Even though I complain about my Legacy Challenge family once in awhile, I’m still having fun with them. The social worker incident was at least something new, and I learned from Janice’s comment that kids who are taken away are the first in line to be adopted, which is pretty cool. I like that I’m still learning new things about this game even though I play it constantly.

Now for the update! I mentioned last time that Liam was due to become an elder. It turns out that he shared his birthday with two other family members, so we had three birthdays in one day.

Liam was the first to blow out his candles and have a piece of cake. I think he was in full platinum when he transitioned, but I’m not positive. I need to start keeping better notes! It’s nice to have an idea of when an elder is due to kick the bucket, so I can really focus on putting them in platinum. Yes, I’m greedy for those marble & gold headstones.

In the background you can see Taryn with her “new look”. I just gave her a different hairstyle and took the glasses away so I could see how much she looks like her sister Fiona. The verdict? They are practically twins! I still find it odd that my actual twins, Bree and Kiara, differed so greatly in looks and personality, while all of my other Legacy kids are clones of each other. Go figure.

Fiona, my current Legacy heir, was the next to have her birthday. She grew into an adult, looking not much different than she had as a teen — just taller. That seems to be the case with most Sims.

And then we have her mother Kaylynn, who transitioned to elder the same night. I re-did her make-up and put her in some new clothes so she wouldn’t be dressed like Bree or Kiara.

This is just a weird buggy thing — Leo’s ghost got stuck in a fetal position underneath the desk and wouldn’t budge. He stayed there for the better part of a day, until I used the moveobjects cheat to move him to the backyard. He’s still there, all curled up in mid-air. I am thinking I should just delete him to see if he comes back next time I load the lot.

Now that Fiona had become an adult, I decided to have her adopt Maire and Aidan back so they’d be part of the family again (Kaylynn and Devin weren’t allowed to adopt because of their “bad parenting skills”). The social worker dropped Maire off at the curb and made sure she reached the house OK, but she brought in Aidan and handed him to Fiona. The funny thing is that the family tree now shows Aidan and Maire as Fiona’s children, even though they’re technically her brother and sister.

I felt all happy glowy about getting the family back together for about three seconds before I realized that it posed a huge problem — there were too many people in the house. I had one baby, one toddler, one child, one teen, one adult, and three elders. In order to continue with the legacy, Fiona had to bear a child, but there wasn’t room for one, and I didn’t want to wait 20+ days for one of the elders to pass away. Someone had to move out.

I had been reluctant to move family members out of Shanley Manor from the very beginning, because I knew I’d want to play them and age them at the same rate as the main family, which meant it would take me twice as long to reach the end of the Legacy Challenge. But now I figured it might be a nice change of pace, and it would allow the family to grow even larger. Plus I’ve always thought it was cool that Heidi’s Legacy family has cousins in it. :-)

So I decided to move Uncle Liam out with the three youngest children — Maire, Rian, and Aidan. By moving Liam out I’ll miss out on a possible platinum headstone for my Legacy score, but he had already given me a point for maxing all of his skills, so that makes up for it. I left Taryn at the main house so she could be the “spare heir” in case something happened to Fiona.

I built a nice little brick cottage for Uncle Liam and the kids. My story is that Liam did some “traveling” over the years, sharing his scientific research with other countries, so it is decorated with exotic souvenirs. He also has a laboratory out back with a telescope on the roof. Since Liam is sort of the eccentric old uncle/mad scientist type, I decided to not buy a TV or a stereo — he didn’t want the kids to be couch potatoes! Nope, they were going to be studybugs, just like their Uncle Liam.

After they all moved in and got situated, the welcome wagon arrived. Oddly enough, they were all elders! I’m guessing that’s because the only adult in the house is an elder. And they were all Sims I had created since there aren’t any elder townies that I’m aware of. I thought that was cool.

Here’s Maire in the attic bedroom making her bed. I used a floor plan from a 1920’s cottage, so things are a little cramped, but I like it.

I’m trying to let this family be mostly autonomous, but with two toddlers and a child in the mix, it’s tough. I have to make sure everyone is fed and does their homework so the social worker doesn’t make another visit, which means I micromanage this family almost as much as I do the main house. The upside is that I don’t have to worry so much about platinum headstones and impossible wants and marrying townies/NPCs. These kids are free to do whatever they want. Almost.

Here’s the family having breakfast — the sun is bright on that side of the house, so the pictures turned out a bit garish-looking. Aidan’s highchair is almost glowing. But I wanted at least one pic of everyone before they grew up.

And they grew up quickly! Rian became a child one day after moving into the house, even though he’s technically older than Aidan (they don’t age at the orphanage, apparently). He’s constantly asking Uncle Liam to read him a book.

Since I wanted Liam to continue his job as a Mad Scientist, I hired a nanny to take care of the kids while he was away. He actually didn’t get to go to work the first two days because he was dead tired from taking care of the toddlers. On the third day he finally donned the lab coat and metal hand and went to work. Here the nanny arrives just as he’s ready to leave.

Since Liam wasn’t in the main house anymore, I decided to give him a fresh start as far as his love life was concerned. He kept having wants to talk to and flirt with Melissa, his fiancee, so I invited her over and had him break up with her. He had caught her cheating on him at the old house, so their relationship score was sufficiently low.

One of the welcome wagoners was Pearline Stafford, an elder from a family I created. They live in a Victorian across the street. She and Liam became good friends, but then I accidentally clicked on “Hug Romantically” when I wanted him to give her a friendly hug, so now they have a crush on each other. She’s married, though, so I don’t know how far I’ll take that.

Another nice thing about having a new lot — no more buggy headmaster! After Aidan became a child, I had Maire invite the headmaster over and give him the tour while Liam made salmon. He was duly impressed and admitted all three kids into private school. Huzzah!

Well, having three kids all doing homework and having their Fun scores constantly in the red got to be too much for me to take, so I broke down and bought them a plasma TV for over the fireplace (that was the only place I could put one). Those TVs work wonders for children — I have a whole new appreciation for them. Everyone’s in green all the time now, and all three get their homework done each night.

Unfortunately when they want to watch TV, they have to practically stand on top of each other, because the living room is small. I snapped his picture because it looked like Maire and Aidan were doing a little dance. That’s Rian sitting on the couch with townie Marsha Bruenig.

So that’s how things are going at Uncle Liam’s. I plan on playing the main house soon and starting fifth generation. Fiona is already in love with the exterminator, Robi Charvat, so I just need to move him in and have another wedding. But first — a Shanley holiday party! Stay tuned.