Bladderstone Week 10

We start off with a brief recap of the time stream: Bastian and Candy live peacefully with Katherine and Leticia as the rest of the siblings have moved out.  Candy is now an elder so there won’t be any more children joining them unless they adopt or Bastian plays around -and with MCCC who knows what will happen.  Candy is a stay home mom, while Bastian is a successful Musician, an Instrumental Wonder (level 9).  I love this new Family Portrait and can’t believe I forgot to put it on the main household.

Their house is from the gallery, called Avarice Acres, and was uploaded by teddybear9300.

Moving over to Oliver, Alayna and Jaime, Oliver has taken a position within the Tech Guru career field.  He is currently at level 2, working as Quality Assurance.  Alayna is the Chief of Detectives, level 10.  She is also quite a bit older than Oliver, although not as old as Candy.

Their house is from the gallery, called Rippling Flats, and was uploaded by Ravicka.

Oriana and Leigha are still sharing a house and pursuing their careers.  Oriana is a Regional Manager (Business level 5) while Leigha is Space Ranger (Astronaut level 10).  MCCC apparently plays fast and loose with the careers – not real sure how it handles those promotions but oh well.

Their house is a Maxis original, Commodious Residence, since the gallery server was down.  I believe this is the house that came out with Parenthood.  I think this is the house I will be giving all new residents to any 20×30 lots as it comes prepared for kids and toddlers and is a good starting house for non-playable families that don’t have money restrictions (freerealestate).  I may be moving everyone to a new neighborhood at the beginning of the next week and cleaning up the neighborhood – OCD’ing everyone into line according to age and bringing all Bladderstones into Newcrest… again.

Patrick had a daughter (Betsy) with Luna Villareal and married Sofia Bjergsen and had a son, Armani.  Patrick is currently a Food Critic, Kitchen’s Worst Nightmare (level 9) and Sofia is a stay home mom.  She is also much older than Patrick and Armani will be their only child.  Betsy is also an infant so her picture will be included next week once she ages.

Patrick and Sofia are also living in a Maxis provided home – the Tudor Bungalow.

Ramsey married Morgan Fyres and they had twins, Marlene and Alejandro.  Morgan is a Lab Technician (Scientist level 1) and Ramsey is a stay home dad.  One more relationship where she is much older and these are the only babies they will be having.  One thing I don’t like about the family portrait is that when there are two infants, even when there are two adults, only one infant is held and the other is shown in the bassinet.

They live in a home downloaded from the gallery: Tranquil Crescent by GeekyFangirl.

After checking in on the rest of the households, I open up the challenge family to find this…  way to go, Beau… traumatize your sisters.

Thanks to some tips from simfulicious at Boolprop.net I made a few changes – the first is that I removed the big toddler playground and switched it out for just the small slide.  Odessa tested it out for movement skill and it maxed her out quickly.  The one thing to watch out for is that some toddlers will be scared of it, but Odessa and Orchid weren’t.  They didn’t have much time as their birthday was within 24 hours, but they were already almost to level 4 so they didn’t have far to go.

The next change was I added a pygmy hedgehog.  This allows the children (only) to study the hedgehog as their homework.  It is quicker than sitting down with the homework book, but only one child can do it at a time and the parent can’t help.  So depending on if you need homework for an aspiration or not (complete homework while focused, etc.,), this is a great time saver for all of the other times.  Just watch out for the rabies.

Last I switched out the regular dollhouse for the treehouse.  The attraction rating is higher and the kids and toddlers will gravitate more often, hopefully raising creativity faster.  I haven’t had a chance to really test this one out yet as by the time I made the change Odessa and Orchid were almost children, leaving only Lauren who is my bad apple.  I will get a better sense on the next set of toddlers how well it works.  That being said, there is always someone there playing.

This has to be the grossest thing I have seen in the game so far (Orchid).

A comment was made about how good Brittany looks after have given birth to 12 babies.  Well, here is their secret – Taste of Diet ice cream. She and Brantley will have a couple of bowls (exactly 2) after each group of six babies.  One bowl won’t cause a change, and I don’t know if three of more will result is too much change, so we stick with just two.  Then the kids each have a bowl or cone until it is gone.  There are eight servings with each batch and everyone wants ice cream so it goes fast.

I had to pop over to someone’s house for a reason – I think I had split one of the households because Ramsey had gotten married and they were caught off the lot.  I didn’t want to actually play them to get them back on the lot so I started the week for a few hours then paused and went into Manage Worlds long enough to get their update and when I came back I found Odessa hitting Brantley and getting a stern talking to.

The twins are children: Odessa went social and Orchid went physical.

Since I can’t direct Lauren to use the slide, I have Brantley help her with the slide to see if that will count as movement skill.  It is cute to watch him help her climb the steps, then she will sit at the top while he walks around to the bottom and then he encourages her to slide down.  But she won’t do it on her own.

Brittany spends the day working on Lauren’s skills trying to get them to level 3.  Since I can’t check (I will be so glad to be done with the bad apples – and I know I will probably never play an ISBI) I am watching diligently for the notifications.  Just as she gets the last skill to level 3, my game crashes, and crashes badly.  Even though I save regularly, I lose an hour of play time and a day of game time.  So, Brittany starts over.  She teaches Lauren to talk, she reads to Lauren, she plays with Lauren, and she teaches her the basics.  Somewhere in there she taught her to use the potty chair.

Peyton is studying Hairy (I was watching Harry Potter yesterday so that influenced his name).

Brantley is playing dolls with Lauren.

Peyton has been working on making friends.

She needs one more adult friend.  This is so weird.  Don Lothario is still alive – and he was the next adult walking by.

While Peyton is making friends with a random elderly male, Brittany is completing her painting aspiration.

Really a weird situation to see a child and a grown man checking out the stars.  But she completed her aspiration, so there’s that.

Brittany has had a long day.

Somewhere in skilling up Lauren, she was taught to potty, but she has been kept so busy that she is never given time to actually go potty.  So she ends up using her diaper a lot.  I don’t generally realize this since I can’t check her needs.  Until she squats and grunts and then it is too late.  She has lived with a green cloud for awhile and Brittany finally gives her a bath.  Since I believe she is at level 3 on everything, she will be allowed to free range for the last day of her toddlerly-goodness.

Well, I thought she was at level 3 in everything, but after her bath she was in the nursery chatting with her sisters (one who also needs a bath) and she received the notification that she reached level 3 in communication.

Oakley always asks Beau to play chess as they both have the mental aspiration.  Hopefully it helps Beau gain mental and logic skills also.

Oakley is a teen.  Lazy and a slob.  What a joy he will be to have around. The first thing he did was smell himself.  At least he fits in with the needing a bath crowd.

Despite the full household, Hairy does not get enough attention.  And he let Peyton know he was not happy.

Then Orchid sets the chemistry set on fire.

After the children watch Brittany put the fire out, they run outside and are relieved they are safe.

But wait, where is Lauren?  Did anyone think to make sure she is safe also?  No, she is still in the nursery.

Brittany wasn’t concerned.  After she put out the fire, she went and painted a picture.

Some random kid (Lukas Fyres) went trash diving.

Lauren gets some teddy bear hugs

And Beau is in the bear phase.

Lauren plays quietly with a supergirl doll.  Supergirl would save her from the fire.

Leigha comes by to share some good news.  One of the things that was lost during the crash was a pregnancy announcement where Oriana and the Count were going to have a baby.  That would have been interesting and I am sad it was lost.

Beau was pouting because he was not in bear costume and the only way to get him to change back into it was for Brittany to join him.  So she did…  The things we do for our kids.

Orchid is testing out swimming for motor skill instead of typing or monkey bars.  So far it seems about the same speed but not as boring.  And she will do it until she gets tired or her needs need to be handled.  Although the reflection is a little freaky and made taking the picture weird.

Brantley is working on his next project.  He and Brittany have both worked through most of the aspirations that are in their initial target – creativity for her and knowledge for him. Brittany has finished both painting and writing and is working on music now.  After that she will move to the three food aspirations: chef, mixology, and grilled cheese.  Brantley is working on the three knowledge aspirations: renaissance, computer whiz, and nerd brain interchangeably.  Once he has finished all three, then he will hopefully finally finish the two money aspirations.  Then we will see what he has available.

The bad apples are having a quiet afternoon.  And for once, staying out of trouble.

My next social child needs a BFF – and guess who this is – Leticia Bladderstone.  So Odessa gets her butt up from her nap and runs out to introduce herself and start making friends.  This is the main reason I want all of the Bladderstones living in the neighborhood – increased chance they will be walking by randomly.

Brantley is ambitious and he wants a promotion.  Yeah, Brantley, we all have a list of things we want.

I added the family portrait to the main house and will end each up with the current family portrait.

Simmers!

If you’re interested in writing and/or reading sims stories, participating in fun competitions and events, joining a friendly and welcoming community, completing legacies and challenge and earning medals, or just having a great place to discuss Sims 2, Sims 3, or Sims 4, then there is a place for you at the