Growing Sims

I just realised that I've been writing this blog for just over a year.  Amazing.  In that time I've reached generation 5 with the Collies.  And since that name might not reach generation 10 I'll just reflect back on the generations.

It started with Manon and Shannon (remember the rhyming theme there for a while?)  Their kids were Mellon, Ben, Steven, Helen and Ken.  Ken died in a fire so no kids from that branch.  

Mellon's kids were Penny and Devon.  Her grandchildren are Harriett, Richard, Kane, Alex and Victoria.  Great-grandchildren are Caitlyn, Brianna, Briony, Brett, Mairead, Seamus, Reefer, Peyote, Alexis, Mikhail and Elizabeth

Ben's kids were Darlene and Denny.  His grandkids are Zen and Denim (Len drowned).  No great-grandchildren.

Steven had one child - Kenny (named after his deceased uncle).  Steven's grandson is Damien.  Grandkids include Demonica, Romania, Lithia and Ebony and another on the way.

Helen also had just one child - Daniel, and her grandchildren included Leon, Helena, Shana, Deon, Dana and Margareta.  Only three of them survive.  Great-grandkids include Shona, Fukita, Neil and Jess (Lena drowned).

The other major family of Veronaville (and this blog will now concentrate on that neighbourhood) has become the Champignon family who are intermarried with the Collies.

Raoul was the founder and he lived with his son, Jean-Philippe, before marrying Katelyn Go and having twin boys, Francois and Pierre.

His grandchildren are Henri, Monique, Guillaume, Amelie (now deceased), Philippe, Emma, Antoine and Antoinette.  His great-grandchildren are Stella, Artois, Hollandia, Reefer, Peyote and Sativa (Philippe's daughter).

So if you were confused as to who was who before this might help.

Zen of course graduated and moved back into his uncle-brother's house.  He's got a job as a rookie.

At Denny's old place, his widow, Emily, died age 66.

Denim is still a teenager.  No-one will miss her mother - she was the annoying one who poked people for looking through the telescope (nowhere near her house).  Denim might have to get a job...

At Dana's, Jessie Greaves moved back in with his (still) wife and son.  (can't find the pic)

At Deon's, Fukita grew to school age.

Larissa Landgraab moved in with Kane and they got married.

Kane's ex-wife, Siobhan, also married but had a proper wedding.

Alex was there as a fellow victim of betrayal.

Over at Damien's mistress' place, Serena was pregnant.

Lithia grew to a teenager.

At Alex's place (his grandmother was a Collie after all) the headmaster approved of the house (with a score of 136/90) and Alexis and Mikhail now go to private school.

Actually the Collie name is in danger of dying out.  The current Collie surname-bearers have actually got their name through females (Deon from his father, Daniel, who got his from his mother; Zen from his mother, Darlene; and Damien actually has the surname Tan, a name his father took from his vampire wife).

Finally, although not from the Collie family except through a tenuous link to Daniel, Jan's son, Danny, grew to a teenager.

His stepfather, Greg, got overheated while working out and collapsed.  He got up after Danny doused him.

Now that Deon had a son, two daughters were surplus.  Lena had her great-grandmother's ugly genes.  She had to go.

I'll see what Fukita looks like as a bigger child before I decide on her future.

Across at Deon's parents' place, it was finally time for Daniel to meet the Grim Reaper.

He was 73.  Margaret was the same age and after she got up she visited the bathroom, mourned and then saw her end.

I hadn't had two Sims die on the same night before.  They were both platinum events as you can see.  Dana and her son, Jess, were left to mourn.

Kane and Amelie are slowly building their dream house by the sea in Bluewater.  I think I neglected to mention that they married quietly.

 

Kane's ex-wife, Siobhan, has become engaged to Gilbert Jacquet.

Gilbert moved in.  Seems he didn't want to get engaged.  Tough.  Siobhan wants to marry and have more kids.  Mairead, meanwhile, has grown to teen-hood.

Zen has nearly finished at uni.  He and Reefer and Artois are getting A+s and are now in their senior year.  The next group of teens wait in the sidelines.

Zen's uncle/brother's wife has quit her job as mayor and is now a senior manager pursuing her LTW of business tycoon.

Damien had a plan.  The family home was being occupied by Melody Tinker but he wanted the house for his mistress, Serena.  He moved in, booted Melody out, and Serena moved in.  Damien then rang up to adopt Lithia and she arrived the next day. 

 

In the meantime Damien tried again for a boy with Serena.  Once she got pregnant he moved out again and back to Marla and the girls.  Serena and Lithia had the house to themselves.

Unfortunately for Damien, Serena had another girl (I've forgotten her name).

Kenny, one-time vampire, died, age (you guessed it) 72.

Melody's only just reached 60 I think so she's still got a long way to go.  Daughter, Lyrica, is at uni.  I won't bother updating on them after this.

Damien, rather sick of wife, Marla, ringing up Alex all the time, as well as having two daughters that look like their mother, decided to visit Roxie's place where a ravishing new flatmate had just moved in (Serena deMarr).  Such was the attraction between them that within minutes they were in bed together.  After only a day Serena had become pregnant.  

Roxie hates Serena because Serena finds it all too easy to attract Roxie's "clients".  Pierre fell in love with her but Pierre is now upset with Serena for flirting with Damien.  More on those two later perhaps (I didn't take any pics).

Hogan, son of the long deceased Sharlene, has finally achieved his LTW of becoming Mayor.

His wife, also a mayor, now wants to be a business tycoon, which is all good - after all you can't have two mayors I don't reckon.

Finally over to Daniel's who I haven't written about for some time.  He achieved his LTW of maxing out all 7 skills.  His daughter Dana had a son called Jess (after his father Jessie Greaves, who ran off with Robin Collie).  Deon, over at the green house, now has two rather unattractive daughters (the "Helen" gene is still strong).

Lena, now school age, is being held here by Uncle Sean (married to Margareta).

The second pregnancy resulted in another daughter, now a toddler.

She looks like a boy.  On hearing he had another daughter Deon said "fuck  it" (Ok, I did).  So her name is Fukita.  Third time lucky perhaps (Angel is, reluctantly, pregnant again.)

Margareta's daughter, Shona, takes after her mother and looks normal, thankfully.  She's in this pic below, taken at Harriett's.  These kids are all cousins.

Shona is the blonde on the left and the red-head is Alexis.  They're third cousins. 

In the red dress is Mairead, daughter of Kane, and the dark-haired girl is Harriett's daughter Briony.  They're first cousins.  Alexis and the other two are second cousins.  Looks like I need to alter some hairstyles.

 

Part 1 - Kane

Amelie was angry at Kane for actually sleeping with his wife(!), but they eventually made up.  They had a lame date at the Love Maze but then Kane invited Amelie home (while his wife and kids were home) and actually asked Amelie on a date then and there.  Kane's daughter, Mairead, witnessed it.

Kane sent her off to play but she came back.

Mairead was not happy with her father.  Siobhan was in bed at this point - she was tired after just having given birth to a baby boy (Seamus) the day before.  But she woke up,

and came running out when she realised what was happening in the spa pool.  She wasn't too impressed either.

After a good slapping, Siobhan attended to the children and Amelie left.

The next day Siobhan made a decision.

Kane was given his marching orders.  (Lightning struck just as I took the pic - which is why it's so bright.)  Mairead was still upset that her father left, even though she'd been angry with him.

 

Kane left and moved into a tiny square house by the sea in Bluewater.

Part 2 - Amelie

Alex was cuddling his baby son when he looked out the window and saw Amelie and Kane canoodling at the front gate and ran out.

Kane, at least, was happy.  Alex and Amelie fought.

The whole time the baby was on the ground crying with dirty nappies.  However, Alex took no time at all to make his decision.  It was all the evidence he needed to get rid of a cheating wife.

Amelie sobbed pitifully and left.  She moved in with Kane in the little hovel by the sea.

Alex is now free to get to know Robin better.

Edward died age 72.

Richard, naturally, didn't really care.

Nor did Kane.  Kane's wife, Siobhan, is heavily pregnant with the second child.  First child, Mairead, is now school age.

Kane continues to meet Amelie (Lillard) on the sly. 

 

Kane was promoted to dread pirate.

Harriett's family are growing up.

Caitlyn grew to teenhood (above) while the twins grew to school age.

Their father, Luc, has been promoted to GP.

Another Collie update.  I'm limited by the pics I can find.  After today, I'm going to concentrate on a couple of branches only and forget the rest unless they inter-marry or something.  I take pics and can never find them so I'll have to ruthlessly cull some more pics.

Anyway - onward.  First Penny's family.  Richard Danaher still lives with his dad and owns a grocery store.   Harriett has four kids - three girls and a boy.  This is one of the older girls but I can't remember which one - probably Brianna (Harriett's kids are Caitlyn, Brianna and twins, Briony and Brett).

Over at Kane's, his daughter, Mairead grew into a toddler and within a day learned to walk, talk and go to the potty (with some help from smart milk and an attentive mother).

She has her mother's green eyes.

Devon's family: - Amelie gave birth to a girl and called it Alexis.

That night, after Devon took Alexis to the kitchen for a bottle, the Grim Reaper came for her.

She was 68.

Why not step on the baby on the way out?

Jeremy was upset.

but the others didn't seem to care much - certainly not Amelie - she and Devon didn't like each other much.  Alexis quickly grew to a toddler and looks like her mother with piercing blue eyes.

(Boy am I sick of that panda suit.)  Amelie is pregnant again.

Over at Victoria and Guillaume's - toddler, Peyote, learned to walk.

(which is a surprise considering general neglect), and tried to catch butterflies.

His brother, Reefer, teased him when possible but otherwise ignored him.

He grew into a teen on the same day as Peyote grew into school age.

Over to what's left of Darlene's family.  Hogan married Crystal Kosmokos? and I took a pic but do you think I can find it?  I've scrolled up and down but just can't see it.  Zen has gone to university.

Over to Denny's - here's a family pic of Denny, Emily and daughter Denim.

Denim was three quarters of the way through school age when her elderly father died.

He was 72.

I probably won't bother blogging about Emily and Denim in future.

To Kenny's family - not much happening there and I probably won't bother blogging about them.  Lyrica is now a teenager and Melody has grown to elderhood.  Kenny is about 70 now.

Over at Kenny's son, Damien's, Demonica grew to school age and I took a pic but again I can't find it.  Marla is pregnant again.

I played the Collies and associated families for three Sim days but finding the pictures is getting to be rather difficult.  I just deleted some but this update is going to be rather 'random'.  I might have to start concentrating on one or two families to make it easier - as each generation becomes larger,  it's harder to keep track!

Off the top of my head, Damien Tan and Marla's daughter, Demonica is now a toddler.  Marla and Alex Lillard are still in love despite the divorce and remarriage.  Alex's wife, Amelie, is still seeing Kane Danaher, whose wife, Siobhan, just given birth to a daughter - Mairead.

Daniel Collie's three remaining offspring - Dana, Deon and Margareta, were all expecting babies.

Margareta Simpson (nee Collie) on the right, talking to sister Dana (whose second husband Jessie ran off with ex-sis-inlaw).  Dana gave birth to a boy and called it Jess.  Margareta gave birth to a girl and called it Shona.  Sister-in-law, Angel, gave birth to a girl and called it Lena.

Shona is now a toddler.

Devon Lillard is close to the end of her life.  Her daughter-in-law, Amelie is due to give birth.

Hogan moved into a large house with girlfriend, Krystal Kos...? (can never remember her surname) and his nephew and half-brother, Zen.  He finally proposed to her.  (She's put on weight.)

Can't think of anything else of note.  Next an update on the Champignons.

Even as adults, Daniel's kids made for a "interesting" times.  No peace for Daniel and Margaret.  They lost two daughters in a fire.  The youngest twins were ok, and expecting babies (which makes Margaret very happy).  But things were not so rosy at home.

Nicholas Baena, sadly, was unaccountably attacked by flies and died.  Margaret was very upset, but Dana barely broke her stride after she came home from work to find the husband absent.  Not to worry, she rang up old friend, Jessie Greaves from university and invited him round.

She basically proposed to him then and there and then asked him to move in, which he did, a poor student with just 1000 simoleons to his name.  They married in the backyard.

All seemed well and good.  The household was back to normal, sad though it was to lose Dana's first husband.  Dana was soon pregnant (more good news for Margaret).

Unfortunately, Leon's wife, Robin, was also attracted to Jessie.

In a small house of 6 people, it wasn't long before they were found out.

by Leon

and by Dana.  Robin and Jessie decided to move out together.

That's probably the shortest marriage of any of my Sims so far.  (It all happened within 2 Sim days.)

Now it was just four people in the house.  And then tragedy struck once again.

Leon had somehow got locked out of the house.  While Margaret was happily serving food on the table, Leon was outside starving.  To make matters worse there was a thunderstorm and he was struck by lightning.

He died not long after.

From a household of 8 and then 6, it was now just Daniel, Margaret and Dana, with a baby on the way.  The house hadn't been that quiet since Daniel moved in.

A few babies have been born.  But first, some birthdays.

Kenny's daughter, Lyrica Tinker grew to school-age.

So did Harriet's daughter, Caitlyn.

Harriet's second daughter, Brianna, became a toddler.

She looks very like her father.  Harriett was pregnant and hoped for a boy for Luc.  They were both a bit stunned to get twins (no cheesecake).  A boy and girl - Brett and Briony.

Luc then remembered that Harriet had twin brothers so yeah the possibility was there.  They weren't exactly welcome as Harriett had had enough problems with just two kids.  Now at least one was at school but three under school age was going to make her even more exhausted.

Similar events were happening across the road at Harriet's friend, Monique's place.  Two birthdays:

Eldest boy, Jean, grew to school age, and the baby, Jacques, grew to toddlerhood.

Monique had also been pregnant and hoped for a girl.  No twins, but she gave birth to another boy - Gerard.

At Damien's, Marla (ex-wife of Alex) gave birth to a daughter - Demonica.  I thought I had a pic but can't find any.  (I'll need to delete some I think.)

Celebrity chef, Penny Danaher, wife of business tycoon, Edward Danaher, died last night age 68. “It was her last day of work before retiring” Edward said. “She had just got home from work and collapsed on the footpath outside the house”.

 

Edward and the family are devastated.

Penny was the eldest daughter of Mellon Collie and Remington Landchild. 

 

She initially had a difficult childhood

 

but was loved by the family.  

 

Penny had wanted to study at university but family circumstances prevented it and it was with some sadness that she continued to live in the family home.

Edward Danaher swept her off her feet and the couple moved into the present home where they married.

Their first child, Harriett, was born soon after, followed by twins, Richard and Kane.

 

Richard Danaher, now a Congressman, attended Academie le Tour and now resides at the family home with his father. He owns a grocery store in Bluewater Village where his brother, Kane, resides.

Penny started her career in restaurants shortly after the birth of the children and initially worked with her aunt Helen Collie, seen here.

 

As an award-winning chef, Penny soon cooked her way to celebrity status.

 

She will be missed by many fans of her TV show.

Edward Danaher is now considering retiring from the world of business and plans to start a vegetable garden near the fruit trees that Penny had recently planted. Penny is survived by her husband, three adult children and sister, Devon Lillard, who was too distressed to comment.

At Denny’s, Emily gave birth to a girl which they called Denim.  She quickly grew to toddlerhood.  And she looks normal.  None of the cheek deformity of Len.

 

At Darlene’s, Zen grew into a teenager.

 

His uncle (and half-brother) Hogan got promoted to Senator. He celebrated by inviting girlfriend, Krystal Kosmikos? over.  

That same night the Grim Reaper came for Darlene just after she’d turned 66.

 

Oops, gone already.

Hogan and Zen cried and Krystal was also there to witness the event.

Darlene is the first of the second generation Collies to die.  As a tribute let's have a look back at her life:  [Queue violin music.]

 

Baby Darlene with mother, Sharlene.

Toddler Darlene with father, Ben.

Darlene with cousin, Penny.

Teenage Darlene with Francois Champignon.

Adult Darlene with Francois.

Darlene with mother, Sharlene.

Elder Darlene with son, Zen.

The day after Darlene's death Hogan invited Krystal over again and asked her to move in. She did.

 

Only then did he discover that Krystal was mayor! (She certainly didn't look like one.)  She wasn’t prepared to live in such a tiny house so they all moved out and into a vacant house opposite the Lillard residence.

 

Even this house wasn’t really appropriate for a senator and mayor but there were no nicer houses available. There's also no room for a car!  They plan to build.

Neighbours visited after they moved in.  One of their visitors was Philippe Champignon.  His nose became rather prominent when he grew to adulthood.

His pixie ears are covered by the long hair.

My plan was to get rid of, primarily, Helena and Shana - the ugliest of Daniel Collie's children.  They had inherited the unattractive features of their grandmother.  Getting rid of them would leave their two husbands who weren't required either.  They also hated each other and kept fighting.  So the plan was to get them into a locked room with a barbecue and let them burn to death.  I was about to put this plan into action when Grant Kim started a fire for me.

This was ideal as the four newlyweds were still on their honeymoon.  Unfortunately it took a while to get the four uglier ones into the kitchen.  By the time Helena got back from work and into the kitchen, the others had returned and run into the kitchen as well.  I tried to keep them away but with little success.

There were too many people in the small room and ones I didn't want to die looked likely to die.  So I decided to call in the fire brigade.

Sean is dangerously close to burning to death and Deon was right next to him.

Finally the fire was extinguished.

I got the dirty newlyweds out of the kitchen and locked the door so the fuglies remained.  Now I could introduce the barbecue.

Shana was very tired so I got Helena to cook some sausages.  Before she did, she saw Shana asleep on her feet and laughed.

Shana fell down but woke before she caught fire.

It was Helena who caught fire and died first.

The rest danced around for a while.

Amazingly, Grant Kim (who started the first fire) survived the second fire as well.  He was close to starvation by now so I left him to it and he finally expired.  The others, meanwhile, had got hungry and ordered Chinese.

The delivery boy seemed upset about the dead body in the kitchen.

I haven't yet decided on killing off perhaps Leon Collie or Nicholas Baena.  Later, perhaps.

Deon and Margareta finally found their potential partners at Academie le Tour.

Deon had his first kiss with Angel Tellerman.

A fair bit of flirting and kissing later led to a proposal...

and an acceptance.  Deon then dropped out and moved in with sisters Helena and Shana.

Margareta, meanwhile, had snagged Sean Simpson.

A lot of flirting later and she also proposed.

Sean accepted.

Margareta then dropped out and headed back to Veronaville.

Before Margareta arrived, Deon invited Angel round and asked her to move in.  She did.  Margareta then moved in and invited Sean around and he also moved in.  It was time for the last two weddings.

Margareta wanted the wedding party so she invited friends and family and got married first.

Immediately after the vows, Sean walked off... oops

Sean hadn't wanted to get married at all.

He went off to look through the telescope.

While he was doing that, the second wedding took place between Deon and Angel.

Margareta noticed the difference between the ceremonies once the vows had been said...

Her new husband was still ignoring her.

The wedding party was over and it had been a success.

Margaret had achieved her lifetime want of marrying off 6 children - finally.

Now the kids were married off, it was time to get rid of some of the uglier ones...

next.

Shana first attempted to woo Troy Gothier who's been around for three or four generations now.  He was slow going.  In the meantime, Shana also tried it on with Grant Kim and Adam Ying.  Grant was more promising and she managed to get her first kiss.

Still it was slow going and it got as far as her even going to her exam (with no major) and passing, despite not having been to any classes.

She made a second attempt with Troy but the proposal option came up first for Grant so she took it.

The fool accepted.  Shana dropped out and moved in with her ugly sister Helena.  She then invited Grant to visit and they got married in the hallway.

Four down, two to go.

I think that's enough from Veronaville for now.  I'll take a break and play Pleasantview for a bit.

Denny's ugly son, Len, hadn't done enough homework and got taken away by the social worker, even though he did a fair bit the day before.  Denny's sister, Darlene, offered to adopt him and then bring him back (by moving in and then moving out without Len).  The day came for Len to join Darlene's family.

Not a promising start.  The family tree showed Darlene as Len's mum and no father.  So, as the family tree was now stuffed up, and since Len wasn't going to make an effort, I figured he probably needed a swim in the pool.

Oops, the ladder had mysteriously disappeared.  Len got a few body points and the warm water prevented him from freezing.  Cousin Zen noticed about the ladder...

but it was too late and sadly the Grim Reaper came and took Len away instead.  Never mind, Denny and Emily tried for another baby.

Over to Daniel's place which is no less chaotic with adults instead of children.  Leon and Dana continued to live at home with their spouses.  I played four Sim days' worth in the house achieving elderhood for Daniel and Margaret, and the youngest twins growing to teenage.  Unfortunately, just as they were moving to college, the computer crashed and I hadn't saved.  I had to go back and re-play the four days.  The stupid thing is the first version of events was recorded in the album.  So here are version 1 and 2.

Daniel grew into an elder.

Version 1 above and version 2 below.

He looked happier the second time around.

Margaret grew into an elder the same day.

Version 1 above and version 2 below.

She looked better the first time.

In the first series of events, Leon's wife, Robin, got frozen and missed her ride to her new job as a teacher.

Nicholas had to come along and blow-dry her enough so she could move and she got warm with a cup of hot chocolate, but still missed work.

This didn't happen the second time and she got a job in the political career.

The twins then grew up the following day.  Deon first.

Version 1 above and version 2 below.

Then Margareta.

It was a crowded event, looked on by Margaret, Leon, visiting sister Helena, Nicholas, and the pregnant woman is one of the Ottomas family who don't even live in a house but are still in the Sim bin.  Version 2 was much simpler and less crowded.

They both went off to college with scholarships.  That means that Shana had to hurry up and find a fiancee so she could leave.  Her experience next.

While at uni, Kane had fallen in love with a new student called Siobhan O'Donnell.

He tried proposing to her.

But she was having none of that.  Just as well, because it seemed he was afraid of marriage anyway.  Kane hadn't decided on a major and I couldn't be bothered putting him through uni, so he dropped out and moved to a place in Bluewater Village.  Siobhan dropped out as well and moved in with him.  They probably won't get married as they seem to want multiple lovers.

Twin brother, Richard, meanwhile, had finished his Economics degree and moved back home.  There was probably a sigh of relief from other students cos he was a right bastard and kept picking on one student in particular. He had few friends.  He wants to own 5 top level businesses but to start with he got a job in the political career as a campaign manager.  He's ambitious like his dad.  Will he be a rival to Malcolm Landgraab?  More about Malcolm at the wordpress blog.

Dana got her first kiss at uni with Jessie Greaves.

However, he didn't really like her enough, so she flirted heaps with good ol' Nicholas Baena, one of the ugly wide-mouths.

Leon was having an easy time flirting with Robin Oshfski, whatever her name is.  Proposal was quick and easy.

He didn't care that she was smelly at the time.  He was lucky to get her.  Having nabbed his woman, he dropped out and moved home.

Dana had to work a bit harder to get Nicholas to agree to marry her.

Once that was set, she dropped out and moved home as well.  Both Leon and Dana settled in and invited their fiances around.  They had a double wedding in the backyard.

Dana and Nicholas were a fraction ahead of the others so they finished up and watched Leon and Robin.

The rest looked on.

Nicholas now has a full beard to hide his ugly mouth.  Dana doesn't have to stay with him - just long enough to have all six siblings married then they can ditch each other.

 

While Devon's been having a fling with Malcolm Landgraab IV, her sister Penny had a sneaky meeting with ex-boyfriend Adrian Lewis.

Kenny grew into an elder.  Kenny's partner, Melody Tinker, gave birth to a girl and called it Lyrica.

Lyrica quickly grew into a toddler.

Harriett's daughter Caitlyn grew into a toddler.

Cousin Victoria's kid, Reefer, also grew into a toddler.

Over at Daniel's, Shana grew into a teen.

She's a bit of a dick.  Her siblings, Dana and Leon, at uni met their potential partners.  More on them later.