasmine was due to be a teen!  I thought Jasmine had done all her homework (because I couldn't see it).  Well I'm not having that!  Reset and made sure she did her homework, in between beating the teddy up and cooking muffins in her toy oven.  (I think Caryn was the nicer, more intelligent child - oh well.)

Jasmine's successfully grown into a teen.

Meanwhile over at Mellon Collie's place - the rift seems to have healed between her and Remington.  They're not quite ready to 'woohoo' again but they can now share a bed and cuddle.  Remington is still afraid that Chris will refuse his engagement proposal though - oh dear - will have to keep him away from her.

Sharlene has walked past in a couple of places and she's huge - she must be going to have twins!

[Pics later.]

Gerd has put on weight and is having trouble losing it.  This may be the reason Mariane is not interested in him, much to his disappointment.

He's realised that he will soon be an elder and he hasn't found a wife.  A blind date, arranged through the gypsy, didn't go as planned and time was running short.  He then thought about it and realised that the reason he wanted a wife was so he could have children to carry on his name.  The obvious answer was to cut out the wooing completely and adopt.

So Gerd rang the adoption agency and a child was delivered - a black girl with red hair.  This wasn't quite what he envisaged.  He'd hoped for a child who could pass for his own.  But as a blond-haired white guy, he couldn't really pass for a dark-skinned child's father.  So, the day after she arrived, he rang the adoption agency again and a lighter-skinned child with red hair turned up.  A quick change in the mirror resulted in a lighter-skinned blonde who could pass for his child.  So he has two girls - Caryn and Jasmine.  He's hoping Caryn will bugger off to university and disappear from his life so he can leave everything to Jasmine.  He becomes an elder in just three days.  It's a rather sad and lonely life for Gerd...

Old pic of Gerd:

Jasmine breakfasting with Gerd.

Jean-Philippe is now in his final year at university.  Despite initial arguments, he and Sonique have got on well - too well in fact - they're now sharing a bed.  Sonique was in a bad mood just before her first exam and refused to go, so she was on probation for a while.  But now she's doing better than Jean-Philippe, who's grades have slipped.

J-P still keeps in touch with his girlfriend, Kay Fuchs.  I wonder if she'll find out about Sonique or what will happen when he heads back home...  Hmm.

Pics:

Mellon is definitely having problems settling down.  It wasn't enough to have Remington move in.  She had to keep flirting with others.  First of all she invited Garrett round so he could witness her kissing and hugging Remington.  Well that worked in that Garrett was now angry with her, but they still appear to be engaged which is rather silly.  Then she invited Luc on a date and went to meet him, but her silly mistake was in taking Ben and Remington with her and naturally Remington is angry and Luc refused to continue on the date saying he'd rather chew his leg off than go on another date with her.  So now Mellon was in the shit with all the men she fancied.  She's tried desperately to make it up to any one of them but they're all angry and Luc continues to kick over the trash can and leave burning bags at the back doorstep.  Garrett steals the newspaper.  Strangely he still has a black face from being electrocuted while trying to fix their broken TV.  Ben had influenced Garrett into doing so and the TV blew up in his face.  I wonder if his face will never be normal again.  Remington had a date with an attractive blonde but mucked up the date somehow.  He's still not happy with Mellon despite all her apologies.

Meanwhile, Ben was trying to get to know different women and chatted up one of the clothes shop attendants.  He tried about 2 or 3 women but they didn't respond positively.  Then out of the blue one of the women did - she appeared to be one of his workmates.  In no time at all Ben was friends with her and flirted with her and before you know it they appeared to be in love.  Eventually Ben proposed to her and she said yes.  Now was the time for Ben to move out.

He bought a small two-bedroomed house across the river, moved in and invited his new love round.  Her name is Sharlene and she's one of the top cops.  She came round and they got married in the back yard.

Sharlene and Ben's wedding in the tiny back yard of their new home.

Unfortunately they were married before they could invite friends around and throw a wedding party.

I then gave Ben some facial hair to make him look older because he still looked like a kid.

Some neighbours popped by and greeted them, then Sharlene decided to have a party but none of Ben's family turned up.

That night Ben and Sharlene consummated their marriage and Sharlene became pregnant!

Ben and Sharlene relaxing.....

Over at Ben and Mellon's parents' house, Manon finally retired after becoming a cat burglar.  He still wants a baby even though they can no longer have one.  Steven wasn't doing well at school so he didn't go to college either and has just grown into an adult.  I imagine he'll stay living at home and will probably inherit the house when Manon and Shannon die.  Helen is doing well at school but Ken's grades are slipping.

I thought I'd taken pictures of them but I can't find them.... not easy navigating through all the folders....

I tried my best with Nigel - got him through university, but he insisted on hitting on men.  Oh well.  I tried to get him to talk to girls but he just didn't seem interested.  Instead he fell for a student called Brian, and another one who's name escapes me.  Here he is dancing with pull-attempt number three:

Fortunately, or unfortunately for Nigel only one of his three objects of lust returned the feeling.  Ian Cormier, a dark-skinned student, returned his attentions and they actually got engaged.  Oh dear.  I couldn't help it - they kissed as well.  But, Nigel was seen by Ian coming onto another guy and the engagement seems to have broken off.  The attraction is still there though.  Nigel has now graduated and living across the road from his parents and siblings.

Meanwhile, Hortensia and Enid are halfway through their sophomore year and Woody has moved into Nigel's old dorm - into the same room.  I'm wondering if Woody is gay too - he's wearing knee high boots with his pants tucked into them.  Time will tell.

Back at the family home - things are as chaotic as ever.  Here's a pic of Connor now turning into a teen:

looked on by Terence, Gordon, Winette and Charlotte on the right, still a child, and adopted son Tyler looking on.  The maid happened to be there at the time.  God knows what the state of the house would be without the maid - it's bad enough anyway.

Here's another pic taken just after:

No idea what Tyler is doing in the foreground, but Gordon's having his breakfast, newly teened Connor is near the kitchen sink and he and Terence still don't get on.  Charlotte is obviously annoyed about something and Winette is taking Henry to bed.

One more pic:

Adopted baby Henry alone and stinking, playing with his only friend the rabbit head.  Evidently not everyone else is sleeping but they're busy elsewhere with not a thought for Henry.  This is fairly typical of the Random family.

Finally I found some images of my families.  I'm sure they're not all there, but what I did find, I've uploaded.  So you can now see early pictures of the Collie and Random families, Raoul and Jean-Philippe, and the students.   You can see them under relevant postings.

I'll try to remember to take more - ones of Katelyn (who, incidentally, has got fat), her twins, and some of the remaining Collie and Random family members - and the Huntingdons!

Later!

The twins are now toddlers - Pierre is blond like his father and Francois is dark-haired like his mother.  No sign from either of them of wanting more children (I think I forced them into it).  Raoul had enough points to buy an elixir of life, which he used twice to get closer to Katelyn's age (she is younger than him).  However, he took it again but his aspiration level wasn't quite high enough and he lost all he'd gained.  Will have to try and make him happier to try again.

Katelyn talking to Pierre.

Meanwhile, Jean-Philippe has moved out of the dorm and into a 2-bedroomed house.  His room-mate is none other than freshman, Sonique Maniere.  They've already argued.

Here is a pic of Jean-Philippe in the dorm, chatting up a blonde:

Last time we visited, the grocery delivery man was stuck on the road and the gardener's truck stuck behind his van.  Returned to see Katelyn rather bored so she tried getting into the car to go to town and buy some groceries there.  It took a while for her to leave because the useless grocery delivery man was standing on the road.  Finally she got to Veronaville Market which has all she might need.  She wanted to do a spot of karaoke, which she did to an audience of none, then she took photos of herself downstairs in the little booth.  She was hungry so had a meal at the nearby restaurant and had a chat with the locals.  She bought some groceries, visited the loo, and headed home.  After she arrived the grocery delivery man came out of his trance and delivered the basket of groceries.  Well, plenty of food in the fridge now.  He buggered off at last and Katelyn waited for Raoul's return from work so they could try for a baby again.  (Meanwhile the gardeners seem to have given up as there are weeds everywhere.)

Success!  She became pregnant and the pregnancy went well without any spewing up or feeling overly tired or hungry.  She got big and I wondered...  Raoul was hoping for a girl.  Twins arrived!  But, sadly, both were boys.  They've been named Pierre and Francois (sans cedilla, sorry).  Just before the pregnancy, Katelyn made a right choice at work and was rewarded with 40,000 simoleans.  Great stuff.  Had to buy two cots anyway.  I was hoping, since the first cot was pink, that it might have influenced the random choice of gender, but no.  Never mind.  Time will tell if they want to try again for a girl.

Below is the first picture of Raoul and Jean-Philippe:

I wanted a family that the headmaster wouldn't immediately reject on arriving at a modest house.  So I created the Huntingdon family - Giles and Agatha, who live with Giles' mother, Mildred, teenage daughter Veronica, and son Cornelius.  They've just moved into a large three-storyed house in Pleasantview.  Cornelius wants to go to a private school, so now we can invite the headmaster and offer him coffee or even salmon (once Agatha or Mildred's cooking skills are up to it).  Veronica has already been downtown in the sports car to buy a cellphone and an MP3 player.  A new pool has been installed and some trees planted at the back of the garden to screen off the lowly neighbours.  Cornelius has already been told off for turning up at the Random household!  Shocking.  The local hippies have popped round to say hi.  They're only slightly better than the Randoms.

Stay tuned for the saga of the hoi-polloi.

Mellon has definitely gone off the idea of marrying Garrett.  She tried to woo Luc on a date but he just wouldn’t go all the way.  In desperation Mellon called Remington again and he came round to the house and they had a dream date.  She asked him to move in and he did!  But how to break off the engagement with Garrett so she can marry Remington and not “live in sin”?  She is still able to throw a wedding party but I don’t think Garrett would approve of his wife’s lover living in the same house.  Oh dear.  Ben’s tried his best to get rid of Garrett by fighting him, but he still comes around and gives Mellon a big, loving hug.  She’s also tried to argue with him but he just laughs.  He’s always well dressed in a suit and ol’ Remington who looked upper class, is actually unemployed and had a diploma in sheep conservation.  Hmm.  Mellon will send him out working very shortly.  Is she making the right choice?

Meanwhile, over in Pleasantview where the Randoms live, the tribe of children has grown to fill the tiny house.  Connor grew into a boy and fought madly with Terence.  They were always fighting, with Woody (now a teen) egging them on.  The parents still only had 7 children though (not counting Charlotte).  How to get 3 more children before they became elders? – adopt!  First they adopted a toddler – Tyler (another boy).  Candida was still a baby.  Next day they adopted a child – and guess who came back – Charlotte!  Although she should have been a teen along with her twin brother, Woody, she was still a child.  She dropped a grade again because she didn’t go to school the day she was dropped off by the social worker – hardly fair!  Anyway got her grades up before she was taken away again.  In order to get child number 10, Woody had to move out to make room.  Candida grew into a toddler and Tyler grew into a child. The last child adopted was a baby – Henry.  By this time Gordon and Winette were elders, with Gordon getting old first.  He retired from his job but gets less than $200 a day pension. 

Winette is rather unhappy with so many children in the house.  Although Gordon's aspiration was to have 10 children, he doesn't seem elated that he has them - is it because the aspiration disappeared (I thought it was his main one)?  Or is it because adopted children don't count?  It was an interesting experiment anyway - not one I'll repeat.

Now Terence is a teen and Candida grew to a (surly) child.  She looked too much like Charlotte (who still has a few days before becoming a teen) so I changed her hairstyle.  All the boys look alike, even Tyler, so I changed his hair colour so I could tell the difference!  It’s quite a houseful and trying to get them all to do their homework is a bit of a nightmare.

Checked in on Mellon and Ben.  Ben had a job as a security guard and is now training to be a cop.  Mellon is getting a bit tired of her job and one of her aspirations was actually to leave her job.  She got demoted shortly after for being too conscientious.  She now has her sights on having a man in her life.  There seems to be some element of love between ex-university friend, Garrett - so much so that in a rash moment she proposed engagement to him.  She regretted it later - 1)because he really isn't much to look at and would probably produce ugly babies, and 2) one of her aspirations was to have 2 loves at once.  She met and fell for Luc, a brother of another ex-uni friend.  She's also had Remington around but he's a bit of a bore and neither of them are falling completely for her charms - probably because she's engaged!

Meanwhile over at the parents' house, things seem a lot more relaxed and happier.  Manon and Shannon are now elders, just as baby Ken became a toddler. Shannon actually devoted some time to teaching Ken how to walk - the first toddler ever to do so.  Manon, equally, devoted some time to teaching Ken to talk so he's the miracle kid in the family now.  He's now a child and Helen, who was quite a cheerful little cutie, has now turned into a teen.  Stephen was not doing well at school and tried to get a job but he had to do his homework in order to get one.  He's gone from an F to a C.  Manon is still employed as a getaway driver - not having gone far in his career due to lack of friends - too busy with kids.  He's not ready to retire yet.  Both of them now want grandchildren - naturally.

The Random twin girls have set off for college and are in the same dorm.  Nigel is now in his sophomore year at a different dorm.  Meanwhile, back home, Woody has grown to a teen, Terence is now a little boy, and Connor is a toddler.  Winette had another baby - a girl, called Candida (aren't I awful?).  I figure she still needs to try for another set of twins to meet Gordon's aspiration of 10 kids.  Gordon and Winette will become elders in just a few days so the race is on.  Still haven't sussed out where the photos are (I'm always on a different computer when I'm updating).  The nanny is still with them, but even she leaves the baby lying on the kitchen floor.  I took a photo to prove it. 

She's pretty hopeless in general but comes in handy just occasionally when there are too many kids squalling and only one adult to attend to them.

The universities are filling up with sundry people.  It's rather a drag getting them through college though, so I don't think I'll bother with all the Random family members.  I haven't done much with the students I created and we'll have to check in with the Collie family soon.  The Randoms have taken up much of my time as the local baby factory.

Well!  So much has happened since Terence was born.  Nigel went off to college of course, and the teen girls were doing well at school.  Even Woody dutifully did his homework, but moaning Charlotte was never happy and refused to do more than 20% of her homework at any one time and the social worker threatened to turn up.  Well, she did and took Woody and Charlotte and baby Terence away even though Woody and Terence were fine.  Well, huh!  I didn't save and went back and neglected everyone else to get Charlotte happy, even buying her a swing, so she could do her homework.  She went from an F to a D but that damned social worker turned up again, the bitch.

I had a strategy.  This time (after not saving again), I had Winette move out with Charlotte to a house across the road.  Charlotte was happy at last and I thought I could get her grades up but that pesky social worker had followed us and took Charlotte away.  Well fine.  At least the other children were safe.  Winette moved back home and finally had child number 7, but now they only had 6 remaining.  The new baby is another boy - Connor.  Winette is not happy having all these babies, but Gordon's delighted.  His aspiration is to have 10 children.  Winette might still have to have another four rather than three.  They're still young enough.  It's a challenge. 

The teen girls have moved out ready to go to college and Woody is already on the verge of turning into a teen.  Terence is already a toddler and will soon be a school-going kid.  So the parents now have 3 boys at home.

What a palaver.

I've taken the odd photo of the family but don't know where to find them to upload them.  Help! 

To anyone who's left a comment that doesn't show up - sorry, but I've no idea why it doesn't! 

When I made the Random family it was the parents, Gordon and Winette, their boy, Nigel, and twin toddlers Hortensia and Enid (the names were chosen randomly!). 

Winette then had another set of twins - a boy and girl, called Woody and Charlotte.  They were all starving as they kept running out of food and getting in each other's way in a small house so that grocery deliveries were rather sporadic.  The girls weren't doing their homework, so the social worker came visiting and took the whole lot away except for Nigel who had, by then, grown into a teenager.  Winette was sick with the flu, tired and hungry and of course she got all the blame.  Well, we can't have that, can we, although I knew it would happen sooner or later.  So I didn't save the game and went back and hired a nanny. 

(An example of the chaos - twins on the kitchen floor, bottles and nappies lying everywhere and seemingly uncaring parents)

Well the nanny is next to useless.  She just ate the food and picked the toddlers up but was very slow to bathe them or feed them or put them to bed.  But she was an extra adult to deal with things that I didn't have to control so it wasn't too bad.  But she hung around even after the toddlers had grown so one of the girls, now a teen, told her to bugger off.  Nigel left for college just after Winette gave birth to another boy - Terence.  So, it's still a household of 5 children and Winette is pregnant again. 

That house gets very noisy with unhappy kids moaning about wanting to have fun, or stinking, or hungry.  Now they're older they can bathe themselves and get their own food.  Gordon's finally been promoted but he still earns very little money and the constant grocery deliveries meant they always had less than 100 Simoleans and the repo man came and took a chair away (lucky it was only the chair and not the TV). 

The ol' money cheat had to be used if they weren't all going to die as times were desperate.  So to satisfy the kids a game was bought, and later when the girls were teens, a small stereo was bought!  Yayyy!  Now they could dance! Gordon got keen on painting and wanted a drum set so a drum set now sits on their front lawn (no room in the small house).  Build an extension you think?  Naa - they can cope.  Aren't I an evil Sim god.